Wi-Free offers ICMP tunneling

You can use Wi-Free to transmit all traffic from your computer to our server by using ICMP (Internet control message protocol) packets and creating ping tunnels. With Wi-free, you don’t need to purchase a costly dedicated server or use complicated software. It’s simple. You just install Wi-Free client software and use it to establish a connection in just one click. With versions of our software available for Mac OS, Windows, and other popular operating systems, it has never been easier to ensure your Internet connectivity.

Here’s how ICMP tunneling works: Wi-Free enters data into the echo packet of a query sent to whichever one of our servers you select in your personal settings. Our server sends a reply by entering data in the ICMP response packet. These data packets are known as ping traffic. If your computer is a part of a Network Address Translation (NAT) network, the tunnel will still work because our server does not use query echo packets when sending replies.

Wi-Free enters both TCP/IP packets and any other packets of Internet Protocol (IP) into echo packets. Transfer of TCP packets by ICMP tunneling is more popular than UDP by ICMP tunneling, however your software will work well over both protocols: TCP-over-ICMP (ex. for email access) and UDP-over-ICMP (ex. for streaming video).

Certainly, ready-made client-server software programs creating ICMP tunneling already exist which operate under similar principals to Wi-free, such as Ptunnel and ICMPTX. However, our software features multiple options which allow transmitting ping traffic faster and in a more reliable way. More importantly, while these programs require you to use a dedicated server and UNIX operating system, Wi-free is ready to use without expensive hardware and on most any operating system.

Use Wi-Free to bypass firewalls as ICMP proxy

We’ve all encountered instances of being blocked from accessing various Internet resources. This can happen for several reasons. Hardware firewalls can filter your traffic to block certain banned addresses or ports, certain providers, and even certain types of data you are trying to obtain.

The connection established by Wi-Free between your computer and one of our servers is hard to trace because there is no direct network interaction. In addition, the data transmitted through the tunnel over ICMP cannot be analyzed with standard tools. Therefore, neither software nor hardware firewalls will be able to block your access to any resources.

Ping tunnels ensure encrypted communications channels that are hard to track by malicious users

For utmost reliability Wi-Free allows you to encrypt data during transmission to our server. This option, together with the hard to trace ICMP feature, is a new replacement for VPN service. The best way for maintaining security and preventing attacks in the Internet is to send data encrypted with ICMP VPN. This means that you can use the Internet comfortably without your online identity will being disclosed. Your data will not be intercepted (sniffed) because it is reliably encrypted and there are no tools for its analysis.

By using a WiFi network to connect to the Internet without additional encryption tools, you undermine security of the data you transmit

Connecting to the Internet through WiFi, especially in public hotspots, without using encryption tools represents data transfer insecurity. Your sensitive data (account numbers, passwords, etc.) are not sufficiently protected and can be intercepted by malicious users.

Today, WEP, WPA, and WPA2 security algorithms are used to secure WiFi networks. However, none of these security features is entirely secure, and in fact they have all been cracked as of July 2010. For more information, please visit our technical resources page: Connection Encryption.