Yeah, that title is a mouthful. If you want to get a VPN for your iPhone or Android however, there's a bit of a learning curve when it comes to understanding just what you're getting yourself into. Luckily, there's an easy way, and a hard way. I'll be honest and say that I'm not a computer expert, so I won't do much in the way to including lots of tech specs. However, if you're like me - an average user who's interested in privacy while using my smartphone, then you should be able to understand the contents of this articles, and by then end, have a better idea of what kind of IP address hiding software you want for your smartphone.

The Easy Way

If you want to effectively hide your IP address on iPhone or Android, then you need to sign up for a VPN service. If want to hook up your phone to a work server through a VPN, then your employer should provide you with the proper setup, in which case, you don't need to think too much about it. If you're getting a personal VPN for your own phone, then you've got to decide which service and which VPN protocol to go with.

The easiest way is to get a PPTP or L2TP VPN from a VPN service. Both iPhone and Android come equipped with VPN clients for these two VPN protocols, which means you don't have to install anything to get started. All you need is to pay for a subscription from a VPN service of your choice. The will provide you with the passwords and login credentials needed, and you should be able to get everything set up in a few minutes.

In general, PPTP has a reputation of being easier to set up and faster in general, but you're giving up some encryption and privacy. PPTP is the grandpa of VPN protocols, and there have been some major improvements since. L2TP would be the upgraded version. I think its safe to say that all VPN providers will have both of these available. Some offer the PPTP VPN at a cheap price, some don't.

When it's all said and done, you don't have to understand anything about VPNs or how they work, and you get all the advantages of using them - unblocking sites, changing IP address, your choice of IP location, free server switching, and all that jazz.

The Hard Way

Cisco seems to be a popular VPN provider, and has a wide range of protocols, of which IPSec seems to be the most popular. You'll have to download an app to make it compatible with your phone through, and for Android, you'll have to check what model of phone you're using to get the proper app installed. Cisco's IPSec will also work on iPhone. For both, you'll have to go through a setup process for the VPN - there are tutorials to be found on various tech blogs.

You can get an App for Android that will allow you to install OpenVPN on your phone. You may need a variety of tools to help you getting this working correctly including BusyBox, tun kernel module, and you will need root access to your Android phone. Sound complicated? Yes, it is.

Getting OpenVPN on your iPhone is even worse, and involves 'jailbreaking' your iPhone, plus a 16 step process of installing apps and 3rd party software. Is it worth it? I don't think so.

The Apple store does offer an SSL VPN which, though not OpenVPN, can offer advanced security features. OpenVPN is often combined with SSL encryption (OpenVPN/SSL), so I imagine that the SSL VPN from the Apple Store will produce similar results. This will also help you avoid bricking your iPhone by jailbreaking it.

You're going to have more options for Android than iPhone, but again, these sometimes are users who claim to know more than they actually do. If you can handle browsing these tech forums and all the computer jargon, then be my guest.

Conclusion

As you can see, it's a simple process to get started with PPTP or L2TP VPN for Android and iPhone users. IF you plan on choosing something else, you're going to have to educated yourself, and experiment a bit before things work out. You know how technology is - one user can say it works perfectly, write a tutorial, and another user will curse it and say it broke his phone. Either way, you're going to have to get access to the VPN servers from some source, and pay a monthly fee for access. My suggestion is to skip the unnecessary troubles and go straight to the VPN service providers.