Lantern For Mac

Developed by a team lead by Adam Fisk, which contributed to the LimeWire and LittleShoot projects, the Lantern application aims at providing unrestricted access to blocked websites, regardless of your geographical location.

Note that, to make sure all your traffic is directed through the Lantern proxy network (Lantern must be active, of course), the app will also try to install add-ons that will make sure the browser is always using the system proxy.

The ultimate goal of the Lantern application is to provide a fast internet connection to the open web through proxy servers to users that have their access restricted for unblocking websites with ease.

To achieve that, the app is using both secure servers and peer access points that take on the load when the servers are not working.

Lantern is based on a system of “friends”, and the app will connect to users that are up to 4 degrees away from you in the network. To create the connections, you must login using your Gmail account, and then add the email addresses for up to 6 trusted friends.

Via the Lantern Preferences you can easily toggle your app’s status: you can either give or get access to the net. When you are using Lantern network for access you get to manage the list of websites that you want to connect to via proxy.

On the other hand, if you choose to become a Lantern proxy, you cannot set any rules: this means that other users might use your internet connection to access websites that might be illegal in your area.

Lantern offers you the possibility to quickly access blocked websites, but it will not keep you anonymous: the proxy server can view your IP, and you should always use HTTPS to encrypt your traffic.

To conclude, Lantern is a great tool for accessing blocked websites, but if protecting your identity is important, going with Tor is a better idea.