HideMyAss VPN

Friday, May 3, 2013

How to use Viscosity on Windows and Mac

Viscosity is a VPN client for Windows and Mac. It can be used to connect to HMA Pro VPN using our config files.
Download Viscosity here: http://www.thesparklabs.com/viscosity/download/
Note that Viscosity is not a free software, you can use it for 30 days and then have to register it.
 

Windows instructions

First, let's prepare the config files for the VPN servers, to make the process a bit easier.
TCP and UDP config files can be downloaded as single files @ http://hidemyass.com/vpn-config/TCP/ and http://hidemyass.com/vpn-config/UDP/
or completely as .ZIP archive @ http://hidemyass.com/vpn-config/vpn-configs.zip
TCP is standard, and UDP makes sense if you're experiencing slow speeds or want to bypass restrictions on your network.

Create a folder on your desktop, or anywhere else. You can name "VPN config files"; extract the content of the archive into that folder.





Now, install Viscosity for Windows -> http://www.thesparklabs.com/downloads/Viscosity%20Installer.exe
During the installation, the installer wants you to confirm the driver installation of the Viscosity virtual ethernet adapter.
You must confirm it.
Once installed, the Viscosity Icon will appear in the bottom right of your desktop. Rightclick it, and select "Preferences".
The preferences windows will appear.
Now please click on the "+" at the bottom left of that window. (marked red in the screenshot)
Here, select "Import Connection" and "From File..."
A file selection dialog will pop up. Here, navigate to the "VPN config files" folder you've created earlier.
In this tutorial, we'll select "USA.Arizona.Phoenix_LOC1S1.ovpn", of course you can select any server config file you like.
Once selected, Viscosity will confirm that the config file was successfully imported, and the connection will now be available in your list.

Now please click on "Edit" in the bottom right of this window.
 
Here you can edit the settings of your new server configuration.
Go to the "Networking" tab (see screenshot ->)
Check "Send all traffic over VPN connection".
In the "DNS Servers:" field, enter:
208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220
That's OpenDNS, the DNS servers that our VPN connection is going to use.
Now click on "Save" in the bottom right.
You can close the preference window now.
Now we want to connect to our newly configured VPN server.
For that, rightclick on the Viscosity-icon in the bottom right of your desktop again.
You'll notice that the "USA.Arizona.Phoenix_LOC1S1" server is available now. Click it!
Now Viscosity will ask for your username and password.
Use the same username+password that you also use to login to the VPN control panel @ http://vpn.hidemyass.com
Check "Remember my credentials", so you don't need to enter your credentials again.
Click "OK".
Now wait a few seconds.
Once Viscosity finished connecting, a notification window will appear in the bottom right of your desktop,
telling you that you successfully connected to the VPN server.
Please note: The IP which is mentioned here, is NOT your IP! It's just a redirecting IP used by the server.
To verify your IP address, location and ISP, please go to a verifying website like http://ipaddress.com
You'll see that this data has changed from the usual, that means you're successfully connected to the VPN;
and all traffic will be routed through the VPN.

That's all! If you want to configure more servers for Viscosity, just repeat the tutorial.
But note that Viscosity creates a new virtual ethernet adapter for each server,
so using too many servers here can cause conflicts and slowdown your system.

For disconnecting from the VPN, viewing connection details and changing preferences, do this also in the
Viscosity menu as you see here ->
   

Mac instructions


1. Download the HMA config files from:
http://hidemyass.com/vpn-config/vpn-configs.zip

2. Double check on the downloaded zip file to extract it - you should see a folder called "vpn-configs".



 
Download Viscosity for Mac here -> http://www.thesparklabs.com/downloads/Viscosity.dmg
Open that .dmg file. Now a window should appear which shows you the content of this archive.
Here, open the "Viscosity" file.
Viscosity is now getting installed.
You might get asked to move Viscosity into the application folder. Confirm this.
The installation process has finished now.
 
 If Viscosity is not starting automatically now, you can also start it by clicking the Viscosity icon in your "Applications" folder.  
3. Open Viscosity, go to its menu, and open the "Preferences" window.
4. Click on the "+" button and select "Import Connection > From File…".
From here you should navigate to the "vpn-configs" folder from above.
You can either select the folder to import every single connection at once,
or you can select an individual config file from inside the folder just to import one.
Click the Open button once you have made your selection (you may have to wait a few seconds if you're importing the whole folder).

A file selection dialog will open up.
Now navigate to the folder which you created for the config files. (In this case, it's on the desktop).
In that folder, all VPN config files are available.
Select the VPN servers config file you'd like to connect to.
In this tutorial, we'll select "USA.Arizona.Phoenix_LOC1S1".


 
Viscosity will now confirm that the connection has been successfully imported.
5. From the Viscosity menu select the connection you wish to connect, and it should start connecting.


After a few seconds, you will be asked for a username and password.
Enter your VPN account username and password here, the same credentials that you use to login @ the VPN control panel
( http://vpn.hidemyass.com )
Check "Remember details in my Keychain", so you don't need to enter your login data again.
Click "OK".


In case you have installed Growl, as you should, you'll now see a notification window.
It confirms that the VPN connection has been successfully made.
Please note: The IP which is mentioned here, is NOT your IP! It's just a redirecting IP used by the server.
To verify your IP address, location and ISP, please go to a verifying website like http://ipaddress.com
You'll see that this data has changed, that means you're successfully connected to the VPN;
and all traffic will be routed through the VPN.

That's all! If you want to configure more servers for Viscosity, just repeat the tutorial with a different config file.

 

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