VPN Reviews

Cienen VPN Review – Secure And Reliable VPN Service

By Paul Liu
Friday, June 28th, 2013

Cienen is a well established VPN service provider. Launched in 2006, the service is brought to you by a United States based company. In the detailed review below, we look at the features offered by the service and decide if it is worth our time and money.

Server Locations and Site Access

Cienen has more than 20 servers in 5 different countries – United States, Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland and United Kingdom. Although the choice of server locations could have been better, using the service would allow you to unlock GEOIP restricted services like Hulu, 4OD, Amazon Prime, Netflix, Demand 5, Zattoo, Spotify, Rara, MTV, NFL, CBS, CBC, CTV, BBC iPlayer, iTV, Lovefilm, Vudu, Pandora and Xfinity from any location in the world. The service would even work for those who are looking for a way to bypass censorship implemented by governments (China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Brazil and UAE), organizations or schools and unlock Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, Skype and YouTube without revealing their identity or IP address. The company permits unlimited server switching for shared IP plans so you can unlock local content from all the 5 countries where the company has its servers.

VPN Speed and Bandwidth

Cienen delivers unmetered bandwidth and unlimited speed through its VPN network. The company’s servers are connected to 10 GB nodes so the service is ideal for browsing, downloading, streaming HD films, VOIP and online gaming. The company guarantees 99.9% uptime for totally uninterrupted VPN service.

Privacy Settings

Cienen delivers 128 bit encryption through PPTP, L2TP and SSTP protocols. The high level of encryption available protects your personal details such as credit card numbers, passwords and social accounts even when you connect to the internet through vulnerable Wi-Fi hotspots (common at public parks, airports, malls, coffee shops and hotels). What’s more, unlike proxies the service protects each and every online activity like emailing, browsing, messaging, FTP and VOIP to deliver a totally secure online experience. The company records connection details but they are never shared with third parties unless it is required by the law.

Supported Operating Systems

Cienen VPN works well with Windows (7/XP/ Vista), Mac OS X, Linux, iOS (iPad, iPhone) and Android tablets/Smartphones. The company offers a dedicated Connection Manager for Windows that is easy to set up and use. Even for other operating systems, the setup doesn’t take more than few minutes. The service allows up to 7 simultaneous connections from one VPN account for its shared IP VPN plan subscribers.

Customer Support

The company offers customer support through phone, live chat and email. Since the phone and email support are available only during business hours, it is best to use emails to get quick answers to support queries.

Pricing Options

Cienen offers dedicated and shared IP VPN plans. The unlimited speed dedicated IP plans are available for $14.95 a month ($44.85 for 3 months, $89.70 for 6 months, $179.40 for 1 year, $358.80 for 2 years and $538.20 for 3 years) while the unlimited speed shared IP plans are available from $9.95 per month ($29.85 for 3 months, $59.70 for 6 months, $119.40 for 1 year, $238.80 for 2 years and $358.20 USD for 3 years). The company offers a free trial but it is restricted only to customers from certain countries. The company offers refunds for those who are not happy with the service.

Final Verdict

Overall, Cienen offers a decent VPN service. While the company does not offer a great choice of server locations, it does offer superior speeds and high security to its customers. So if you are looking for a totally reliable VPN service, check the offers from Cienen VPN. For more information, please visit: www.cienen.com.