What is a VPN?
A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is an additional layer of protection against monitoring of internet traffic. It does this by changing your IP and encrypting your internet traffic so that even your ISP can't see what you are up to. Traditionally a VPN was used to hide activities carried out by hackers or torrenters, however, in today's world where scammers and hackers lurk around every corner and our various governments insist on snooping on our activities, more and more people are opting for the additional security a VPN provides. It is also worth mentioning that recently, the EU decided that streaming copyrighted content should be as illegal as torrenting, so a VPN is also important for those Kodi streamers out there!
VPN's come with various features for various platforms and for various prices. Some VPN services offer a services like addblock and the ability to choose your IP location, allowing you to fool companies like netflix into thinking you are in a different country, allowing you to access different region locked content. While most VPNs have a free version, it must be said that a lot of the times it is worth upgrading to the paid version as it often unlocks useful features and usually is a cheap service. It is also worth mentioning that some VPN providers allow you to purchase their services with bitcoin, so for all you crypto addicts out there, its an option should you want it.
A VPN is easy to set up and usually entails only downloading a program or an app. It is also possible, with a bit of know how, to manually set up a VPN using console, but since this guide is aimed more towards introducing people to a VPN, i will leave that for the future. (Do let me know if this interests you)
What VPN should I choose?
This is where personal choice comes in, there are definitely some VPNs out there that are a waste of time, so I put together a list of some of the most popular ones with a good track record.
IPVanish
Its hard to talk about a VPN without IPVanish being mentioned. They offer their services for Mac, Windows, Linux, IOS, Android and ChromeOS, and allows up to 5 connections on a single account! IPVanish is also one of the services with the most servers, with over 500 servers world wide to choose from. The service also supports torrenting, for all you "collectors" out there (wink wink). Not bad ey? No it isn't! However like all good things in life, it comes at a price. It does come with a free trial so you can see if you like it before you put down some real money. IPVanish does not offer a free service after this trial and costs 10 dollars a month with a discounted price of 6.49 if you buy a years subscription. It is also worth mentioning that IPVanish does not come with adblock, if that is a big deal for you.
TunnelBear
Tunnelbear is also another VPN you may hear about, it is a popular VPN with user friendly UI and unlike IPVanish, comes with a free version, albeit a more limited version of the service as you may expect. TunnelBear is available for 9.99 USD and as low as 4.99 for a year subscription. If you opt for the free version, you will be limited to only 500MB of free data a month, which for most people is not enough. However that is for you to decide. TunnelBear is available for Mac, Windows, IOS, Andoid, Opera and ChromeOS, so no linux support for this one. Tunnelbear does have Adblock but is not P2P friendly so torrenting is not an option.
TORGuard
TORGuard, not to be confused with TOR (which I will be doing an article about tomorrow), is a VPN service which offers a similar deal two the other two contenders. TORGuard does not have a free version, and has the most plans to choose from ranging from 5.95 USD to 11.54. TORGuard is Torrent-friendly and allows 5 connections per account as well as addblock and is available for Mac, Windows, Linux, IOS and Android.
I don't want to pay and don't want to be limited to 500MB
CyberGhost
So here we have CyberGhost, a favourite among hackers and those with long pockets and short arms. CyberGhost has NO bandwidth limits and has pretty good speeds, however it has adverts and limited server locations. Cyberghost is availble for Mac, Windows, Linux, IOS and Android. CyberGhost is also the cheapest option here if you decide to upgrade to the paid service, costing only 3.75 USD a month for 1 device or 5.83 for up to 5 devices. Upgrading to paid increased your speed by up to 5 times, increases your number of available servers and removes the adverts.
So there you have it, a basic breakdown of some options available to you, please note there are other VPNs out there and some are good and some aren't. Their absence from this list does not mean they are bad. These are just my favourites. Thanks for reading and if you found this helpful please do upvote and follow me. I look forward to your comments!
Viking