So let’s start with the basics of a VPN, which stands for a Virtual Private Network. A VPN I like to use is Nord VPN. A VPN allows a user to log onto a server but act like it is a local user! So for example you could be working at home and log onto a VPN to be able to access your company’s files and services. You virtually connect to the network but for all intents and purposes, you are a local user and have the same access as anyone who is in the office.
So how can a VPN help you may ask? Well, it depends o your use case, but there are a number of different benefits to having a VPN.
Security & Privacy
Ok, so the first and most obvious benefit of having a VPN is security. By using a VPN your IP address is hidden and data and because your data has end-to-end encryption, you also keep your information hidden from prying eyes and even your own ISP. You can also benefit from having a private DNS, the ensures faster resolution but also keeps your request private!
You can maybe achieve better reliability and ping times when gaming by using VPN servers. This works by connecting to servers that are closer to the servers you play on, this will reduce the latency and ping from the VPN server and the gaming server you are using. This in turn should help with lag and ping times.
Local Access to servers
As stated before you can use a VPN to access your work systems and files remotely. But depending on which server you connect to you can also benefit from Bypassing geo-blocks. So for example, if you want to watch a TV show in the US but it’s not available elsewhere then by logging onto a US-based VPN server, you should be able to access that country’s TV shows, as the provider will see your IP address and assume you are from the country that is allowed access.
Helping Gamers to Avoid data throttling
If you are a gamer you avoid data throttling by your ISP because you are using encryption which hides your traffic. This means they can’t be sure what your traffic is so are less likely to throttle your speeds using the encrypted VPN.
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