We’ve mentioned before — using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is different than using antivirus software or a firewall. A VPN serves as a kind of shroud around your computing — so outsiders can’t see what you’re seeing. With a good VPN, it’s like you’re able to look through a tunnel at the information you need to see. This not only offers better security for web-browsing, it also protects your email too — and keeps outside eyes from seeing sensitive data. Curious about which VPN is better? Consider, for example, …
Brigada participant, Brandon, concluded that “PureVPN gained much attraction due to its spectacular features and add-ons such as split tunneling, DDoS protection, NAT firewall and kill switch.” What’s YOUR conclusion? See Brandon’s pick at…
Don’t get caught up in the idea that using a VPN will automatically make you “safe”. There’s lots of good reasons to use a VPN, but you need to know what it will do, and what the limits are.
VPAnalysis does offer some good pointers.
A critical item: VPN protects only the link between you and the VPN provider. That may be useful if you’re trying to hide your activity from your ISP, or if you’re trying to hide your location from sites you’re trying to access. However it’s *not* end-to-end encryption. The VPN provider has access to everything that passes through, and therefore, if you have sensitive information, you need to have reason to consider the provider to be trustworthy.
For this reason, you should consider a free VPN to be untrustworthy. As with any free service, you need to know what the provider gets by giving something away. For VPN, the benefit derived may be unfettered access to data where there is a high signal-to-noise ratio, of stuff that may be “interesting” in some form.
Also — even if VPN is available, not all applications will use it. Skype is one to be especially careful about. Skype’s design with peer routing is such that Skype clients are looking for the fastest possible routing possible. Most of the time, a route that doesn’t use a VPN will typically be faster, and Skype will choose the non-VPN route. I’m not aware of tools that can force Skype content to route through a VPN.
Another really useful source of comparing VPNs: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/. This site is fairly extensive, covering issues of technical security, jurisdiction, logging, availability, pricing, and business ethics and more.
There’s no one “best” VPN — what you use depends on your particular needs and areas of sensitivity.
All great points. I came to make that same first point. I will note though that Skype, or other peer to peer traffic, could choose not to use the VPN IF all traffic is not set to go through the VPN, i.e. set up for split-tunneling. Of course, that means you can’t use the network printer next to you either. If there are no other local clients, then Skype will have to go through your VPN. Good warning to think through though. Basic bottom line is, don’t use split-tunnelling if you don’t trust all of the local devices.