TYRAYNER  There are major problems with the current version of Safari, and proxy servers. Safari in OS X 10.5.2 will intermittently crash when using any proxy server, not just NetShade. I am hoping this will be resolved very quickly as it's a pretty serious bug. In the meantime, I have been using Camino with NetShade.  
(Version 3.3.2)

TYRAYNER  TOR is free, and you get what you pay for. :) My opinion is of course biased, but I do encourage everyone to download and try both programs. For me, there's no question about which works better.  
(Version 3.3.2)

TYRAYNER  NetShade is very reliable, though. The NetShade proxy server has had almost uninterrupted uptime since its launch about four years ago.  
(Version 3.3.2)

TYRAYNER  Hello,

The "verify" page is the only one that doesn't require a password when you access it via the NetShade proxy. The login information for the proxy will be displayed to you in a pop up window when you select "NetShade Proxy" in the NetShade app. Hope that solves the problem... contact me via http://www.raynersoftware.com/contact/ if you're still having trouble.  
(Version 3.3)

TYRAYNER  NetShade's database of public proxies has improved over the years, though you're right that the public proxies are not always reliable. The NetShade proxy (available to paying users) is very reliable and fast, and fully anonymous. NetShade isn't in any way affiliated with Apple, aside from the fact that it runs on Macs. :) My motivation for writing it about 4 years ago was the new trend of telecom and Internet companies handing people's records over to governments of the world without any warrants or just cause. That trend is as strong today as ever, and I'm against it. So that was the motivation... I'm not secretly mining any data about people on my servers... that's not interesting to me and I don't want that kind of bad karma. :)  
(Version 3.3)

TYRAYNER  Yes, some bulletin board sites have banned the NetShade proxy IP. I only know of a very small number of these sites. Some NetShade users would post content in violation of a site's terms, and the site would respond by banning the NetShade proxy IP (since they thought it was the user's IP.) That is pretty much unavoidable with this type of service. The vast, vast majority of the Internet is accessible via NetShade however.  
(Version 3.1.1)

TYRAYNER  I'm not sure what the post below is referring to. The NetShade URL goes to the NetShade page, http://www.netshade.net/ , and Caravan is a mail server I run for myself. I don't know how any of this has relevance with regard to NetShade's security. The service NetShade provides is simple and unique: it routes your web traffic through an anonymous proxy server. I think it performs this task very effectively and many users agree. I'm always disheartened to see negative reviews on NetShade, because in my opinion many of them are off-base. Of course I did write the program so my opinion is not exactly neutral. NetShade does enjoy a solid user base consisting mostly of satisfied customers. Unfortunately, as is often the case with software, those users are not the ones posting on these sites. I hope users will continue to try the software- you can evaluate it for free, then purchase it if you like it, and if you decide you don't want it after all, just ask for a refund (within 60 days of purchase).  
(Version 3.1.1)

TYRAYNER  A new version of iBatt is under development. iBatt 2.0 will be a complete rewrite of the software, and will support new MacBooks. Graphing and views are dramatically improved. Network support is as it was in version 1, but with added fields for new values that can be retrieved from the newer Apple portables, such as battery Manufacturer and Manufacture Date. Release date is TBD, but before Feb. 20. Pricing is TBD, but comparable to version 1's pricing.

-Ty Rayner  
(Version 1.2.1)

TYRAYNER  Syzzygy and Dom21: The NetShade Proxy server doesn't log any activity. I know there's no actual way for me to prove this, but here are the two lines from NetShade's Squid proxy configuration file which disable all logging:

cache_access_log none

cache_store_log none

I'm a pretty ardent champion of online privacy, and I wouldn't want to keep any tracking info on my servers. I have gotten requests from people to try to track down users of the NetShade proxy (usually webmasters who didn't like what somebody blogged,) and of course I am both unable and unwilling to track these people down.

Syzzygy:

I'm sorry I didn't get back to your previous inquiries. NetShade generates a ton of customer inquiries (much more than my other programs, due I think to its unique purpose,) and at times I get buried in them. If you resend your inquiriy through the Contact Us page, I will get back to you.  
(Version 3.1)

TYRAYNER  That's very misleading. There is no command-line tool, nor combination of command-line tools that does what NetShade does. NetShade is a client-server proxy management system with global distributed proxy testing. Yes you can do a lot with shell commands if you're very technically inclined, but no you cannot make NetShade out of shell commands.

There are a lot of OS X apps out there which are nothing more than a simple interface for a shell command. NetShade is not one of those apps. It's a very big, very real application consisting of over 10,000 lines of C, Objective-C and PHP code. You would have known that if you'd even taken the time to read the full product description on MacUpdate, let alone actually download and try it.  
(Version 3.1)

TYRAYNER  There was a period there where NetShade had to go on the back burner, and unfortunately it coincided with the time when NetShade was getting really popular. Now I am back on it 100% and will be developing it actively. I'm sorry to you and the others who I didn't get in contact with.

-Ty  
(Version 3.0)

TYRAYNER  The public proxies are hit-or-miss, although NetShade really does everything possible to provide a good list of proxy servers. The problem is that these proxies get so much traffic that they can sometimes be unreliable, so you have to poke around to find a good one. I don't think you'll find any list of public proxies more reliable than NetShade's though.

Registered users can use the NetShade Proxy server, which is much faster than the public proxies. It's password-protected and doesn't get inundated with traffic from Windows users.  
(Version 3.0)

TYRAYNER  Hi-

Firefox compatibility was in the works but it just proved too difficult. Firefox doesn't adhere to OS X's configuration standards, so if NetShade was going to work with Firefox it was going to be a messy hack. If you prefer Firefox's HTML engine to Safari's, Camino is a good solution because it uses the Firefox HTML engine but is built Mac-style.

The screenshot on this site is in 3D view mode. There's a little button in the bottom left called "view mode" which toggles modes. That's probably why your NetShade doesn't look like the screenshot.

-Ty  
(Version 3.0)