While Not Perfect Either Cloud Hosting Providers Have A Better Customer Data Record
by Jim Salter – May 26, 2017 12:00 pm UTC
In the wake of this spring’s Senate ruling nixing FCC privacy regulations imposed on ISPs, you may be worried about how your data is used, misused, and abused. There have been a lot of opinions on this topic since, ranging from “the sky is falling” to “move along, citizen, nothing to see here.” The fact is, ISPs tend to be pretty unscrupulous, sometimes even ruthless, about how they gather and use their customers’ data. You may not be sure how it’s a problem if your ISP gives advertisers more info to serve ads you’d like to seebut what about when your ISP literally edits your HTTP traffic, inserting more ads and possibly breaking webpages?
With a Congress that has demonstrated its lack of interest in protecting you from your ISP, and ISPs that have repeatedly demonstrated a “whatever-we-can-get-away-with” attitude toward customers’ data privacy and integrity, it may be time to look into how to get your data out from under your ISP’s prying eyes and grubby fingers intact. To do that, you’ll need a VPN.
Payment Plan And Affordability
Managing a non-profit organization means you have to be very careful with how you spend your resources. This is why affordability is a very important factor in selecting the right VPN to connect to your work computer from home to access files remotely.
While VPNs are generally affordable, the price may be a concern if you are on a tight budget. Luckily, there are a lot of VPN providers in the market and you will find one in your desired budget.
P.s Pricing of VPNs varies based on the features offered and the length of the subscription and you might be compromising some features with a budget VPN.
Connecting To Your VPN Server
To connect to the VPN server, you will need;your computers public IP address; or its dynamic DNS address, if you set up a dynamic DNS service.
In whatever version of Windows youre using on the machine doing the connecting, you can just hit Start, type vpn, and then select the option that appears. In Windows 10, it will be named Change Virtual Private Networks . In Windows 7, its named Set up a virtual private network connection.
When asked, provide a name for the connection and the Internet address .
For more instructions on connectingincluding some of the advanced options you can choosecheck out our full guide on;how to connect to a VPN on Windows.
Read Also: What Type Of VPN Is Expressvpn
Connect To Your VPN From Anywhere
You’re in the home stretch now because the rest is super easy. To connect to your VPN when you’re away from home, you’ll need a VPN app, or “client,” capable of connecting to your OpenVPN server. OpenVPN has an official client called OpenVPN Connect, which is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.
You can grab it from OpenVPN’s home pagejust scroll down to Get Started with OpenVPN Connect and click the platform of your choice. There are also popular third-party programs like Viscosity and Tunnelblick that provide extra options for advanced users. You can see other OpenVPN clients on this page at the OpenVPN community.
Manage your VPN with OpenVPN
Launch the OpenVPN Connect app and click the “File” tab to add a new profile. Navigate to the configuration file you copied from the Pi and select it. Click the Add button, and you can connect to your VPN by flipping the toggle switch on and entering your password.
Once you do, all your traffic will be encrypted, and routed through your home internet connection where the Pi resides. Your traffic will be secure from prying eyes on that coffee shop Wi-Fi, and you’ll be able to access any resources on your home network as if you were thereno subscription fee necessary.
Like What You’re Reading?
Sign up for Security Watch newsletter for our top privacy and security stories delivered right to your inbox.
How To Set Up A VPN At Home
These methods will let you set up your own VPN at home. The easiest way is to pay for a VPN subscription and use the software from your VPN provider to access the VPN. If you want more control, you could try installing a VPN on your router or even hosting your own VPN server.
And if you’re not yet convinced that you need a VPN, here are the reasons you should be using a VPN.
Don’t Miss: How To Use VPN On Macbook Pro
VPN Server Vs VPN Client: Whats The Difference
In this guide we have talked about setting up a VPN server, but we also touch upon VPN clients.
So, whats the difference between the two?
Both a VPN server and a VPN client are required to create an encrypted VPN tunnel.
The VPN server is at one end of the tunnel, and the VPN client at the other.
The VPN client initiates the connection with the VPN server and authenticates itself before being granted access to the virtual private network.
While VPN servers can accept connections from many clients, a VPN client can only establish a connection with just one server at a time.
You install VPN client software on the device that you want to connect to the VPN server.
For example, on your Android smartphone that you want to use securely on public WiFi while out and about.
Internet traffic from the VPN client device is routed through the encrypted VPN tunnel to the VPN server, whether thats a server you have set up at home, or one belonging to a VPN service provider.
The VPN server enables hosting and delivery of the VPN service, and also masks the VPN clients IP address with one of its own.
So, if you connect to a VPN server located in your home, your web activity will be associated with the public IP address of your home network, even though youre not physically located there yourself.
In this guide we showed you how to set up a VPN server at home, but if you need help setting up your device as a VPN client, check out our VPN installation guides.
Get Someone Else To Host Your VPN For You
Here is a meet in the middle solution: you can have a web hosting provider host a VPN server for you. This can wind up a cheaper option than paying for a full-blown VPN service. Simply pay the web hosting company for server hosting and then set up your VPN server on the server they provide.
It does depend on the web hosting company as to whether or not this is an easy or a complicated process. Some offer point and click interfaces, while others require you to work with a command prompt.
Recommended Reading: Can You Use VPN On Chromebook
Feeling Overwhelmed Then Its Time To Consider A Commerical VPN Instead
As explained above, setting up your VPN server at home comes with numerous benefits. However, this process is often laborious and can be frustrating at times. Still, this doesnt mean you should completely give up on the idea of using a VPN. And as you can imagine, theres a reason why youll find hundreds of commercial VPNs out there.
Our team here at TechNadu has tested dozens of VPNs so far, and we can help you find those that are user- and privacy-friendly. First, we recommend checking our VPN buyers guide so that you can set your priorities and expectations. And then, make sure to explore the best VPN services available in 2021.
In case youd like to keep your expenses as low as possible, heres our article on the best VPN deals right now as well. And lastly, keep in mind that there are some pretty capable and cheap VPN services as well.
How To Make Your Own VPN For Free
Online privacy has become a key topic of discussion in todays world, with ISPs and government agencies keenly monitoring user activities. This has become even worse with data retention laws being drafted to allow ISPs to store and share your private data with advertisers and other interested parties.
However, while going for one of the top VPNs like ExpressVPN is always a good idea, you dont have to rely on commercial VPNs to protect your privacy.
The good thing is you can easily create your own cloud VPN server at home and avoid being monitored by ISPs and other snooping eyes.
Recommended Reading: How To Get VPN For Computer
How To Connect To Your VPN Server On Windows
You can instruct any device to connect to the VPN server you configured earlier. Here, for obvious reasons, we have to assume you are using a Windows 10 PC and intend to connect to the VPN server on it. In that case, here are the instructions you must go through:
- First, you need to know your computers public IP address or its dynamic DNS address .
You can find out your public IP address by firing up your web browser and then googling these keywords: What is my IP address.
Take note of the figures displayed. Write them down somewhere or copy and then paste them somewhere accessible.
- Press the Windows logo button on your machines keyboard. Once the options and utilities that make up the Windows Start menu become visible, you must type this keyword into the text field :
The Add a VPN connection window or dialog will be displayed now.
- You have to provide a name for the connection to identify it which means anything you can recall will do here. You must also fill in the field for Internet address you can use a domain name or an IP address.
- You have to click on the drop-down menu for VPN type to view the parameters available. Choose Point to Point Tunneling Protocol .
- Once you are done filling the relevant fields and choosing the right parameters, you must click on the Save button.
The VPN is supposed to appear in the network popup menu when you highlight any nearby WI-FI network on the list.
Your Own VPN Server: The Pros
PrivacyOne advantage of having your own VPN server is its far less likely that anyone will take an interest in your web traffic. The web hosting service could monitor what youre doing, in theory, but they make their money selling web space and dont need to log your every online move.;
Plus, the big bucks are in collecting the browsing histories of hundreds of thousands of users your personal web preferences just arent going to be a big money maker.
Fewer Bad NeighborsYoure unlikely to share your VPN IP address with many others, which is another potential plus. If hackers havent used the IP to send spam, launch attacks or do anything else to get it blacklisted, theres less chance of websites hassling you with are you a human? captchas and similar checks.
FlexibilityBuy from a regular VPN and, generally, everyone gets access to the same servers. Here, you can choose the locations and power level you need, from an ultra-cheap but slow setup to a high-speed, high power system.
You May Like: How To Change Your Location Using VPN
Create Your Own VPN In The Cloud
- PROJECT_ID=$-algo-vpn
- ;member serviceAccount:$.iam.gserviceaccount.com \
- ;;role roles/iam.serviceAccountUser
- gcloud services enable compute.googleapis.com
Why You Might Not Want To Do This
If youre like the vast majority of home internet users, youve got extremely limited and possibly slow upload bandwidth, and you might even have bandwidth limits or capsunless youve got gigabit fiber at home, setting up your own VPN server is going to be the slowest option you can choose.
The other problem is that some of the biggest reasons to use a VPN are to shift your geographic location to somewhere else to bypass geographical locks on websites or streaming services or mask your location for privacy reasonsand a home VPN server isnt going to really help you with either one of these scenarios if youre connecting from your home area.
Using a real VPN service is going to give you the fastest speeds, geo-shifting, and location masking, without any of the trouble of setting up and maintaining a server for yourself. The only downside of a real VPN service is that itll cost you a few dollars a month. These are;our favorite picks for the best VPN services:
- ExpressVPN:;This VPN server has the best combination of ease-of-use, really fast servers, and supports streaming media and torrenting, all for a cheap price.
- Tunnelbear:;This VPN is really easy to use, is great for using at the coffee shop, and has a free tier. Its not good for torrenting or streaming media though.
- StrongVPN: Not quite as easy to use as the others, but you can definitely use them for torrenting and streaming media.
Don’t Miss: How To Cast With VPN
You Are An Avid Gamer
Setting up a VPN will give you a secure network you can use to host multiplayer PC games. Usually, these types of gaming sessions would be done over a LAN internet connection, but with your own VPN, you can be your own host. There are simpler ways of achieving a temporary PC gaming network, but with a VPN in place, you get an added security boost.
Bonus: Host Your Own VPN Server Elsewhere
Theres one more do-it-yourself option thats halfway between hosting your own VPN server on your own hardware versus paying a VPN provider to provide you with VPN service and a convenient app.
RELATED
You could host your own VPN server with a web hosting provider, and this may actually be a few bucks cheaper a month than going with a dedicated VPN provider. Youll pay the hosting provider;for server hosting, and then install a VPN server on the;server theyve provided to you.
Depending on the hosting provider youve chosen, this can be a quick point-and-click process;where you add the VPN server software and get a control panel to manage it, or it may require pulling up;a command-line to;install and configure everything from scratch.
RELATED:How To Easily Access Your Home Network From Anywhere With Dynamic DNS
When doing setting up a VPN at home, youll probably want to set up dynamic DNS on your router. This will give you an easy address you can access your VPN at, even if your home Internet connections IP address changes.
Be sure to configure your VPN server securely. Youll want strong security so no one else can connect to your VPN. Even a strong password might not be ideal an OpenVPN server with a key file you need to connect would be strong authentication, for example.
Read Also: How To Use VPN Windows 10 Free
This Story Is Part Of A Group Of Stories Called
It isnt enough to have great new devices, apps, and games you also have to know how to use them. Here at The Verge, we offer step-by-step how-tos for experienced and new users who are working with online, macOS, Windows, Chrome OS, iOS, and Android apps, services, phones, laptops, and other tools. From simple instructions on how to install and use new devices, to little-known strategies on how to take advantage of hidden features and the best methods for adding power or storage, weve got your technological back.
Virtual private networks can offer an additional layer of security and privacy. Whether youre working on a public Wi-Fi network and want to escape prying eyes, or youre worried about privacy in general, a VPN can offer a lot of benefits.
In a nutshell, a VPN establishes a secure, encrypted connection between your device and a private server, hiding your traffic from being seen by others. Of course, the VPN itself can still see your traffic, which is why you should choose a VPN from a company you trust. In addition, law enforcement can get its hands on your information through the VPN company. However, for the most part, a VPN offers you a way to hide your online activity from others.
Related
The best VPN to use to protect your privacy
Note that getting a VPN is only one of the measures you can take to make your web browsing more secure. Others include enabling two-factor authentication and using a password manager.