Be Careful While Downloading And Streaming
Also, using a VPN can help you when streaming content through any service, since your ISP wont be able to know about it. This is especially important for downloading and streaming since ISPs often throttle network bandwidth when they find users doing either. So to prevent this from happening, use a VPN that can allow for P2P, offers support for Kodi, and has servers placed all over the world to give you ample of connectivity options to unblock geo-restricted services.
There is not one but many instances where users had to pay hefty fines. Below are some such instances shared by users in a Reddit discussion thread.
1. One had to pay $960 for downloading songs illegally.
Why Do I Need VPN
VPNs protect your privacy and security. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, a type of internet service that encrypts the traffic going to and from your computer so that it cant be read by others on the same network or traced back to you. Using a VPN also allows users with data caps an option when they need to download lots of files like movies, games etc.
How To Set Up A VPN On An Android Phone
Now that you’ve chosen the VPN you want to use, follow these steps to get it up and running on your Android device:;
1.;Open the Google Play store app on your phone and tap the search bar at the top of the screen.;
2. Type in the name of the VPN you’d like to use, and select it from the list of apps that pops up. Take a look at the app’s creator to make sure you’re downloading the official app instead of a copycat. The name of the company and app creator should match up. Click Install and wait for the app to download.;
3. Once the VPN app is installed, leave the Google Play store and return to your phone’s home screen to click on the VPN app and open it.;
4. The first time you open any paid VPN app, you’ll be asked to provide your login information or to sign up for the service. If you’re asked to sign up using an email address , be sure to check your email for a confirmation link from your new VPN provider.;
For all of the apps listed in CNET’s VPN directory, the process will be largely the same: You’ll be prompted to choose and pay for your preferred level of subscription. We always suggest choosing a service that has a 30-day refund policy so you can test drive services until you find the one you like.;
That means by default, nearly any new VPN you use will only be in operation when you open the app and turn it on. Just remember to turn it off once you’re finished browsing.;
Learn smart gadget and internet tips and tricks with our entertaining and ingenious how-tos.
Read Also: How To Add VPN To Kodi Firestick
What’s The Best Way To Choose A VPN Service
To be fair, not all pay VPN services are legitimate, either. It’s important to be careful about which you choose. I’ve put together;an always up-to-date directory;of quality VPN providers. Some are better than others . But all are legitimate companies that provide quality service.
Beyond my directory, it’s always good practice to a company or product name and read the user reviews. If you see a huge number of old complaints or new complaints suddenly start showing up, it might be that there’s been a change of management or policies. When I’m looking for a service, I always base my decision partially on professional reviews and partially based on the tone of user reviews.
Finally, be sure to choose a service with the capabilities;that meet your needs. You may need one or more features only provided by certain services. So, think through your needs as you make a decision.
The VPN I Recommend For Travel
So if you are traveling to a place like China, where youll need a VPN, or you decide to use one for one of the other reasons I explained above, heres what I recommend:
1. TunnelBear: My favorite. Easiest to use, likely the most secure, and a good price. More info in my mini-review below. Click here to the handy free version.
2. Private Internet Access: Cheapest of the technically good options although I dont love the company. Reasons why are below, or you can buy it here.
3. NordVPN: According to most reviews online, this is one of the better ones . But it has one major security failure. Read my review below, or buy it here.
And one password manager: LastPass.
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Does VPN Drain Battery
Does VPN Drain the Battery on Your Phone? Yes, it does. Using a VPN on your Android or iOS device can consume anywhere between 5% and 15% more battery than without. Remember that any app running on your phone will impact battery consumption, especially apps that run continuously in the background.
Will Using A VPN For Gaming Evade Ip Bans
In addition to account bans, IP address bans allow gaming publishers to eject troublesome players from their games. If youve been banned for using mods, cheating, or otherwise violating the terms of service, a VPN might help you get around an IP ban.
IP bans can be temporary 24 hours, a week or permanent. If youve committed a bannable offense, the decision to ban you was probably the right one. But sometimes, IP bans can happen for no apparent reason.
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How To Choose A VPN
There are a ton of VPNs out there, which can make the choice seem overwhelming. The key is to choose a VPN based on your specific needs, and what you plan to use it for. Of course, there are some basic aspects that everyone should consider. For example, youll want a VPN with user-friendly apps and enough connections to install it on all your devices.
Its also important to pick a VPN that actually protects your privacy; otherwise, whats the point? Ideally, the service you choose will have industry-leading security features, super-fast speeds, servers all over the world, and awesome customer support. That might sound too good to be true, but some services like ExpressVPN; really do check all the boxes.
Finally, its always a good idea to check the current discounts available and make sure you get the best deal possible. But the final decision should always be based on your own priorities and primary reason for getting a VPN.
Access To Any Content In Any Place
While Hulu may frown upon your use of a VPN to stream the latest Criminal Minds episode in a country where the content isnt offered, this VPN usage is not illegal , and it helps provide a useful workaround to content restrictions.
VPNs spoof your location, making it seem as if you are browsing from another place. That means you can get your Criminal Minds fix even if its not available locally.
Also Check: How To Setup VPN On Spectrum Router
Are There Any Free VPNs I Can Use
Sure; there are plenty of free VPNs out there. But I dont recommend using one, and Ill tell you why. First of all, most of them are full of loopholes that are designed to trick you. They promise a high-quality service, only to fall short in the areas that matter most.
Free VPNs have a highly limited number of servers, slow speeds, data limits, and seriously lacking security measures. They usually cant get past geoblocks, making them useless for streaming. And they could even threaten your privacy, which totally defeats the purpose.
Not every free provider is a total scam, however. Weve found a few free VPNs that offer a safe and reliable service with only a few restrictions but not on privacy or security, so youll only have to put up with limits on data, bandwidth, servers, and other features.
Unblock Netflix Usa And Other Geo
A lot of services on the internet are only available in select parts of the world. BBC iPlayer, Spotify, Pandora, Hulu, etc. are all examples of services that everyone wants to use but only a few can base on their location. Netflix is available everywhere, but the libraries vary, and people dont usually like that. Netflix USA is the desired version, but as the name suggests, it is for US citizens only. With a Netflix VPN, you can fake your geographic location and access all these geo-restricted services.
Also Check: How Does Pia VPN Work
Hide From Government Surveillance
Many people knew even before Edward Snowden went public about the NSAs surveillance program that governments across the world monitored their citizens online activity. However, after his revelation, it is a widely known fact. All your web searches, the websites you visit, your emails, etc. are monitored by government agencies. This is done in an effort to preserve national security. However, nobody wants their lives to be pried open, and their every move tracked. Alliances like the Five Eyes and the TPP require the members to share this collected information with each other, so your web activity is the property of all the member countries. With a VPN, your online activity is private since you are hidden from the rest of the world.
For instance, when I can easily see your IP address is , it is far easier for Governments, ISPs, and hackers to track your every online activity.
Yes You Do Need A VPN At Home
Using a VPN at home will improve your privacy and security in many ways, even if theyre not obvious. After all, you dont always see data thieves circling outside your window, so such benefits arent immediately clear. But youll notice the increased access to content as soon as you start using it. So give a VPN a try after all, Surfshark offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.;
Can A Gaming VPN Unblock Geo
By letting you change your IP address to one in another country, a VPN can let you access content thats not available where you are. Many people use a VPN to get around geoblocks when something is available only to IP addresses in certain parts of the world.
Due to licensing agreements, streaming platforms often have location-based content restrictions on the movies and TV shows you can access online. Similarly, many multiplayer games group players into region-based servers. If your preferred server is in Europe, and youre abroad in the US, you might not be able to connect.
A screenshot from the game Dying Light
Gaming On A VPN Can Prevent Ddos Attacks In Theory
Theres nothing wrong with hiding your IP address with a VPN to prevent DDoS attacks. Itll work but if youre just a regular gamer, your odds of being targeted by a DDoS attack are extremely low.
But if youre running a dedicated championship Minecraft or League of Legends server, youre a much bigger target for DDoS attacks. If youre into that sort of business though, youre likely not looking at consumer-tier gaming VPNs for protection.
VPNs Allow You To Change Your Location Online
VPNs are especially handy if you are living or traveling outside of your home country. Without a VPN, you may find yourself using websites in different languages because the websites are localized to your current location. If you are from the United States but traveling abroad, you can VPN back to a familiar location and access web pages in your home language.;
You can also do the opposite. If you are at home in the United States, you can use your VPN to access a foreign location in order to legally watch shows or movies from another country. And because a VPN funnels your internet traffic, it still protects your identity when accessing foreign locations on the internet.
Choose Kaspersky Secure Connection As Your VPN
Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection offers the highest online security and anonymity level, helping to protect you, your family, and your business from unwanted data leaks or third-party interference in your browsing.
It protects your privacy and data whenever youre online so youre free to surf, socialize, stream, date, shop, and more. Exchange whatever data you like, safe in the knowledge that Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection is protecting your anonymity online.
Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection also helps to keep you protected when you use public Wi-Fi, and you can configure it to different countries to access geo-restricted content. Discover the power of protection for yourself try Kaspersky Secure Connection.
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What Will VPN Hide Your History From
Ordinarily, when you go online, your internet service provider provides your connection. It keeps track of you via an IP address. Your web traffic passes through your ISPs servers they can log and see everything you do online.
Your ISP may seem trustworthy, but they could be handing your browsing history over to advertisers, the police or government, and other third-parties. Your ISP is also open to breaches: if they get hacked, your personal and private data could be compromised.
This is especially worth considering if you regularly connect to public Wi-Fi networks. You never know who could be watching your internet traffic from the other side and potentially stealing from you passwords, personal data, payment information, and even your whole identity.
What Are The Two Main Types Of VPNs
Most of us are familiar with the concept of a LAN, a local area network. That’s the private network inside one physical location — be it a home, a corporate building, or a campus. But many businesses don’t run out of one location. They have branch offices, departments, and divisions that are geographically dispersed.
In many cases, each of these offices also has LANs. But how do the LANs connect? For some very specialized solutions, companies lease private lines to connect the offices. That can be very expensive. Instead, most companies opt to connect separated private LANs over the public internet geographically. To protect their data, they set up VPNs between offices, encrypting the data as it traverses the public internet.
This is a corporate or enterprise VPN, and it’s characterized by the same organization controlling both endpoints of the VPN. If your company controls the originating point and the endpoint , you can be quite well assured that your data is securely transmitted.
The second type of VPN is a consumer VPN. This is for those of you who compute in hotels or at coffee shops and connect to web applications like social networks, email, banks, or shopping sites. Consumer VPN services help ensure that those communications are protected.
Wildcard VPNs Especially For China
I haventtested these, but wanted to mention what Ive learned about them.
- Astrill is currently the best VPN for China, according to several friends I checked with who live in China. Which VPN works best in China can change regularly, but Peter confirmed that avoiding censorship is really what Astrill focuses on. It costs about $100 a year or $16 for a single month, making it the most expensive of all the top VPNs Ive looked at. So unless youre going to China and want what the expats use, I dont see why it would be worth the price.
- ExpressVPN: I just wanted to mention thisone because its recommended specifically for travelers by a lot of blogs although Im not sure why. At about$100 a year, or $13 for a month, its among the most expensive. The reviews sayits good, but my research didnt convince me its the best orworth the price. The only benefit I could find is that it lets you choose fromservers in 94 countries . But unlessyou have a specific reason you want to connect from a certain country, that wontmatter.
- ShadowsocksR is what Peter called, one of the most reliable ways to dodge the Great Firewall in China, but it does require a little more than just downloading a program. If a computer scientist says that, I assume itll get the job done if I can ever figure how to set it up. But if youre looking for something specifically for China, this is expert recommended. Heres info on .
What Is A VPN In The First Place
Put simply, a VPN is a method by which your internet traffic gets funneled through a specific set of servers.
This can be done for myriad reasons. In an office environment, it’s generally done to ensure that only approved traffic can hit your company’s network. You get a username and a password, and you log in to the company VPN. From that point on all your internet traffic gets sent through the company server, which lets the company know that you must have legitimate access because you have that username and password, so you must be OK.
Not going through the company VPN? You can’t get to the company’s sensitive bits.
A VPN tunnels all of your network traffic through specific servers, whether to authenticate or obfuscate. But you darn sure better trust the VPN service.
There’s also a lot of talk about using VPNs for other security reasons, like when you’re on a public Wifi network. And that’s absolutely true. If all your bits are being sent over that open network, it’s possible for someone to intercept them and learn all kinds of things.
One important caveat here: You’re going to need to be able to trust your VPN provider, of course. If you’re routing all your internet traffic through, say, AWESOMEvpn instead of Comcast or Cox or whomever, you’re just putting all your eggs in a different basket. So you’ll want to do some homework.