What is a VPN? How can it help you? Are your concerns about online safety growing with every cybercrime incident you hear of?
If yes, and you desperately seek help, maybe you should find relief in knowing that you are headed in the right direction.
The market is flooded with numerous VPN options you can pick from. But before you do that, you must understand what a VPN is.
Fortunately for you, this post will help you understand everything about this wonderful tool.
What is a VPN? What Exactly Does It Do?
A Virtual Private Network, or VPN, is an amazing tool that safeguards your privacy on the web and protects your overall internet connection against all looming threats online.
It masks your online identity and encrypts your internet traffic.
As a result, third parties find it more challenging to monitor your online activity and steal data.
Usually, when you attempt to access a website, your ISP receives your request and then sends it to the true destination.
However, once your VPN connection is established, all your data is encrypted, and the route of your web traffic is changed.
It will now be redirected through a remote server operated by your host VPN before being sent to your intended destination.
It is also noteworthy that on an internet network, each device has a special address referred to as an IP address (or an internet protocol address).
By allowing the network to route your traffic through the remote server, the VPN conceals your IP address too.
In other words, if you use a VPN to browse the internet, the VPN server becomes your data source.
As a result, neither your ISP nor other parties will be able to see your activities or data online.
Since your IP address will be hidden, nobody will be able to trace your device’s IP back to you.
Most importantly, the VPN ensures all your data is encrypted in the process, so even if someone successfully intercepts your connection, all the data will be too scrambled for them to understand or steal anything.
What Are the Types of VPNs?
VPNs can be classified as remote, site-to-site, or personal VPNs.
Organizations and companies frequently use site-to-site and remote access VPNs.
Whereas an individual who wants a secure internet connection should use a personal VPN.
A VPN used to connect multiple private intranets from different locations is known as a site-to-site VPN .
Larger companies or organizations use this VPN to enable their employees to access the same database and private network regardless of the city or country they reside in.
A remote access VPN helps employees safely connect to a remote network using specialized software.
The connection must be established on the “host” machine of the employee.
With such a setup, employees can work from any location, enjoying the same level o safety as those present on-site.
Consumer-grade VPNs, known as personal VPNs, are used by individuals.
They are used to establish a secure link between your device and the server of your VPN provider.
This connection prevents websites from knowing your true location and refrains anyone from monitoring your online activities.
Why Do Individuals Need to Use a VPN?
Normally, when you access the internet, your ISP configures your connection. Your IP address is used to monitor you.
The servers of your ISP, which can record and show everything you do online, handle the routing of your network traffic.
Although your ISP may appear to be reliable, it may give your browsing data to third parties like advertisers, the government, or law enforcement authorities.
ISPs are susceptible to cybercriminals’ assaults as well. Your confidential information may be at risk if they are hacked.
Using a VPN is particularly crucial if you frequently use public Wi-Fi networks.
Your passwords, payment information, personal data, or even identity could be stolen if you are not careful.
What Benefits Can Individuals Enjoy Using a VPN?
What is a VPN connection good for if it doesn’t give you online anonymity?
A good VPN will always help you remain anonymous while using the web.
But what you achieve with that anonymity will help you truly appreciate the value of a VPN.
For instance, a VPN can help you with the following:
Use the Web Safely
With the ever-increasing rate of cyber-attacks worldwide, there is a rise in concern over online security.
There are various kinds of third parties, including your ISP, governments, or advertisers, that could be interested in monitoring and gathering your browsing records, messages, and other sensitive information.
Using a VPN increases your online anonymity and protects you from all snoopers since your IP address and location are hidden, and your internet connection is encrypted.
It is especially helpful for obtaining complete privacy when using public Wi-Fi networks.
On public hotspots, hackers can take your data using a variety of techniques, but if you use a VPN, they cannot see what you are doing online.
This explains why 31% of internet users globally protect their connections using a VPN.
Enjoy Open and Free Internet
Geo-restrictions and content censorship by the governments tend to limit an individual’s access to open and free internet.
However, by routing your internet traffic via its remote servers, a VPN returns you the internet freedom you crave and lets you access any content restricted within your region.
This is especially useful when you are traveling and need to access a local banking or streaming service etc., from back home.
Research shows that 64% of VPN users don’t connect to it daily, which may support the idea that most individuals prefer to use VPNs only when they need to overcome content blocks.
Improve Your Connection Speeds
Since your internet connection is heavily encrypted, it is a common belief that a VPN slows down your connection speed.
However, the reality is quite the opposite. It may sound absurd, but using a VPN may actually increase your speed.
Often when your downloads go beyond a certain threshold, your ISP will throttle the connection, as a result of which internet speed suffers.
A VPN, as previously mentioned, alters your IP address and makes it impossible for your ISP to track you.
Consequently, you can enjoy lag-free gaming and buffer-free streaming.
Some top-of-the-line VPN providers like NordVPN will also offer the fastest VPN protocols available to make your connection fast enough for all kinds of data-intensive activities.
Secure Your Data-Sharing Activities
Since your connection is encrypted with a VPN, you can safely send and receive any data online without it being visible to any prying eyes.
This is useful whether you are sharing confidential work-related files over the internet or your payment details during online shopping.
None of your sensitive data will ever be stolen, regardless of where on the web you share it.
What Are the Features that Make a VPN Ideal for Use?
While the internet has made lives easier for us in plenty of ways, several lurking dangers on the web tend to jinx it for us.
Thankfully, the market is overflowing with VPN options to help you secure your online experiences.
Now the question that remains is how do you pick one VPN provider out of the many that are available?
To make it easy for yourself to choose the ideal VPN app, keep the following things in mind:
Robust Encryption
The VPN provider you choose must provide the highest standards of encryption for your data, preferably AES-256, which is almost impenetrable.
This should be one of the prime determinants because it will make it virtually impossible to steal any of your data.
Server Network
Always remember that the larger the server network of a VPN, the greater your internet freedom.
You can easily connect to servers in a different region and circumvent regional restrictions.
A larger number of servers will also guarantee better speeds because you will always have a nearby server you can connect to for stable and faster connections.
Also, you will never have to deal with overcrowded servers and unstable connections.
Zero-Logs Policy
A VPN provider’s true commitment to user privacy begins with a no-logging policy.
So, before choosing a VPN, always read through its privacy policy and make sure it does not record any of its users’ data, even in encrypted form.
Range of Security Features
It is always advised to thoroughly check the slew of security and privacy features offered by a provider.
Be mindful of what matters most to you personally, and make sure the service meets your requirements.
Be it obfuscation servers, kill switches, data breach detectors, Multihop, split tunneling, or any other feature, look for everything that is particularly essential for you.
Ultra-Fast Speed
You must see to it that sufficient speed is offered by the chosen VPN service.
Most VPN services claim to provide seamless streaming and fast downloads but, ultimately, fail to uphold their claims about fast connection speeds.
Excellent Customer Support
VPN installation is easy for some devices but can be quite complex for many others.
Therefore, you must choose a VPN provider with one of the best customer support teams, which is on standby to readily resolve any issues that may arise.
Great Reputation
Last but not least, opt for a VPN whose veracity has can be proven with customer reviews as well as independent audits.
There are numerous VPNs out there making false claims only to make a quick profit at the cost of users’ vulnerability.
Some VPNs that Can Be Trusted
Keeping in view all the aforementioned criteria for choosing the right VPN, some VPNs offer excellent value for the money paid.
Atlas VPN, for instance, is a VPN provider that is relatively new to the scene but offers all premium features at highly affordable prices.
It is quite renowned for offering some of the rare features like SafeSwap, an IP rotation tool, and a free version that may have limitations for streaming but works great for safe web browsing.
Offering a perfect mix of affordability and performance, Surfshark is another great VPN.
Not only is this provider one of the most reliable alternatives, but it also offers great value via its ability to support unlimited simultaneous device connections with every subscription.
For users who can afford to pay a slightly greater subscription fee, NordVPN is another great VPN provider.
While maintaining user privacy and security through robust features is the specialty of NordVPN, it aims even higher and offers users robust security for their devices as well.
Through its new Threat Protection feature, NordVPN safeguards all your connected devices against malware, malicious websites, trackers, etc.
This is in addition to the high-grade security, absolute anonymity, extensive server network, and lightning-fast speeds (via its unique Nordlynx technology) that it proudly offers to its users.
FAQs
How to Set up And Use a VPN?
The first step to setting up a VPN is choosing a reliable service provider.
Once you subscribe to a reliable service, visit its website to download and install the respective app for your device.
Launch the app and establish a connection with any server of your choice. Voila!
Your internet connection is now safe to use.
Which VPN Services Shouldn’t Be Trusted?
Any VPN that does not have an authentic zero-logs policy, robust encryption, or is free of cost cannot be trusted and should be considered unsafe.
This is because even if your ISP cannot see your activities and data online, sometimes your VPN provider can.
The free VPNs tend to record all your online behavior, the websites you visit, and the content you engage with, and then sell all that data to third parties to generate revenues.
What Can You Easily Set up A VPN With?
Personal VPNs nowadays are being used quite widely.
From gaming consoles to TVs, phones, and PCs, they can be configured with almost every device that connects to the internet.
This is because all reputable VPNs have launched dedicated apps for all mainstream devices and platforms, making themselves easily compatible with everything.
In case a device does not offer native support for VPNs, most providers allow for the tool to be easily configured with routers.
As a result, every device connected to the internet through that router will be protected with a VPN.
Conclusion
Personal VPNs are becoming increasingly popular and readily available.
Numerous VPNs offer a wide range of features, making them a powerful tool for enhancing your safety and confidentiality while browsing the internet.
However, every VPN service provider may have its own set of limitations.
Therefore, make sure that you conduct thorough research and pick a provider that is not only reliable but also meets your requirements.
Ideally, you shouldn’t hold back even if it necessitates paying a few extra dollars each month for a better service.
Also, if you do plan on investing your time and resources, you must begin by asking all the right questions, i.e., ‘what is a VPN, and how can it help me?’
