TrickByte is headquartered in Thailand. They provide a SmartDNS service that can unblock a range of different geo-restricted sites. Their VPN service is still in beta, but we tested it to see how it stacks up.
Pricing and Plans
TrickByte offers very low rates on its SmartDNS service. The pricing is as follows:
SmartDNS
- One month for $2.00
- Six months for $16.49
- One year for $29.99
SmartDNS and VPN
- One month for $6.99
- Six months for $35.99
- One year for $49.99
Free Trial / Money Back Guarantee
TrickByte offers a fourteen-day free trial with no credit card required. Their pricing is very competitive with other SmartDNS options and they support a wide range of devices. The company is headquartered in Thailand.
Privacy & Anonymity
TrickByte says that they do not maintain logs. They will suspend accounts if they seem to be the source of abuse, however.
Torrent Policy
There are no restrictions against torrenting listed on the TrickByte site.
Customer Support
TrickByte has an extensive FAQ and knowledge base. You can also contact support via a ticketing system.
Product Testing
The SmartDNS service is manual. The VPN is PPTP, which is set up manually, as well.
Windows, Mac OSX, Android, IPhone, etc.
TrickByte provides instructions for Windows, Mac, mobile devices, consoles and much more on their site. They are all very well-written and easy enough to follow.
Speed Test
Trickbyte Baseline Speedtest
Trickbyte with VPN Speedtest
The SmartDNS service will not affect your speed. In testing, their PPTP VPN service did show its beta stage in some latency errors. Once we got it to test, however, it performed very well.
Testing over a 50Mbps/5Mbps line in Albuquerque, the service hooked us up to a server in Chicago. Our speeds clocked in at nearly 40Mbps.
IPCheck and DNSLeak
The VPN service did change our IP address and added Google’s DNS servers to our list of DNS server addresses. Our real server address, however, did leak. You can fix this by manually configuring your DNS server.
Feature Summary
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Easy setup
- Great website
- PPTP VPN option
We Liked
This service makes taking advantage of a SmartDNS service about as easy as it can be. Their instructions are excellent and their prices are very low.
Areas for Improvement
Adding a client to their service, at least for Mac and Windows, would make TrickByte stand out a bit more. They don’t support hotel or airport Wi-Fi at present. If you want VPN, their prices aren’t really competitive, given that PPTP isn’t secure and is their only protocol.
Conclusion
This is a SmartDNS service that delivers well. The PPTP VPN service is fast, but the protocol itself is not secure. Their SmartDNS prices, however, are hard to beat and make TrickByte very attractive in that regard.
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