A Virtual Private Network is basically a networking technology that provides:
- It allows crossing the geographical restrictions, where you are not allowed to visit certain websites.
- It provides the capability to bypass the censorship of your school, college, government etc.
- Provides safe Peer-to-Peer (P2P) downloads.
- Grants protection from potential hackers when over a public network.
- It hides your internet activity from Internet Service Provider (ISP) thus providing more privacy.
So, if you want to use a VPN service the first thing that you have to do is to buy a VPN service and setup the VPN as per the instructions of the VPN provider. VPN service generally cost around $5 to $10. Please remember using a VPN service does not mean that you won’t need an Internet Service Provider, an Internet connection is the very first thing that you will need to start using a VPN.
How Does VPN Work
So when you are connected to the internet all of your traffic is passing through the servers of your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and could also be viewed by him.
But when you are using a VPN service all of your traffic is passing through the VPN tunnel, and the data is passing through the VPN servers and only the VPN provider can see it.
The importance of VPN service:
VPN service will slow down your internet
Use of VPN server will slow down your internet speed because VPN server generally encrypts the data through their secure tunnels and then decrypts it, and that takes some serious processing power. Secondly, if your VPN server is located in a different country then it also results in larger geographical boundaries, so the data has to travel long distance resulting into slower internet speed.
VPN changes your IP address
If your VPN server is located in a different country than yours then you will appear to be accessing the internet from that country where your VPN server is located thus, it will change your IP address. And it will provide you anonymity over the internet and your IP address will not be traceable to you.
VPN service provider will know about your activity over the internet
A VPN service only allows you to hide from your ISP but a VPN service comes with a promise to protect your privacy and also they do not share their customer’s data easily with the authorities.
VPN makes the use of Public Networks safe
Because when you are connected through a VPN tunnel, your internet traffic is encrypted through the VPN tunnel and because your data is encrypted no hacker will be able to use it because it is encrypted.
Legal status of VPN
The question is, is VPN service legal and the answer is. Yes they are legal and in most of the countries citizens are provided with legal right to protect their privacy and to the best of my knowledge use of VPN is nowhere illegal.
Some repressive countries like Iran, Pakistan and China do not allow unrestricted access to the internet and thus banning the use of VPN service from operating in their country and tries to ban users from using overseas VPN services.
Buying a VPN service
When you are looking forward to buying a VPN service there are few thing you should pay attention to like price, speed, anonymity, support, free trial and money back guarantee, cross-platform support, the number of simultaneous connections allowed. Keeping these factors in mind, I had like to suggest HideMyAss VPN service as the best VPN service available in the market as they provide all these features at a very reasonable price.
Conclusion
VPN is a very powerful tool to protect your privacy over the internet and to provide you uncensored internet access. It also safeguards you from potential hackers who are always ready to exploit even a single small mistake that you make over the internet and it also safeguards your data from the Government who always want to track your each and every activity over the internet. I hope these reasons are enough to use a VPN service and this guide will prove useful in doing so.