UK Proxy Server preview (part 2)
Friday, October 16th, 2009
UK Proxy Server's checkout page
Scothosts got in touch with me after my blog of its proxy service. You can read the original article, with Scothosts’ comment, here.
Scothosts’ response raises three important issues:
1: Scothosts could do more to emphasise you’re signing up for a subscription, because once you’ve added the proxy to the shopping basket it doesn’t explicitly say you’ll be billed every month. When I ordered the proxy, I certainly didn’t realise that it was a subscription. Many people will only need a proxy for a short period of time, covering business travel or a holiday, so this could catch them out (and on that note, why not release a £3/week service?).
2: Scothosts has said 2Mbit/sec is what you can expect from its UK proxy server in Denmark, while I was getting 1.16Mbit/sec – which isn’t far wide of the mark. The speeds should really be advertised better when you’re buying the product. It’s curious that accessing BBC’s iPlayer HD service, which needs 3.2Mbit/sec of bandwidth, worked without a hitch when I couldn’t surf at those speeds elsewhere. This is where my throttling speculation came from, but I accept that there needs to be more investigation on this topic before a true conclusion can be reached (perhaps the iPlayer uses resource-friendly UDP streaming… or something… to help those data packets flow a little quicker).
The clear 30GB per month data allowance offered by Scothosts (for its £9.99 service) is refreshing. I don’t recall seeing that when I ordered the product, but this is the kind of honest advertising many “unlimited bandwidth” ISPs could do with.
3: The way I treat my blog is different to the way I treat my work. When I’m writing articles for computer magazines and websites, I get paid. I’m also in constant contact with the manufacturer, which means any problems I encounter can be discussed to ensure a fair review. Blogging is a more rough and ready approach, plus I’m shelling out my own cash so it’s a more personal and biased form of writing.
The end effect can be the same though: if you google “UK Proxy Server review”, my blog comes top. If it matters to companies, they can avoid a blog’s inherent bias by giving more authoritative sites like The Register a chance to write up on their product or service.
I’ll be writing more about proxy servers on my blog (and, perhaps, for proper publications) in the future. These services are becoming more important with the rise of geographically-restricted internet telly like the iPlayer, Hulu and ITV streaming and, right now, there is a lack of info on what proxies can offer. In the mean time, I’ve decided to remove my rating for Scothosts UK Proxy Server until I’ve tested a few more competing products.