What is Hola?
Which operating systems and devices can I use Hola on?
How do I keep my Hola version updated to the latest version?
How can I be notified of future updates?
How does Hola make the Internet faster?
Do I benefit from having more Hola users in my area?
What do the Hola statistics mean?
I don't see any peer traffic in my stats. Is Hola still accelerating my Internet?
Will I consume more mobile data on my Android device because of Hola?
Why am I getting strange results when running Speedtest.net
with Hola?
What is the Hola Unblocker?
How do I use the Hola Unblocker?
How can I see Facebook from Iran, or other countries or corporations, which block or stand behind a proxy or firewall?
On which Android versions does Hola work?
How do I use Hola Unblocker on blocked apps on Android?
Can I get Hola for my iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch?
Does Hola work on AppleTV or any SmartTV/PlayStation/XBMC/embedded Android
devices, etc?
Why does Hola need the various permissions for the Chrome extension and the Android app?
Does Hola share any of my personal information with the rest of the Hola community?
How can content owners make sure that a piece of content doesn't get cached by Hola?
Can I use Hola with my Antivirus?
My antivirus software is marking some files related to Hola as unsafe, are they?
Is Hola "Free Open source"?
If I use OpenDNS, does Hola interfere with it?
Can I use Hola together with another VPN service?
I'm using the Hola Unblocker. Do I need to register as a user or pay the website?
Can I run Hola on a virtual machine? Can I run it on both the host and guest systems simultaneously?
Can I use Hola in my modem?
I love the Hola product. How can I share my love?
How can I remain updated as to the latest improvements and new product features?
I have problems with my Hola Unblocker -- what should I do?
Which information should I provide to Hola when reporting a problem?
I have problems with Unblocker on Firefox: sites are missing, I'm stuck on an old version, I keep getting redirected to install Hola for Firefox, etc.
I'm using the Hola extension and get "Proxy Authentication Required" or "The proxy moz-proxy://zagent13.hola.org:22222
requesting a username and password" popup message. What can I do?
Is there a way to move the Hola Icon from the browser toolbar or the tray area?
I am having trouble using the Hola extension on my Mac, what can I do?
Trouble shooting for Android
Providing Hola with Android logs and screenshots for debugging
I can't install the Hola client
What can I do if I suspect that Hola is causing a problem?
How can I turn Hola off?
How do I uninstall Hola?
How do I stop Hola from starting automatically when Windows or Android start up?
I have a problem that's not on this list. Any recommendations?
I have feedback or an idea for Hola!
Install Hola on your PC, phone or tablet to make your Internet faster, to save data costs, and to be able to view sites that are otherwise censored.
It works by sharing the idle resources of its users for the benefit of all. The more Hola users, the faster the Ineternet will be! Our ultimate goal is to make the Internet 10x faster.
Once installing the Hola software on your PC, laptop or smart phone, you will enjoy faster Internet (on many sites, but not all as of the Beta), faster downloads,
faster video load times, and less video buffering.
Hola is
FREE, and we hope to always keep it that way.
Hola is available on the following platforms:
- Hola application (Internet accelerator and unblocker):
- Hola browser extension (Does not include Internet acceleration):
-
Hola Extension for Chrome for all (non mobile) operating systems that run Google Chrome (version 22+), including Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Chrome OS.
-
Hola Extension for Firefox for all (non mobile) operating systems that run Mozilla Firefox (version 12+), including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.
- Apple: For MAC use the Hola Chrome Extension or
Firefox Extension (Does not include Internet acceleration). iPhone/iPod are not supported.
Use of Hola is subject to our
Terms of service
We update often with bug fixes and new features, and we keep your version of Hola automatically updated.
Android users:Make sure to select 'Allow automatic updating' inside the Google Play app for Hola to stay up to date automatically.
We are continuously adding more features, capabilities and supported platforms to Hola. To be notified of these, you may
Follow us on Twitter or
Like us on Facebook
The Internet is slowed down by server response times, Internet congestion, round trip times, and poorly written communication stacks in operating systems.
Hola removes these bottlenecks by securely caching content on peers as they view it, and later serving it up to other nearby peers as they need it.
Hola also compresses communication between peers to further speed the net. As more people install and use Hola, the faster and less congested it will be!
Yes. The more Hola clients in your area, the faster your Internet will go.
The Hola statistics (available from the 'Acceleration' menu) show how the following:
- Total: How much data you've consumed since starting to use Hola
- Hola Peers: Data is from nearby Hola Peers (This data is accelerated)
- Hola Cache: Data Hola was able to cache on your device and bring to you without going out to the network (This data is accelerated. This data is also saved from your data plan)
- Webserver: Data received from the web as usual
Probably. Hola uses the idle resources of these close peers to compress the data for you, to create multiple parallel connections to the webserver
for you even when the content does not exist on those peers. This should make your Internet always faster, and much faster when you get peer assisted downloads.
As more peers join in your area, the faster your Internet will be - so get your friends and family to install Hola and make your Internet faster!
No. Hola actually reduces your mobile data usage through better, smarter data caching. Expect to save between 20-30% of data usage after
a few weeks Also, your phone only acts as a Peer on the Hola Network when plugged in to a power supply and when connected to the
Internet over a Wi-Fi network.
Speedtest.net downloads a file to your device to check your
speed. The Hola cache "remembers" this file, as it "remembers" any
information that you've downloaded in the past, and in the same way
serves it to your browser from the cache upon a second test of
Speedtest. This is similar to how Hola stores other information you see
during your browsing (pictures, logos, videos, etc.) and serves them
back to your browser from local cache instead of going out to the web
to find it. So -- the 'crazy' results on Speedtest.net are due to how
Hola really works - any time Hola detects that you are loading a file
that you've already loaded in the past, it serves it to you from its
very fast cache.
Why is caching important?: Say you watch a video on YouTube, and
later you want to watch it again. YouTube will re-download this file
EVERY TIME you load it. That can be a lot of data (especially over 3G).
With Hola, this file stays in your cache, so subsequent loads are both
super fast (no reason to fetch from the web) and save you money on your
data plan.
So how can I really do a speed test with Hola?> Download a file
from some website, for example a movie trailer from hd-trailers.net
(right-click or long hold > save link as), and time the download
with and without Hola running. This is a much more accurate speedtest,
and we expect downloads to accelerate by 3-10x, depending on a number
of factors.
The Hola Unblocker is a free, configurable VPN service, similar to many such services that exist on the Internet.
It is useful for seeing how a web site looks like from a certain geography, for overcoming government censorship (e.g. seeing Facebook from a country that blocks it),
for overcoming your corporation's Internet site blocking, for seeing a site in its native language (e.g. seeing the Spanish news site as it appears to Spanish users), etc.
Hola comes with several demo scripts for Unblocking sites, for you to experiment with. Selecting any of these sites, will let you view them from their country of origin.
Power users can write new Hola scripts to unblock additional sites (see instructions for that
here).
Install the Hola Windows or Android client (Install from
hola.org).
After installation click on "Hola Unblocker", then click on the Hola icon next to "Facebook".
- If you can't find an app that you want to 'unblock' on the Google Play store, then do the following:
- Open the browser on your phone
- Search on Google for a download of the application's APK, for example if you're looking for the Wikipedia app (which you may not be able to download if blocked by your government),
search for "Wikipedia APK download" (this is the application's installation file)
- Once you finish downloading the APK file, press it to install
- If you get a message that you can't install non-Market apps, see
How to enable non-Play apps)
- Mark this service in the Hola user interface, open the site or app and enjoy!
Not just yet! We will be releasing Hola for the iPhone and iPad sometime in the future, but no target as of yet.
You can Follow Hola on
Facebook
and
Twitter
for the latest news and to stay up to date.
Hola does not yet officially support these platforms.
You may be able to see the websites you Unblocked by Hola, through your AppleTV. Here's how:
AppleTV Mac users: use AirPlay to mirror the Unblocked websites from your browser to your TV.
AppleTV PC users: use
Air Parrot to mirror the Unblocked websites from your browser to your TV.
Let us know if you know of another method that allows Hola Unblocker content to work on a platform we don't currently support!
In the future we may fully support these and other platforms.
Stay up to date by
Following us on Twitter or
Liking us on Facebook
In order to accelerate your data traffic and to route your traffic through other IPs, Hola must act as a proxy for your data thus requiring various data permissions.
Hola also needs to create an ID for your Android device which it does from the various hardware readings for which it also needs additional permissions.
Hola does not make this information public, and does not disclose or sell it to any third party.
No. Hola handles your HTTP requests exactly like HTTP web proxies do according to the HTTP RFC standards, and in a similar way to how ISPs do it in the
normal course of your browsing. That also covers 'Cache:' public/private HTTP headers and the correct handling of them.
Easy: They can use HTTP's standard 'Cache-Control: private,no-store' in requests/responses, and Hola will not cache this information.
Hola should work with most popular Antivirus programs, and we are adding more support almost daily. However, we do have known issues we are working
on, and send us an email at
help@hola.org
if you are experiencing any problems, and we'll try to get it fixed quickly for you.
Some Antivirus programs need Program Exceptions added in order for Hola to install and work.
Here's how:
This is a false positive report. The file it's catching is part of the Hola smart cache (you can mark it as safe, don't delete). We are working
with the top antivirus vendors to get Hola completely whitelisted, so that these types of false positives don't disturb our users.
Hola is completely free for the user (no Ads, no installs of 3rd party software, etc), and we intend to keep it this way. At the moment we do
not have plans to open source the product as a whole, but we do have portions of Hola that accelerate open source projects submitted to them, including:
jemalloc (the FireFox mallocer), tcmalloc (Google Chrome's mallocer), Cygwin, sqlite, openssl and other projects.
It might because Hola also implements a patented DNS resolution algorithm and it may/may not use OpenDNS on your computer, depending on various parameters
of the configuration of your computer. So the short answer is: try it out and if it works for you - good. If not - send
us an email
, and we will check if we can help.
Using two VPN services at once can cause un-expected behavior. If you'd like to use two VPN services, simply quit Hola while using the other VPN
service, and when you want to use Hola again close the other VPN service.
You still need to register and pay for sites that require this, even when using Hola. Also, you must always comply with the site's terms of use.
Yes, Hola works on Windows, even if running under VMWare. Our browser extensions work on all operating systems that support Chrome and Firefox
(except mobile). However, you should close the Hola client on the host system before you open the virtual machine, and never try to run Hola on
both the host and guest operating systems at once.
Not right now. At this point Hola only supports Windows, Android, or other platforms through the Chrome or Firefox extensions.
We definitely need your help to make the Internet better! Here's what
you can do:
-
Spread the word: Share about us on your Facebook page (See our
Facebook page for items to share)
-
Translate: Help to translate our Android Market listing, Chrome extension
listing, FireFox extension listing or Windows client to your language.
If you are interested to do so,
send us an email
We maintain a list of the major improvements, bug fixes and new features at
hola.org/changelog.html. We post the important ones also on our Facebook and Twitter. For latest
updates on our service and news
Follow us on Twitter or
Like us on Facebook
Try each of these separately:
- Disable and Enable the Unblocker
- Make sure that you have the Unblocker script for the site enabled (i.e. that the 'button' for this site is marked green on the Unblocker settings page)
- Reset the Unblocker script by clicking it off, then on again
- Try forcing the site to reload by pressing the CTRL key and F5 (or Shift key + refresh button)
- Clear your browser's cache, including the cookies (typically under 'Settings' > 'Privacy' or keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+DELETE)
- Make sure you have the latest version of Hola - Hola gets automatically updated, but if you didn't get the update yet here is how to update:
- Hola Windows client and Extensions: At the top of the Hola settings page you'll see a message if your Hola client needs to be updated. If it does,
click the link to download, then install the latest version (or install from hola.org)
- Hola Android client: Open Google Play store market > Press menu button then My Apps> Press Hola > Press update
- Disable any other VPN (Virtual Private Server) or other proxy software or extensions running on the computer.
- These extensions are known to have problems working together with Hola, we recommend disabling them when using Hola:
- IE Tab
- Avast WebRep
- Flash Blocker
- NoScript
- Reset Hola:
- Hola extension: click the icon then disable and enable
- Hola Windows client: in the tray icon choose 'quit Hola' then restart Hola (icon on your desktop or type "Hola" in your Start Menu
- Hola Android client: click off then on
- Make sure you have the latest version of your browser:
- Chrome: click the menu button > About Google Chrome. Chrome will check for the latest version and prompt you to restart if needed
- Firefox: click the ALT key (to reveal the menus) > click Help > click About Firefox. Firefox will check for the latest version and prompt you to restart if needed
- Restart your computer
- These Chrome settings may have problems running together with Hola. Disable or remove these settings and try again:
- Try disabling your Anti Virus or Firewall to see if they are causing the problem. If they are, send us an email (help@hola.org) and we will help you find the right settings
If you have gone through the
above troubleshooting steps steps and are still having problems, send us a
bug report
, and include the following information:
- Which Hola product: Hola extension (Chrome/Firefox), Windows or Android client application
- Which Operating System: e.g. Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8), Mac (OS X version), Linux, Android (2.3, 4.0, etc)
- Client ID (CID) number found in About (For Windows and Android applications):
for Windows: right-click Hola tray icon, then click "About"
for Android: press menu key on your phone then "About")
- Screenshots of the problem
- A brief description of the problem, and how to recreate it
- Antivirus or Firewall you are using
- Personal (like your Home) or Private (like your work or University) network and/or Internet connection you are using
- Does the problem happen on Wi-Fi, mobile data (e.g. 3G), Ethernet or other network connection
- Other VPN or Proxy applications you are using/running
- Which website(s) are you having problems with? Send us the links
Some old versions of Hola Unblocker for Firefox installed from the Mozilla Add-ons store don't get automatically updated
to the newest version of Hola.
Install the latest version now which includes more sites and bug fixes and automatically updates itself to the latest version.
Note:If you have uninstalled Hola but are still getting redirected, it's easy to fix! You can do it two ways:
- Re-install Hola from the above and then uninstall again, that's it. Or:
- In Firefox click 'Tools' > 'Options' then under the 'Advanced tab' click 'Network', then 'settings'. If see anything under
'Automatic Proxy configuration URL' (should be empty after uninstall), then clear it, then select 'Auto-detect Proxy settings'
for this network. This should reset the previous settings
If this happens to you, try updating to the
latest version of Hola.
If the problem persists,
send us an email
We know that this can be annoying, and will work on making it moveable / hidden in the near future :-).
- You may need to enable "Auto Proxy Discovery" in your Network settings. To do so:
- From the Apple menu, click System Preferences, then click Network.
- Then choose the network service you use from the list, for example, Ethernet or AirPort.
- Then click Advanced, and then click Proxies.
- From here, select Auto Proxy Discovery to automatically discover The Hola settings.
- You can
read more here.
- If the above doesn't fix your problem, It may be a problem with
the OS X automatic proxy settings.
Note these next steps are not fully tested and we would love
your Feedback
to improve them. Make sure to follow carefully and ONLY delete Hola related settings:
- Disable Hola extension
- From the Apple menu, click System Preferences, then click Network.
- Then choose the network service you use from the list, for example, Ethernet or AirPort.
- Then click Advanced, and then click Proxies.
- Click "Automatic proxy configuration" and delete any settings.
- Click "web proxy" and delete any settings.
- Click "secure web proxy" and delete any settings.
- Re-enable Hola and try again.
- Here are
some screenshots to help you.
- If you are still having problems, it could be that your OS X needs to be updated.
Update OS X then try Hola again.
- Let us know if you continue to have problems:
help@hola.org
If Hola isn't working on your Android device, it's possible we have a conflict with another application or system settings.
The following apps cannot run at the same time as Hola:
- AD-blocker apps: turn off any Ad-blocking application, such as AD-blocker and AdFree
- VPN apps: Hola can't work with other VPN applications at the same time, such as Onavo Extend, TunnelBear and Hotspot Shield.
This is because only one App at a time can use VPN Auto-configuration or manage the device's IP Tables.
Turn them off before using Hola.
- DNS apps: Hola can't work with other DNS applications at the same time, such as SetDNS or DNS Changer. This is because only
one App should manage DNS resolution, and Hola includes its own DNS management. Turn them off before using Hola.
Proxy settings:
Some cell phone operators pre-install Proxy IP settings on your phone, which won't let Hola run. Here's how to remove this setting:
- Open Android Settings > Wireless and Networks > More...(Android 4.0+) > Mobile Networks > Access Point Names
- Tap on the currently enabled APN (the one with the green or blue dot)
- Choose 'Proxy'
- Delete the IP address you see here
(we recommend writing it down in case you want to add it back later)
- OK
- Tap the Menu button/three-dot button
- Save
- Turn Hola off and on again to reset
If the Unblocker is not working for you on an app you're trying to access:
- Open Android Settings > Apps > Downloaded > select the app you wish to Unblock > Clear data
- Open Hola > Unblocker site settings > tap the app you are trying to access to turn it off and then on again
- Reopen the app and try again!
Sometimes we will need more information to help troubleshoot a problem you have, and will ask you to send us one or more of the following:
Hola service logs (svc.log):
- The Hola svc.log is located in: "/storage/sdcard0/Android/data/org.hola/cache/log/svc.log"
- Open "File Manager" (or other file browser) on your Android, you'll see your current path
on the top of the screen (default is /storage/sdcard0)
- Below that you'll have the list of all folders and files in your
current location
- Select the "Android" folder (your path should be /storage/sdcard0/Android)
- Select the "data" folder, then the "org.hola" folder,
then "cache", then "log" (your file path should now be
/storage/sdcard0/Android/data/org.hola/cache/log/)
- Find the svc.log file and long-press it until a menu pops up
- From the menu, select "Share" and then choose email and
send it to us at help@hola.org
Hola application logs (app.log):
- Hola app.log is located in: "/data/data/org.hola/cache/log/"
- Note: While the app.log is only accessible on rooted devices, we try to automatically attach it to Bug report emails
- Open "File Manager" (or other file browser) on your Android, you'll see your current path
on the top of the screen (default is /storage/sdcard0)
- You will need to have root explorer selected in File manager app settings
- Click "Up" button several times, until you reach the "/" root directory
- Select the "data" folder, then the "data" folder, then the "org.hola"
folder, then "cache", and then "log" (your file path should be /data/data/org.hola/cache/log/)
- Find the app.log file and long-press it until a menu pops up
- From the menu, select "Share" and then choose email and send it to us at help@hola.org
Taking screenshots to help us:
- Most Android devices let you take screenshots - Try these on your phone or tablet:
- Volume down + Power at the same time
- Home + Power button at the same time
- Press and hold the Back button + Power button
- Press the Back button + double-tap the Home button
- Search Web for 'take screenshot (your device name e.g. Samsung Galaxy S2)
- Then, include these screenshots in your bug report (simply attach to the email using Attach Picture > Gallery)
Try the following:
- Your Anti-virus or Firewall may be blocking the Hola installation. You can try to temporarily disable it and try installing
again to see if that fixes things.
- (If you are leaving your Anti-virus enabled, make sure you have updated the antivirus databases recently)
- On WinXP: Verify that you have service pack 3 installed
- Make sure your browser is updated
You can turn Hola off via the app: just click the orange smiley guy. When he goes gray our service is off, and so everything should be just as if
we're uninstalled. Now you can check again if Hola was causing the problem or not.
Here are your different options for stopping Hola:
- Turning off the Accelerator:
- Note: When the Hola Accelerator is turned off:
- None of your Internet traffic passes through Hola
- You don't send or receive any traffic from the Hola network
- Local Hola cache is turned off, so nothing is saved locally by Hola
- Hola DOES continue to manage and accelerate your DNS requests
- Windows: Turn off Accelerator by pressing the Hola icon, then turn off the Accelerator
- Android: Turn off Accelerator from inside the app
- Quitting Hola:
- You can turn Hola completely off (Note: the Hola drivers on Windows may remain loaded so it may still conflict with other
network/antivirus/firewall apps running)
- Windows: click the Hola icon and select 'Quit Hola' (or turn it to 'off')
- Android: Quit Hola from inside the app (at the very top)
- Uninstalling Hola:
You can uninstall Hola as follows:
- Hola extension for Chrome:
- Right-click the Hola icon in Chrome
- Click "Remove from Chrome"
- Click Remove in the popup
- Hola extension for Firefox:
- Ctrl+Shift+A to open Add-ons page in Firefox
- Click "Extensions" on the left hand side
- Click Remove on the right hand side of the Hola listing
- Hola client for Windows:
- Click Start > Control Panel > Windows XP: select
"Add/Remove Programs", Windows Vista/7: "Programs and features"
> select Hola from the list > Uninstall
Note: You may want to reboot if you are having networking problems.
- Hola client for Android:
- Open Google Play store market
- Press menu button then My Apps
- Press Hola
- Press uninstall
- Hola client for Windows:
- Right-click the Hola icon in Chrome
- Click 'Settings'
- Under General, uncheck "Start Hola automatically on PC startup"
- Note: if this setting isn't being saved, it's because you do not have Administrative privileges. Quit Hola, then right-click our desktop icon and 'run as administrator', now complete the above steps.
- Hola app for Android:
- Open Hola, then open the menu by pressing the device's "menu" button
- Tap 'Settings'
- Uncheck "Start Hola on boot"
Send us an email
with details about your problem, and we'll try to figure out the problem with you.
We love to hear feedback and ideas from our users!
Send us an email!
Follow us on Twitter or