VPN uses: 20 ways to get the most out of your VPN
VPN uses: 20 ways to get the most out of your VPN
So, you're wondering what the best VPN uses are, and you've ended upwardly on this comprehensive page. Thankfully, it'southward the just place you'll need to be. Beneath, we'll be running through pretty much all the height VPN uses you might take thought of – plus some you might not have.
Because it's pretty long, at the tiptop of this folio you lot'll find a list of 'Jump To' tabs – outset your journey there and click on the VPN uses you'd like to know more about. Yous'll exist transported to that section without having to gyre for miles to find it. Or, experience free to scroll if that'south your style.
We'll start off with a brief introduction near how VPNs actually work, and then we'll dive into a whole bunch of the all-time uses of VPN. We think it'south good practice to not only know what something does, but how information technology does it, too.
If you're already well-versed in the tech, again, just click on the tabs to a higher place to explore what a VPN can do for you.
And so, how does a VPN work? In elementary terms, a VPN works by encrypting all your information and sending it through a 'tunnel' to its destination. It does this by redirecting your internet connection from your internet service provider'south (Internet service provider) servers to its own.
The virtually impressive VPNs have thousands of servers all over the world – our top-ranked provider ExpressVPN, for example, has effectually three,000 servers in 94 countries. This ways that not only tin can you lot make sure all your information is encrypted and secure, but you can likewise nigh relocate yourself and surf the web as if you were actually in those countries.
This is not bad for streaming (click 'stream blocked content' upwards pinnacle to larn more) and avoiding government censorship (click 'avoid censorship' upward top to read further on that topic).
If you're satisfied with just staying on domicile turf, using your VPN's secure encryption too allows you to browse anonymously and more often than not take a more individual experience when online – and who doesn't desire that?
So, browse the tabs upwardly top or ringlet on to detect out more almost all of the most pop – and some unusual – VPN uses.
PROTECT YOUR IDENTITY
VPN uses: Protect your identity
When most people think of a VPN, they think of a privacy solution outset and foremost – and with good reason. The original principal VPN utilize is to protect the user and their data, ensuring safe internet use whatever the activity.
A core element of a VPN is tough encryption – usually AES-256 combined with a secure protocol – and this means every last bit of traffic sent through the VPN is unreadable by anyone who intercepts it. That interceptor might simply be your Internet service provider trying to log or limit what you utilise their connexion for, or it could be a malicious private or program looking to steal your data.
Who or whatever they are, VPNs avoid them by using a 'tunnel' that starts at your device and ends at your destination – be that Netflix, a geo-blocked social network or your online cyberbanking.
In between your device and your destination is where your data is at risk, so a VPN eliminates that past both encrypting your data and routing your connection through one of its ain servers, masking your IP address and whatsoever other identifying information. If yous've chosen a quality, nix-logging provider, you should be able to trust your VPN's servers more your Internet service provider's.
In essence, a VPN removes or encrypts any information that could link yous or your device to your activity on the web. It's a one-cease store for taking back personal privacy online.
Most private VPN – Meet which VPN offers the best privacy features
STREAM BLOCKED CONTENT
VPN uses: Stream geo-blocked content
It's now the norm to go all our content from online streaming services, and while there'south more selection than ever earlier, a VPN tin can expand your amusement options immeasurably. This VPN utilise is both groovy for those on holiday or business trips, and for the more adventurous burrow white potato.
Netflix has different libraries of content for subscribers in different regions, which means that no one can actually watch everything – at that place's ever going to be some series or flick that'due south blocked in your country. Nevertheless, with a Netflix VPN, you lot can connect to a server in a particular country and Netflix will respond by serving you the library of that region.
Other services – like BBC iPlayer or Hulu – are simply available to people in detail countries, with those elsewhere not entitled to watch annihilation on them at all. In the case of an iPlayer VPN, for example, yous tin alter your location to the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland and scout everything available like a truthful Brit.
There's a catch, though – all streaming services are consistently trying to terminate VPN usage, and only the best can really become users access to everything they desire. Thankfully, though, there are some fast VPN services that consistently stay ahead of the bend and can become you watching whatever you want, wherever you are.
Streaming VPN – explore the almost reliable services for accessing Netflix and more than
Admission SITES ABROAD
VPN uses: Access sites when you're away
Much like streaming services, many other sites serve upwards different content to users in different countries. However, if you're on a trip you'll desire to access your regular version, but you lot'll be faced with a site that might be totally dissimilar – and quite possibly in a language you don't speak.
If yous've got a VPN, it'due south but a instance of relocating your connection then yous appear back home, and you'll be able to access your familiar site like magic.
This is especially useful for online banking, too. If you've gone away on a weekend jaunt and forgotten to tell your depository financial institution, you might face existence locked out of your account. If this is a possibility, it's worth flipping that VPN switch on and almost heading home for a moment just to make sure your business relationship isn't blocked, leaving you penniless abroad.
Best US VPN – explore the best services for use in the States and abroad
Sentinel LIVE SPORTS
VPN uses: Watch more alive sports
If yous're a sports fanatic, you'll know that watching alive events can go expensive pretty rapidly. However, with a VPN and little bit of research, yous could save a ton of cash – and perhaps even observe a pay-per-view event for gratuitous.
This is due to the fact that some sporting events are costless-to-air in certain countries, while they're paid-for in others. In recent times nosotros've found cheaper or even gratis ways of communicable the NBA, Super Bowl, Euros and Olympics with a VPN, so if there's a big event on, it'southward well worth checking out global dissemination options for a better deal.
All you need to do is connect to a server in i of those countries and get watching. Plus, Tom'due south Guide runs downwardly all the large events and how to watch them, so cheque elsewhere on the site for info on where to grab a cheaper (or even free) stream.
Use Gratuitous TRIALS
VPN uses: Brand sure to use your free trial
This one's not so much a use, but a way of making your money go further. If you scour the market, y'all'll run into there are tons of VPN free trials bachelor – and if your called provider offers one, brand sure to utilize it!
Plus, all our height-rated providers offering money-back guarantees, ranging from 30 to 45 days. If you're not sure about a service and it doesn't offer a true trial (for example, our #one provider ExpressVPN), you lot can withal trial it take chances-costless. All you lot need to do is buy a plan, and start using information technology. If you're not happy with information technology, don't be shy – just about every one of our favorite providers will refund you hassle-free.
SPEED Upward GAMING
VPN uses: Speed up your online gaming
When people talk nearly VPNs, they often mention how all but the best inevitably slow down your internet connection. However, this is non always the case.
Your ISP may 'throttle' your connection, meaning information technology slows down your internet when information technology detects certain activity – often those that use a lot of bandwidth. Prime suspects are online gamers, and while the aforementioned can happen when torrenting or streaming, in those situations a slow connection isn't a case of life and death.
Whether you're still playing CS:Get, accept moved on to PUBG, Apex Legends and Call of Duty, or prefer to humiliate your friends on the digital football pitch rather than shooting them in the head with an AK-47, a VPN can brand sure your connection remains stable and reliable, and help you go along upwardly your winning streak for as long as possible.
Read more than about the best gaming VPN services
STAY SAFE ON Holiday
VPN uses: Stay safe on holiday abroad
If yous're heading to a different country, data laws may be different and government censorship could be mutual. In these cases it's clear you'll want to use a VPN (for example, a Turkey VPN), but fifty-fifty if you're heading to a more 'friendly' land, a VPN could however be useful.
You lot'll be able to access sites as yous would at home (no more guesswork if you're Googling in Japan), and stream content y'all're used to back home.
The only outcome is that you lot might not find that you've got much of a use for your VPN when you become home. We'd disagree with that (just look at all the reasons in a higher place and below!), but if you lot don't want to continue paying for something yous'll never use, bank check out a monthly VPN program. They're cheap and require no commitment – perfect for staying condom on a holiday.
Avert TRACKERS
VPN uses: Avoid trackers
Your information and cyberspace history is just that – yours. So, it's quite understandable that many people take result with the fact ISPs and governments collect this information and use it for their own proceeds.
While many may fence that government tracking is legitimate, the techniques used are like a trawler angling gunkhole. Yes, they might catch what they demand to, but the by-take hold of is vast. If yous want to avert getting your information caught up in that net without your consent, a VPN is the answer.
However, your Internet access provider's uses of your data might be rather less noble. While they already make coin from your internet subscription, many top upwardly their pay packet by selling users' personal data to advertisers. If you desire to avoid targeted advertising and feel a little more free to search for what you want without people keeping tabs, using a VPN tin make that happen.
SPOOF YOUR GPS LOCATION
VPN uses: Spoof your GPS location
While this VPN use isn't as well-known as others – and won't be useful for anybody – spoofing your GPS location tin can exist made actress reliable with a VPN
If y'all want to go a fake GPS location for Pokemon GO, for instance, you lot'll demand to either combine a VPN with a GPS spoofing app, or apply Surfshark, the only VPN with a congenital-in GPS changing tool.
As the best fake GPS VPN, Surfshark combines solid VPN performance with a GPS spoofer on Android, which ways you don't take to rely on whatsoever third parties to modify your location. This isn't simply expert for Pokemon GO, though, and tin can be very handy for ensuring your verbal location isn't beingness tracked by whatever number of apps.
Salvage MONEY
VPN uses: Avert location-based price targeting
Most prevalent among machine rent and plane ticket merchants, being offered different prices depending on where y'all are and what you've searched is more than common than you may think.
If y'all're thinking of purchasing a digital production – whether that's Microsoft Function, a game, or Spotify – taking a moment to check prices from effectually the world might salvage yous a practiced wad of cash.
Those in lower-income countries are usually offered a cheaper cost, but that'due south non e'er the instance. In do this process is often more trial-and-error than exact science, then having a VPN with plenty of servers worldwide is worth the investment and could end up paying for itself.
This besides ties into the before benefit of fugitive trackers. If you've searched for a production a number of times without purchasing, the seller volition oftentimes inflate the price to urge yous to purchase sooner rather than later – this is nearly commonly seen with plane tickets, just not unheard of with other products. With a VPN, you'll be seeing the truthful price and potentially saving yourself serious money.
Cheap VPN – salve coin on your VPN as well as avoiding price targeting
PROTECT YOUR MOBILE
VPN uses: Protect your mobile devices
If yous sign upward to a good provider, you won't just go a Windows 10 VPN – almost all top-quality services have apps for Android and iOS, and some even still support BlackBerry.
By using a VPN on your mobile device, you lot'll exist able to stay protected both at home and when you're out and almost, and because the device you'll be connecting to public Wi-Fi the most is likely to be your phone, information technology'due south a sensible decision.
All our recommended VPNs allows at to the lowest degree five simultaneous connections, with some offering up to ten, and in rare cases unlimited connections. So, if you've got a lot of devices you want to keep safe, make certain that your chosen provider tin offering enough simultaneous connections for your needs.
AVOID Internet access provider RESTRICTIONS
VPN uses: Avoid Internet access provider restrictions
For those who don't have control over their internet provider – students, those living with parents, or renters whose utilities are provided for them – a VPN could be the only way to admission content that'southward restricted. While parental control tools certainly take their place, for many they're imposed when they actually have no right to exist.
We're not just talking about adult content, either – these controls are often heavy-handed in their censorship and regularly cake innocent sites. Also, they tin limit in-app purchases and impose restrictions on how much fourth dimension is spent on the web, and when.
Some other section of the spider web that's usually blocked by ISPs regardless of whether you're subject to parental controls or not is torrenting sites. Nosotros in no style condone the utilise of torrents for downloading content that breaches copyright laws, just for legal utilize, VPNs can requite y'all access to torrenting sites and services.
Whatever your reasons for wanting to bypass Internet service provider restrictions – and as long as you're legally entitled to – a VPN is a simple manner to get admission to the uncensored internet everyone else can view.
TORRENT SAFELY
VPN uses: Torrent safely and anonymously
Equally mentioned in a higher place, nosotros exercise non condone the utilize of VPNs or torrenting software to download content that breaches copyright laws.
P2P sharing is an efficient mode to share large files with ease, but information technology too puts users at risk. When downloading or seeding a torrent, your IP address is visible to others who are continued at the same fourth dimension. Torrents also open ports that are usually inaccessible to exterior parties, and both of those things are opportunities for hackers access your data.
While merely the best antivirus tin can protect you from the threat of malware hidden in torrents, a VPN will requite you the peace of mind that your data is safe and you won't exist personally identified.
However, while being victim to a hacker is somewhat unlikely, the biggest downside to torrenting is the fact your Isp is likely to throttle your connexion speed if it detects P2P activity. That means not merely will your torrent tiresome to a crawl, merely your general browsing will also be affected.
A VPN anonymizes all your traffic and so your Internet service provider tin can't tell what you're using your bandwidth for – that means it tin can't tell when you're torrenting, and subsequently yous'll have full speeds all the time, no matter what you're doing
Torrenting VPN – proceed yourself protected and avoid network throttling
SAFELY Utilise PUBLIC WI-FI
VPN uses: Stay safe when using public Wi-Fi
Using unsecured Wi-Fi hotspots is some other risky practice that'due south rendered harmless by just using a VPN.
If you visit public spaces like cafes to work, or connect to Wi-Fi in the supermarket, public ship or bars when y'all're out and well-nigh, at that place'due south a genuine possibility that your data is at risk.
If the connection you're on is unsecured (possible) and unencrypted (likely), at that place's a existent chance that data thieves will have identified it and are using it to steal your personal information.
That'southward ordinarily washed by a 'Homo in the Heart' attack, which works by intercepting any and all the data you put out over the connexion. That could include social media and e-mail logins, credit carte du jour details and even your online banking credentials.
If you want to protect yourself from this, using a VPN will encrypt all the traffic going to and from your device – even if your connection is intercepted, the details will exist totally unreadable and useless to any criminal.
Read more virtually the all-time Android VPN and the all-time iPhone VPN to stay safety on the get.
MAXIMISE YOUR BANDWIDTH
VPN uses: Maximise your bandwidth
Expanding on the torrenting section above, your ISP is quite likely to impose bandwidth restrictions or 'throttling' on you at some point.
If you notice your internet speed slowing to a clamber when doing certain things on the internet, or at pinnacle times, your ISP may be reducing your speeds based on your activeness. This is easily remedied by using a VPN.
No matter what you're using your connexion for, if y'all're using a VPN your internet provider won't be able to tell what you lot're doing, and subsequently won't be able to make the conclusion to throttle your connection.
While VPNs can minimally reduce your peak speeds (by every bit picayune as 5% for the all-time, and unlikely to be noticeable unless you take a gigabit line), throttling tin can be far more severe than that. If yous desire to be able to rely on your connection 24/7, a VPN can help you get the most out of your internet service.
Avert CENSORSHIP
VPN uses: Avert government censorship
For many, internet liberty might seem similar a given, but those living in China, UAE, Iran, Syria and many more have severe net restrictions imposed at a governmental level.
For citizens of those countries, a VPN is the only manner to admission sites others take for granted – Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, non-state news sites, Google... However, non every VPN is powerful plenty to sidestep these regimes, so information technology'southward worth doing your research.
Too, while those living in these countries are permanently subject to this censorship, holidaymakers, business travelers, reporters and many others spending fourth dimension in these countries volition also discover their access to everyday sites reduced. For those that rely on Gmail or Slack to go work done, a VPN is an absolute essential.
Our Communist china VPN list details services that tin can bypass the Nifty Firewall, but should also piece of work to evade other government censorship around the world.
Apply VOIP
VPN uses: Access free VoIP services like WhatsApp
Strict national governments with huge stakes in mobile networks will often restrict access to free VoIP services like WhatsApp, Skype, Messenger and more because doing so ensures they make more than coin.
This is a huge reason why you might want a UAE VPN when living or traveling to Dubai or elsewhere, and while rules change frequently, it's been known for UAE residents to accept to apply a VPN to even access phonation chat on video games.
Paying for a VPN and using free VoIP services normally ends up costing much less than spending money on the monopolized telephone networks. For those who are short on money, a cheap service like Surfshark – less than $2.50 a month – is a great mode of saving cash and staying in contact with loved ones.
KEEP MESSAGING Individual
VPN uses: Keep your online chats private
While there are a number of secure messaging apps available (Signal and Telegram to name a couple), many popular apps don't offer encryption, or crave yous to opt-in rather than opt-out. If your messaging isn't encrypted there's a chance it could be intercepted by an outsider.
By using a VPN you can ensure that your messages are seen only by the intended recipient, significant you can be as open as you want to exist.
Besides, while it won't affect your regular prison cell indicate, a VPN can help protect your VoIP calls. And, even if your service provides encryption as standard, using a VPN as an actress layer of protection will give you the reassurance that you really can speak your mind.
Read more than about the all-time mobile VPN apps bachelor today
Admission HOME NETWORKS
VPN uses: Admission abode networks securely
Unless you take all your hard drives out with yous when you lot go to piece of work or on vacation, your unabridged repository of files and data likely lives on ane computer at home (with a couple of backups, or course).
If this is the case, you might have remote access fix and then you tin can admission this automobile and the info it contains when you're abroad from it. Nevertheless, keeping that information condom should be a priority, so using a VPN to encrypt your traffic when remote accessing your main PC in a no-brainer.
Access Higher NETWORKS
VPN uses: Access piece of work or university networks
Access to your schoolhouse, college, or work'southward network may exist limited geographically, and many institutions formally or informally implement VPNs to allows users to access intranets or other data repositories. This is usually washed through the use a static IP, something the best business VPN volition offering.
Yet, we've also heard stories of students moving back home – to Canada from the US, for example – and catastrophe up unable to access their schoolhouse'southward networks from exterior the land, while others found that their location breached some kind of regulation.
Past using VPNs, in this age of remote learning these students were able to essentially take their block and eat it – they could complete their studies while also living where they wanted to. If this sounds like you, we'd check out a VPN direct away.
- Apple users should check out the best Mac VPN options
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- These ad blockers and VPNs are spying on you: What to do
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/features/vpn-uses
Posted by: scottancend.blogspot.com
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