Have you ever heard about VPN (Virtual Private Network)? A VPN creates a private tunnel over the open internet in order to prevent any internet user to be vulnerable to criminals who might steal your banking or credit card information, governments who might want to eavesdrop on their citizens, and other internet users who might want to spy on you for a whole range of nefarious reasons. Therefore, VPNs are very powerful and important tools to protect yourself and your data, but they do have limitations. Here are some Q&As regarding VPN.

Q: What are the 2 main types of VPNs?

A: The first type of VPN is corporate or enterprise VPN. Most companies opt to set up VPNs between offices, controlling both endpoints of the VPN within the same organization, and encrypting the data as it traverses the public internet in order to protect their data. The second type of VPN is a consumer VPN. This is for protecting those communications computed in hotels or at coffee shops and connect to web applications like social networks, email, banks, or shopping sites.

Q: When should I use a VPN?

A: You should always use a VPN when using someone else’s Wi-Fi network as you never really know if one or more of your apps are authenticating in the background and putting your information at risk. In addition, sometimes people really need to hide information such as location information. Moreover, those people in restrictive countries who need to hide their activity merely to gain access to the internet without potentially grave penalties also need VPNs.

Q: Are the free VPN services any good?

A: Free VPN services could be a trap set by malware providers and criminal organizations. Besides, as it costs quite a lot to provide the infrastructure to operate a VPN service from the network pipes to the servers. That infrastructure has to be paid for somehow. If it’s not paid for by user fees, it’s likely to be paid for by advertising, data gathering, or some nastier reason.

Q: What is the best way to choose a VPN service?

A: However, not all pay VPN services are legitimate, either. According to The CNET 2020 Directory of VPN providers, some best commercial VPN service providers on the internet are ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, IPVanish, Hotspot Shield, Private Internet Access. It’s important to be careful about who you choose. It’s always good practice to search “the Google” for a company or product name and read the user reviews.

Q: Can a VPN guarantee my privacy?

A: A VPN can help make sure you’re not snooped on when connecting between your computer and a website. But the website itself is quite capable of some serious privacy violations. There are many, many ways your privacy can be compromised, and a VPN will be of only partial help.

Q: Will VPN software slow down my computer?

A: Even though the process of encrypting and decrypting packets would take a toll on CPU performance, most current CPUs are now fast enough that most crypto algorithms can run without much of an impact on processor performance.

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Credits:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/vpn-services-the-ultimate-guide-to-protecting-your-data-on-the-internet/

https://www.cnet.com/news/best-vpn-services-2020-directory/