What is a Virtual Private Network (VPN)?A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a private networking technology that establishes a personal and anonymous network by creating a separate tunnel for the users across the internet to provide;
- Security from cyber threats (hackers, spammers, etc.)
- Protection of the internet privacy keeps you away from the intruders (ISP monitoring, government surveillance, and security agencies or other snoopers)
- access to geo-restricted websites from all around the world (even the most restricted one like China)
How VPN Works?When you install a VPN on your machine or device, it establishes a separate and encrypted tunnel for your data traffic to move safely around the internet. Due to encryption the data packets traveling through this tunnel are locked and secure in a code format unreadable by any other person, but you, which means even if someone can somehow sneak at your internet activities, he or she cannot understand the data you send or receive. All this is done with the fool-proof combination of VPN Protocols; PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, SSTP, OpenVPN, IKEv2 and VPN Encryption of AES 128-bit or AES 256-bit. The next major component of a VPN is the number of sustainable and stable servers it provides and the area of coverage throughout the world, which is imperative. The best VPN service providers have different servers in many regions of the world that help users to connect from a particular country’s server if desired. It diverts the user’s data through that country’s server and hides the original identity of the user, and it seems like the user is connected to the internet from that country’s server which helps the users to be anonymous and unable to be tracked down. The core idea to switch to a server is to gain a different IP address of a particular region. However, it is important to mention here that VPN providers offer two distinct kinds of IP address to their users; Shared IP and Dedicated IP addresses, both have their advantages which depend on the user’s requirement. For anonymity shared IP is recommended and for security purpose especially when connecting to confidential websites like your company’s servers, your bank account, etc. a dedicated IP address is best, which is unique and assigned only to one client at a time.If you are a VPN noob and have ambiguities regarding VPNs, then you must read our comprehensive VPN guide designed for all VPN beginners.
Why You Need a VPN?A VPN service ensures users’ security, safety and ability to access various blocked content from all around the world. In the past days VPN services were mainly used in the corporate world to assist employees to connect from home, but in the recent days as privacy and security become a question for everyone and users are exposed to many online threats, spamming, hacking, cyber-crimes, etc. VPN is used widely all around the world by both private and business users to ensure security and privacy of their online activities and their devices. VPN is also used worldwide to access exclusive content related to entertainment and educational stuff, which is blocked due to geographical restriction in some regions of the world and bringing users millions of websites to get facilitated from all around the world without the barrier of geo-restricted content.Virtual Private Network (VPN) offers internet users with many attractive advantages like to go anonymous, and access geo-restricted content provides a platform for a high-end security protocol, and safeguard users information and data from hackers, spammers, cyber criminals and shield privacy interferences by surveillance agencies and ISPs. Some core purposes of VPN are;
- VPN for Cyber Security
In this era where the risk of cyber threats have grown outrageously, it is not the right thing to use the internet with no security shield. Internet can be one of the reason of your identity theft by hacking and other such cyber threats. Keeping your data safe and secure is possible by using a VPN for cyber security. When you use VPN, no cyber criminals can get to your data that easily and it is nearly impossible for them to read your data when VPN encrypts it by strong encryption. Note that even the most secure VPN is not 100% secure and we never make false claims.
- VPN to Enhance the Internet Privacy
After the revelations by Edward Snowden, no internet user is unaware of the fact how far beyond the limits government and security agencies have reached to sabotage the face of individual internet privacy. You can get yourself away from the eyes of such surveillance especially in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand which all the member of mass surveillance and data retention law agreement program Five Eyes. According to the current surveillance program in the US and the others like it all the internet activities of users are monitored and being recorded by the security agencies 24/7, as every single ISP is compelled to keep the log of users’ activities throughout the US. You can certainly change that scenario and stop the ISP and security agencies spying on you, by using a VPN which provides you anonymity to a great extent. However, no tool can provide you absolute anonymity over the internet and if someone claims, it is a white lie. We have input a lot of hard work and research and came up with a comprehensive and ultimate privacy guide for all of our readers to understand what is the privacy deal in today’s scenario.
- VPN for Streaming–Netflix, Hulu, Hulu Plus, HBO, etc.
VPN is broadly used all around the world for online streaming. Exclusive and valuable entertainment or educational content is not free and can cost you many dollars plus it is not available for online streaming to access in many regions of the world and only limited to certain specific territories of the world. Using a VPN eliminates this issue, and a VPN user can access to whatever entertainment or educational stuff they want online for streaming. Like movies, videos, songs, TV shows, sitcoms, training videos, etc.
- VPN to Access Geo-Restricted Content
VPN changes your IP address to your desired country’s server, by this, you can access the stuff from any website or network that is originally blocked in your region, problem solved.
- VPN for Torrenting and P2P File Sharing
Millions of users from all around the world download and upload files through torrenting, but there is always a threat for your IP address to being exposed to your ISP that is always monitoring your activities. Using VPN provides you a shield, and you can secretly share files on the torrent without the fear of being caught.
Why VPN is Better than a Proxy?A VPN is a smarter and more sophisticated technology for internet security and privacy than a proxy. A VPN not only hides your internet IP address while transferring your data through its separate tunnel but also provides encryption which turns the data into code form unreadable by anyone snoops on your activities. Whereas a proxy can provide you different IP addresses to unblock websites of various countries, but it doesn’t provide encryption which means no security and your data traffic is at risk of being intercepted and tampered. VPN is not made for just one purpose, but it is a comprehensive tool for internet privacy and security to let you know all the differences of VPN vs. proxy, we have published an article on VPN vs. Proxy.
Is using VPN Legal?Yes, VPN use is legal in most of the countries except UAE, the legality of using a VPN service depends on the country. Most of the countries in the world like USA, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc. have no legal restrictions in using a VPN service. VPN is always legal if you are not intended to use for any illegal activities like to commit a fraud online, cyber theft, or in some countries to download copyrighted content.
How much VPN Costs?A VPN costs you around $2.5 to $13 a month, but normally you can spend $5 per month to get a good VPN. Price is a major factor, no one wants to break the bank, but just imagine the cyber theft scenario these days, and everyone is talking about it. Ask yourself a question is a petty amount of $5 is more important than your cyber security? We expect you answer no. To keep the cost reduction in mind, we have brought you VPN coupon of the most selling provider, and you can avail the promotion by using this ExpressVPN discount coupon.
How to Select the Most Secure VPN?VPN is a top-rated technology to ensure users connectivity to geo-restricted websites, to ensure complete anonymity for establishing fool-proof security and provide the fastest speed and uninterrupted streaming of their favorite content. VPN customers all around the world look for these features when selecting the most secure VPN provider for them,
- Level of Encryption and VPN Protocols
Select a VPN which offers all the major VPN protocols like; PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, OpenVPN, SSTP, IKEv2, etc. and the encryption level of; AES-128-bit or 256-bit etc. so always select a secure and encrypted VPN service.
- VPN Speed
If you want to achieve a good VPN speed then you must know on which factors the speed of a VPN depends on; VPN speed mainly depends on the actual speed of your internet connection. It is important to mention here that VPN can never enhance the internet speed, but if you have a good bandwidth internet connection, the using a VPN will have minimal or no speed reduction. Know more how fastest VPN works and don’t forget that testing VPN speed is important before you buy it.
- The number of servers
The price of a VPN can vary from $2.5 to $13 a month, depends on of what features you want, a comprehensive, reliable and the most secure VPN. Some VPNs provide good quality features in affordable price so that the cheap VPNs are also good to go, but stay away from any free VPNs they will ruin your idea of using a VPN, privacy.
- Customer Support
A VPN must offer 24/7 customer support via live chat or other fastest ways to resolve the issues as soon as possible.
How to Get Started with a VPN?To get started with the VPN you want, you need to follow steps after reading the VPN guide.
- Choose a VPN service from the table above, click on the visit site button.
- Now sign up for the service you will get the credential via email by your selected VPN provider.
- Go to the website again and install the VPN App as per your device (Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, etc.)
- Sign in the app by entering the credential emailed to you by the provider and select the server location you want to use and get started.