VPNs: What Are They Good For?

VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, allow you to access the Internet from a different server. This might be useful if you're at home, needing to do something from your work's internet. Lately, however, VPNs have been useful for a whole lot more. There are entire companies devoted to selling VPN servers to allow users to access the internet through them. But why would you want to?

First, I'll go over the path your data takes when connected to a typical commercial VPN server. VPNs are the middleman between you and the rest of the Internet. When you send out a message saying "Hey!", instead of being sent directly to whatever messaging service you're using, that request is sent to the VPN. The VPN then passes that "Hey!" on to the messaging server. Likewise, when a message "Hello" is sent back, it's sent from the messaging server, to the VPN server, to you. Most VPNs also offer encryption services as well, so that nobody can read your data except you.

Okay, but why do you need this? Think of it this way. What if the message you sent out said something personal or confidential? What if someone intercepted that message along the way to the messaging server, like the NSA or a hacker? You wouldn't want anyone getting ahold of that information and tracing it back to you. So VPNs let you hide behind them to protect your anonymity. Every computer sends out a specific IP address that can be traced back to you, and it's public to anything you connect to. Every website, program, anything has access to your IP address. But if you send out that message to the VPN first, and then the VPN delivers it, all that website or program gets is the VPN's IP address. Not yours. This also allows you to pretend you're from a different country and get around geographic blocks on certain websites.

The bad news is, VPNs cost money. It costs money to run a server and there are no ads to pay for it. The good news is, they're fairly cheap and easy to set up depending on where you buy your VPN from. I recommend Private Internet Access, where you can get a full year of VPN access for less than $40. You can usually find an even better deal during the holidays. Once you buy it, they're as simple as installing a program and picking the server closest to you. Be careful about cheap or free VPNs that aren't considered trustworthy. All your data is going through them! Pick one with a long history of happy customers, and one that promises to not keep logs of their customers' data.

Once you have a VPN going, no-one can track you. Your data is encrypted and safe from start to finish. You can even use a VPN on your phone! So if you're big on security, spend a bit on a VPN so you'll never have to worry again.