In today’s world, we use electronic devices daily in every aspect of our lives, for work, entertainment, socializing or even just shopping. When we are online, we create data that is connected to us by visiting sites or searching for something.
This data can be sold and used for advertising purposes or to better algorithms that recommend things for a specific kind of user. This can become annoying or even feel as if they are intruding on your privacy.
The solution that was created to solve this problem is called a VPN. But what does VPN mean and where did it come from?
What is a VPN
A virtual private network, commonly known as a VPN, gives you the possibility to be anonymous online and protect your privacy. It is able to do this by creating a protected network when you use a public internet connection.
When you turn it on, your VPN sets up an encrypted and secure tunnel between you and a remote server managed by the VPN service. Depending on where this server is, you will appear as if you were searching the internet in that location, wherever it may be.
As long as the VPN is turned on, all of your internet traffic goes through this tunnel. This makes your data secure and protected. It disguises your IP address and masks your identity and location so whatever you access online is essentially untraceable.
Beginning of VPNs
Originally VPNs were created to connect different business networks securely or allow employees to access the business network from their home. But today they are popular for other purposes.
People use it for many different reasons. Some examples of what most people use VPN for:
- Watching streaming services that allow specific content in different countries.
- Accessing websites and videos that are restricted based on geographic area.
- Protecting themselves from intruders on untrustworthy WiFi networks.
- Gaining some anonymity online.
- Protecting themselves from getting logged while using torrent clients.
Why is it Important to Use VPN
Surfing the internet without an unprotected network could mean that you are exposing your browsing history and private information. VPN is a must for anyone concerned about their online privacy and security.
To really understand the need for VPNs, you can think about a specific scenario, a time when you might not even think about accessing a new WiFi network. For example, when you are on the go and just want to check your email while waiting in line in a coffee shop or a restaurant.
Unless you are logging onto a private network that requires you to put in a password, all data transmitted through the network could be vulnerable to any stranger that uses the same WiFi.
The encryption provided by VPNs helps you protect your data while you are checking your emails, paying bills, or shopping online. They also help keep you anonymous when you are just browsing the web.
How to Find a Good VPN Service
The market for VPNs is crowded with different options. Let’s look at some of the most important points you have to consider when you are looking for a VPN provider:
- Where are the servers located?
Deciding the location of the server could be important if you want to be seen as accessing the web from a certain country.
- Do they set data limits?
Depending on how much you use your internet, bandwidth could be a deciding factor between VPN providers.
- Will you be able to access the VPN on multiple devices?
If you are like most consumers, you use more than one device daily. Ideally, your VPN provider would let you use it on all of your devices at the same time.
- How much does it cost?
Price is always important; most of us want something as cheap as we can get it. But free VPNs are not always the best option. If you choose to go with a free VPN, you might end up paying in other ways. You might get frequent advertisement pop-ups and get your personal information and data collected and sold to third parties.
- Do they respect your privacy?
Yes, the main point of why you are using a VPN is to protect yourself and your privacy. But you need to make sure your privacy is respected by your VPN provider as well. They should have a no-log policy, meaning that they will not track or log online activities.
It can be a painstaking task to compare different points of each VPN provider that you want to consider. To help with the choosing process, I will introduce one of the best VPN services available and what it offers!
PureVPN
PureVPN is a Hong Kong-based VPN service that has been released in 2007 initially. During its operation of more than a decade, it built up a long list of great features:
- torrent support
- IPv6 leak protection
- smart kill switch
- split tunnelling
- payment with Bitcoin
It also has applications for nearly every platform. You can get PureVPN on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS and Linux, or as extensions on Chrome and Firefox. You can also download it and set it up on your router, Android TV, and many other devices.
So now that we know you can easily get PureVPN on most devices, let’s look at whether they meet the requirements of a good VPN service we mentioned earlier!
Location of Servers
First, we need to look at the locations they let you choose. They have over 2,000 servers, which are located across the world, on all continents, in more than 140 countries. You certainly won’t have any problems getting out of a geographical restriction.
Data Limits
Second, we need to find out whether they cap the data you can use. As long as the session is subjected to fair use, PureVPN does not put a limit on bandwidth or data usage. You can find out from their Terms and Conditions that you will only have a problem if you exert an excessive load on the network that may disturb other users, or create a bot, or the likes.
Amount of Devices
Third, we should look at the number of devices you can use it on simultaneously. With PureVPN, you can connect up to 10 devices per user. This is a lot more than what most VPN providers offer. For example, NordVPN only lets you connect 6.
Price
The fourth most important requirement is the price. Depending on whether you are using the VPN for personal or business purposes, they offer different subscription plans that will fit your budget.
Personal Subscriptions
With a 31-day money-back guarantee, you can choose between three options: a one week trial which becomes yearly afterwards, a monthly or a 2-year long subscription.
1. One Week Trial/Annual Subscription
PureVPN does not offer a free trial, but you can choose to have a trial period of one week for just $0.99. However, if you only want to use this period and do not wish to continue using and paying for the service, you will have to remember to cancel it. Otherwise, you will automatically be enrolled on an annual plan that costs $69.95.
2. Monthly Plan
You can also choose the monthly plan, which will cost $10.95 each month, which is about twice the price compared to the annual plan. For anyone who is only taking a vacation and wants to use a VPN during their trip, this can be a great offer. They will be protected even if the WiFi networks they connect to are not secured, and they can easily access the same media they would in their own country.
3. Two Year Plan
As this is a longer commitment, it comes with a lower price on the monthly comparison. You pay $79.92 every two years, which is only $3.33 each month. This is a great offer for those that travel frequently or just want to make sure that their connections are secure and protected.
While the subscription plans cover the basics of what you would expect from a VPN service, you can also choose to add extras to your subscription.
4. Extras
- Dedicated IP – $0.99/month
This add-on is a solution for those who wish to restrict access to their network. It is a great choice for individuals and businesses who need to access confidential information while using their VPN.
- Port Forwarding – $2.99/month
Their Port Forwarding feature helps those who want to access a device or service remotely. If you wish to access your PC, laptop, server, or website/FTP anywhere in the world, you will need this add-on.
- DDoS Protection – $3.99/month
A DDoS protected VPN will ensure that you have foolproof security against any DDoS attack. This add-on is ideal for any online business or e-commerce store that wants to block illegitimate traffic to their site.
5. Business Subscriptions
Many of us were happy when working from home became more of a norm in the last year. We could cut out commuting time and just start working in the comfort of our own place.
However, it gave problems to many companies; apart from coordinating their whole team online, they needed to make sure that remote work does not come with any security risk.
This is a hard task as most employees use their personal computer or laptop. But PureVPN has the solution to this problem, it will improve website safety and make sure that the business and customer information is secure and protected.
There are three available plans, the prices slightly change depending on how big your team is. The minimum order has to be at least 5 members, the next choice is 10, then 15, and so on.
Respect of Privacy
Now that you know whether so far PureVPN’s offers fit your budget and expectations, let’s look at the fifth, possibly the most important requirement. Does PureVPN respect your privacy?
Before fully becoming a no data logging VPN, PureVPN used to log some of its users’ session data. This changed after in 2017 a man was arrested on cyberstalking charges, some of the evidence used against him were PureVPN records.
These records helped the police connect the originating IP addresses, which were based in the man’s home and workplace and the sessions that were done at the time of access.
After this incident, their customers realized that some of their own data must have been logged and saved. The users’ worries were true, in the small print of PureVPN‘s privacy policy, it was stated that some data of the sessions made would be logged.
The only pieces of information they saved were the incoming IP addresses, the time of connection and the bandwidth used. These small amounts of data usually would not be a problem, but once it was used to press charges against someone, people started to feel strongly against it.
As a company that was advertising its services as a zero log VPN, their customers expected no logs saved. PureVPN pointed out in their response to this uproar that they did not keep full logs, like browsing history and everything was clearly stated in their privacy policy.
However, this did not help with getting people’s trust back. As their advertised image was not true, they needed to address the issue further than a response in a blog post.
They changed the way of logging, they went and became a VPN service that does not log any data that could lead to the identification of a specific person.
This change stayed the same, and now PureVPN is a trusted and great VPN provider chosen by a large number of customers to safely search anonymously online or get around geological restrictions of streaming services.
Conclusion
Overall, PureVPN is a great VPN provider. Your sessions are completely secure as PureVPN has a no data log policy and is based in Hong Kong, which means that it is not connected to any type of international surveillance alliance.
And for those who are just looking for a service to bypass streaming geographical restrictions, getting PureVPN is an excellent decision. It can even get past the filter used by Netflix, and its fast servers make sure you won’t have to wait for the movies or shows to load.