A Virtual Private Network, or VPN for short, provides you with increased freedom and security online. In a world that is constantly moving forward with technology this can be of great importance and a very handy tool to have, whether for privacy reasons or personal leisure.
Bypass Geolocation Restrictions
A massive reason why so many people are choosing to invest in a premium VPN is due to the freedom it provides when it comes to geolocation restrictions. Streaming services such as Netflix offer different albums of shows, movies and content to their customers based on the region they are from usually due to their license agreements.
For many countries a show may be released months after it appears on the US Netflix, if it ever becomes available at all. Because of this you may want to opt into getting a secure VPN that allows you to bypass these geo-location limitations so you can enjoy more content at your will.
When you’re using a VPN you will be connecting to a network that will hide your real IP and assign you a separate one, this can trick a site into thinking you’re located in a different country and give you unrestricted access to the information or content you want.
Protect yourself when using Wi-Fi
Public Wi-Fi can be very enticing as it saves you from using your mobile data, and is becoming a more common service offered by businesses. Unfortunately with that convenience there are many security risks when it comes to connecting to public or free Wi-Fi, with a VPN you can limit the risks you’re taking when using such a service.
When you’re connected to Wi-Fi you are giving hackers the opportunity to take advantage of the network and gather your personal information, by connecting to a good VPN you are automatically encrypting your online data, shielding it from anyone with malicious intentions.
Hide your True location & IP Address
Whether it be for privacy reasons, avoiding geo-blocking restrictions or for any other reason you may have, switching your location is done virtually at the click of a button with a Virtual Private Network. The more advanced premium VPN companies have extensive amounts of servers in different cities and countries across the entire world.
Hiding your IP address can also be useful in case of a DDoS attack, which means someone could maliciously floor your IP with packets resulting in your internet slowing down or disconnecting. However if the IP they target is that of a server you could switch server without any negative effect towards your internet stability.
Hide your Browsing Data from your ISP
For many, privacy is very important, through the use of a VPN you can gain an extra level of privacy from your ISP or Internet provider. A VPN will encrypt and hide what you’re doing, preventing your browsing data being saved and logged by your ISP.
Downloading or Torrenting
There may be certain restrictions that slow down your download speed, or even blocks that prevent you from receiving torrents even if they’re completely legal, these restrictions are often under the control of your ISP or internet provider.
If you’re using a VPN your ISP can no longer determine what you’re actually doing as the data is encrypted and not available to them. If you’re noticing slow download speeds on certain sites or with particular programs there is a good chance that you’re experiencing some form of throttling from your ISP.
Avoid Pesky Firewalls
If you’re using a network other than your home connection you may come across some restrictions that have been set up, preventing you from accessing particular websites or services. Because connecting to a VPN provides your data and web browsing with secure encryption you can actually gain full access to the web.
Is a VPN Fast?
Typically speaking a VPN connection is slow, at least slower than your usual connection would be, this is mainly due to you having to connect to their server and the data encryption protocol used.
You will notice a greater reduction in speed if you are connecting to server location that is fair from your own, a lot of VPN programs will provide you ping stats for the available servers. Ping references the latency or time it takes for a packet to be transmitted to another device or server, meaning the lower the number the better.
Choosing a server with low ping will primarily result in a better user experience, however it’s not the only factor. A low ping time is good for uses that have the necessity or benefit from information being relayed quickly, a good example of this is online gaming.
Download based or streaming content, like Netflix, don’t require an extraordinarily low ping to be effective, they’re more dependant on bandwidth. Bandwidth refers to the amount of information or data that can be delivered every second, so if your intent is for streaming you may want to choose a VPN that offers a rather large or unlimited bandwidth option to ensure a quality user experience.
Bypass Internet Censorship
Your government or other high-authority organisations may have set restrictions on the websites and information you have access to online, it’s common for this to occur with torrenting or streaming sites to prevent people from using such sites even for legal purposes. Because of this the information you have access to could become limited and depending on how strict the blocks are you may lose access to entire websites or features.
These are usually enforced by the ISP that provides your internet, so using a VPN to hide your data will gain you access to these sites. A VPN undergoes a protocol to hide the data from anyone trying to gain access to it, including your ISP, freeing up your online viewing experience.
Save Money with Location-based Price Targeting
A rather unethical method that some companies and businesses use to increase profit margins is to have their prices fluctuate depending on the location of the customer, this is used to target people that live in more wealthy locations and offer the same product to them for a higher price.
Because you can choose a different location and practically trick a store into thinking you’re a shopper from anywhere in the world you could be able to snag some great deals online and save yourself a decent amount of money in the long run.
Online Gaming
For general gaming at home using a VPN for online gaming isn’t ideal, you’re more than likely going to see a spike in your ping and performance which can be detrimental to your gaming experience and cause some disadvantages. Where having a VPN for gaming comes in handy is for unblocking games that may only be available in certain regions or countries.
Some governments have strict rules on the sites and games their citizens can access, and if you’re travelling to one of these locations you may find yourself unable to play your favourite game, with a VPN however you can.
What to Look For in a VPN
When looking into which VPN to get it may get fairly overwhelming as to which features you need and what all the information means, here are some things to look out for:
- Ensure the VPN doesn’t log your activity or personal information, explicitly check the logging policy.
- Amount of servers and locations of them.
- Check the guidelines or acceptable use policy to make sure you can use the VPN for your intended use.
- The amount of different devices that can use the account at any given time.
- Make sure the VPN has its own program or application, unless you’re a more advanced user.
- Amount of supported devices for the application.
- Download Speed and Bandwidth.
- Ease of use.
- Affordability.
Some information will always be logged by a VPN provider, however the less possible the better. If you want to ensure that your anonymity is safe then it’s a good idea to go with a reputable VPN provider that guarantees they are not logging your browsing history or connection data.
Disadvantages of a VPN
Some VPNs Log Data
Typically your ISP will be collecting and creating a log of your data, including a lot of information that you may want to hide, if you’re using a VPN you can gain this anonymity, however what many people don’t realize is that some VPN providers will still collect logs of your data, so using one for this sole reason could prove pointless if you don’t choose the right VPN.
Performance Issues
When using a Virtual Private Network you may notice a lower connection speed or slower internet performance. If you have a slower base internet connection speed this could be annoying or ineffective, the better your internet then more than likely you’ll have a better experience when connected to a VPN.
Our VPN Recommendation
Once you’ve decided to to get a Virtual Private Network the next step is choosing the right one. With so many options finding the best one for you can be rather difficult. Our favourite is ExpressVPN, which is both easy to use and effective. ExpressVPN is fast, reliable and is available across an array of different devices.
