Positives
- Chrome Extension
- Free proxy
- Also a TV service
Negatives
- Unsafe
- Difficult setup
- Inconsistency
- Bad personal browser
Adtelly is an English company, founded in 2009. They are not exactly what you would literally call a VPN service – their main activity is media streaming. However, they specialize in providing access to television content that is blocked or restricted in some way or another in certain countries. Their safety solutions are essentially VPN-based, using the same protocols and client. But it is worth noting that regardless of this, it is still television that is emphasized; their service functioning as a VPN is a byproduct of the methods Adtelly uses to provide TV access. Still, since this VPN side of things is also identifiable, they include it among their listed services and actively promote it. Again – and this is important to highlight – since providing television access is in the center and since Adtelly also offers a browser-based solution to this access, the client and VPN-based side of service is different than that of more hardcore VPN service providers.
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Features
First of all, Adtelly lacks its own VPN client for any device. They require you to download an open-source neutral client first and their own configuration files to set the VPN network up. This is a somewhat lengthy process, especially if you are not adept at using similar software. Luckily, if you are registered, you are provided with an instructional video on how to initiate this process. However, it’s likely you’ll run into serious problems once you get around to trying out Adtelly’s VPN service. Adtelly’s website and members section is structured specifically in a way that provides access to general information from the main page of the website while also placing emphasis on updating their knowledgebase and through it, the overall quality of their customer service.
Connection info regarding clients, applications and guides are directly available for inspection based on security protocol. Connection info is divided into four distinct areas: the aforementioned OpenVPN, SSTP, L2TP, and Adtelly’s own Chrome Extension. This is a somewhat odd choice, but it is understandable: a key component of any VPN service is doing what you do in safety. By sorting information based on safety protocols, Adtelly helps you in well-prioritized, responsible decision-making.
Adtelly Browser and Chrome Extension
Adtelly offers another type of method to a service closely resembling VPN: TV streaming with the mentioned safety protocols. They grant access to US and UK shows only, and grant access from countries like China. They provide a browser-based solution to do this. Adtelly’s browser-based solution is done via two methods: “Windows Tools” – which is their own Adtelly browser – or a Chrome extension, in Google Chrome. These should be looked at as separate methods in execution only. The Chrome extension works spectacularly. It presents itself as an add-on with direct links to online TV streams. They automatically work, and the speed and quality of video (standard high definition at least) are good, installation is simple and fast.
On the other hand, we do not recommend the Adtelly browser at all. The setup file available automatically installs the Opera browser and 7-zip without notification, and sets a different search engine as your primary one in your former main browser. This change was deemed unsafe by our computers, and upon uninstalling this search program, it didn’t disappear from the registry and kept on working as the primary search engine. We were required to manually empty this harmful program from the registry itself. Therefore would not like to encourage in any way that you choose the “Windows Tools” solution: its setup file installs a harmful search engine and makes unneeded changes on your computer. Remember, the below pictures demonstrare our problems relatign to the Adtelly browser, not the Chrome extension.
VPN Network
Despite closely and precisely following all instructions and trying several times in different points of time, we were still having difficulties connecting to their VPN servers. Furthermore, since the connection itself is done in a separate DOS-style window, you wouldn’t even get proper notification on which server you connected to, nor would you get information on the preferences of your connection, or on how much your progress is monitored.
A testament to this is that in the terms of use, they reserve the right to monitor your activity “if required by law”. This is vague, and the client-based side of Adtelly is borderline unsafe. Yes, the connection itself can use SSTP, OpenVPN, PPTP and L2TP/IPsec protocols; we mean this lack of safety in the context of the user and the company’s relationship (and not the relationship between the user and a hacker who is destructive, for example).
Privacy Protection
We illustrated above why we do not think that the privacy between you and Adtelly is held in complete respect. However, this is a non-technical problem. In the latter’s terms, your privacy is well supported. Since you do not receive in-client information on the properties of your connection, this is partially provided by selecting the type of safety protocol to download your client with. We would like to kind-heartedly assume that they do work; therefore information on this is necessary.
VPN clients are available on four different protocols: SSTP, OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, and PPTP. Usually, these are available with different encryptions: 128, 256 or 2048-bit types. However, Adtelly’s website informs you that they use “three 56-bit keys”. This is considerably less safe. Also, since the browser-based solutions are tied to the browsers themselves, there is presumably less security present over there too. The service does bypass firewalls, so there is IP concealing and an SSL security network present.
OS, Device Support
Adtelly supports a somewhat smaller range of machines than other VPN/TV providers on the market. They provide VPN clients for Windows 8, 7 and XP. If you are a Mac OS X user, you require manual setup. Mobile devices are also left out without clients: the iPhone, iPad and Android machines, and even the Windows clients all come with their respective tutorial videos, providing much needed help for setting connections up.
Strangely enough, Adtelly is phasing out PPTP connections, as they claim it’s too unreliable and not secure enough. As a result, there are currently no clients available for any machine, not even Windows. You are given an IP address to connect to using your device’s built-in network connection system. This is extremely unsafe in our opinion and we advise not to opt for PPTP-based connections. There is a free proxy list available however for HHTP, HHTPS and SOCKS 4 & 5. Sadly, we can only say bad news about this list: we could not get the list to appear. Either free proxies are inactive at the moment, or the website’s design is playing us for fools.
Pricing
Three plans are available: the monthly, the biannual and the annual one. It is worth nothing that if you opt for any of the latter two, your payment will be billed as a one off; you will have to pay the entire price in one go. Subscribing for one month only costs ₤6.32 – keep in mind that because of the strong focus on business inside the UK, Adtelly offer their products in the Pound Sterling. Therefore one month fares at around $10. For half a year, they offer a monthly ₤4.66, which is about $7.50; this totals in a biannual ₤27.99 – about $44.50. If you are interested in using Adtelly for a whole year, then your monthly fee is ₤3.50; in dollars that spells as $5.50 per month. The annual total then would be ₤41.03, which translates roughly into $65.
The company practices a 7-day refund policy, which is also the only way through which you can try Adtelly free of charge. Each subscription comes with a 7-day refund valid after each of your purchases, which means you can easily cancel the service each month and get a refund up to 7 days after you paid for the service again.
Customer Service
There are two main forms of contact preferred if you run into problems: e-mail and a live chat. The crew we contacted however was not all that helpful. Despite being a UK company, the associate spoke little English and could only provide sufficient information in questions related to sales. Since we had technical problems, we turned to e-mail. Sadly, we left with even left experiences; or rather we are still in the waiting room as no reply came back after six hours of waiting. Because of Adtelly’s nature of being mostly a network for TV streaming, the company has a forum where Adtelly members can exchange experiences and recommendations. The company also has a presence on Twitter and Facebook where it mostly posts updates related to its service.
Bottom Line
The fact that Adtelly is not mainly a VPN provider is noted, but since they actively promote the VPN-side of their business we turned to their VPN service in addition to testing their TV streaming. The bad news is that it is lacking behind in being a proper VPN service: it has a difficult and unsafe client setup (or manual setup), customer support is poor and many VPN features we have in our wishlist are missing. Are you a British expat longing to watch sports, series and other TV content from the UK? It’s likely that you’ll fall in love with Adtelly’s Chrome browser extension as it’s a great solution to easily watch anything straight from your browser. If you’re mostly concerned about protecting your privacy and unlocking content from across the world, then you should look for a more pure player VPN service.
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Katy says
This company have taken a total of £54 out of my account recently, I cancelled a year and a half ago! There is absolutely no way of contacting them on this matter and anyone using them be careful that it doesn’t happen to you in the future!