Do you use a VPN? Why or why not?

[Al Sacco]

We write quite a bit about VPNs on Windows Central. And for good reason. You really can't be too safe on the internet these days, and as long as you research and trust your VPN provider, a good VPN can increase online security and privacy.

But the good ones often are not free, or if they are, there's some sort of catch.

Personally, I would not connect to ANY public Wi-Fi hotspot without immediately connecting to a VPN. I use two different VPNs: Viscosity for work, and Tunnel Bear for personal. And I pay for the premium version of each.

How about you? Do you even VPN, bro? And if so, which one do you use, and why?

 

[dlls]

Yes. I use my own server to connect my phone/laptops/work pcs to my home network.
Paid VPN service is kind of silly. All it supposedly does is to anonymize your internet traffic. It doesn't do the really useful stuff like bridging private networks together. You can rent a cheap dedicated server in whatever location you want and setup your own vpn servers on it. That is if you don't do really shady stuff and really must switch your IP and location 100 times per day.

 

[BryceMD]

I have PureVPN for downloading of torrents. But, for just securing my traffic/access my home network when I am in public I SSLVPN into my router at home and tunnel all my traffic through it.(not split tunnel)

 

[ryanlrobinson]

We have VPN Unlimited, but go back and forth on using it. The reason: Netflix. Netflix won't let us do anything if it is on, so we are regularly having to turn it off to watch Netflix, then try to remember to turn it off again.

I get why Netflix needs to protect from people jumping regions. I'm not arguing with that, even if I do think we as a global society need to figure out better ways to license content to not be country-specific. But I wish they could determine that I was on a VPN and just serve me Canadian content since that is what I am paying for (Canadian account, Canadian credit card). Completely locking me out of everything because I use a good security practice is very frustrating.

 

[WRider]

I use purevpn on my phone and PC, so I can do my banking or whatever and be reasonablely secure

 

[vEEP pEEP]

I don't like being spied on....

 

[asr07]

A VPN is mandatory while travelling for securing your Internet connection on public Wi-fi networks from airports and hotels. Also, it may be useful for unblocking certain website.

I use ibVPN and NordVPN, but I also had a good experience with Express and PIA.

 

[IMissMyPsion]

A VPN is mandatory while travelling for securing your Internet connection on public Wi-fi networks from airports and hotels. Also, it may be useful for unblocking certain website.

I use ibVPN and NordVPN, but I also had a good experience with Express and PIA.

Mandatory isn't the right word - perhaps highly advisable or dangerous not to use

Why did you change to ibVPN and NordVPN? What is it that makes them better?

 

[Jim Roscovius]

I used ExpressVPN while traveling in China, but I don't use one anywhere else.

 

[EssThree]

I use a subscription based VPN service. Why? Because I like feeling secure when connecting to WIFI networks away from home. Because I don't live in the US and geoblocking is bull****. Because sometimes my business is MY BUSINESS, and the age of Facebook and Google has made privacy not only optional, but difficult to maintain.

Edit: I use IPvanish. They're OK. Speed and features are good, but their software doesn't work on my computer for some reason so I ended up just using the built in Windows VPN config stuff.

 

[sarah100010]

I don't use one all the time, only when needed because my ISP has blocked a website. Nothing shady!

 

[jmshub]

I run OpenVPN on my home router. When I travel, I can VPN into my home connection, so I have access to my file server located at home, and I can avoid all the privacy concerns associated with open wifi networks.

I am conscious of privacy, but having access to my media is often times at least as important. When my wife and I did a cross-country road trip a few summers ago, I was able to copy all of the pictures off of our phones and camera and back them up to my home server (which backs up to a cloud provider) from hotel wifi as we went. I never had any fear of losing the pictures to stupidity, theft, damage, etc.