Optus Mobile Review ALDI Mobile Review Amaysim Mobile Review Belong Mobile Review Circles.Life Review Vodafone Mobile Review Woolworths Mobile Review Felix Mobile Review Best iPhone Plans Best Family Mobile Plans Best Budget Smartphones Best Prepaid Plans Best SIM-Only Plans Best Plans For Kids And Teens Best Cheap Mobile Plans Telstra vs Optus Mobile Optus NBN Review Belong NBN Review Vodafone NBN Review Superloop NBN Review Aussie BB NBN Review iiNet NBN Review MyRepublic NBN Review TPG NBN Review Best NBN Satellite Plans Best NBN Alternatives Best NBN Providers Best Home Wireless Plans What is a Good NBN Speed? Test NBN Speed How to speed up your internet Optus vs Telstra Broadband ExpressVPN Review CyberGhost VPN Review NordVPN Review PureVPN Review Norton Secure VPN Review IPVanish VPN Review Windscribe VPN Review Hotspot Shield VPN Review Best cheap VPN services Best VPN for streaming Best VPNs for gaming What is a VPN? VPNs for ad-blocking (It’s real, Google it. But beware, you’ll probably get ads for it after you do that.) That’s right, your internet service provider (ISP) or any company that makes money by marketing ads to you is probably logging everything you do online right now. And possibly hackers too. We don’t mean to freak you out. Even the thought of those odd ads for yodeling pickles are unnerving. But we want to stress that it’s always a good idea to protect your online privacy. Even if you’re not using public Wi-Fi. The good news is, a virtual private network (VPN) is an easy—and often cheap—way to add an extra layer of security so you can surf the web in peace. It’s always a good idea to protect your online privacy, even if you’re not on public Wi-Fi. And VPNs are an easy way to add an extra layer of security so you can surf the web in peace. You can think of a VPN like a goalie protecting its net—in this case, your computer and private data. When another player tries to track your internet activity or gain access to your info, the VPN blocks it. The only ones who get to know what you’re doing online are the VPN and whatever website you’re visiting. A VPN can also mask your IP address to give you even more privacy online. Your IP address is assigned to you by your internet provider and is a unique series of numbers that attaches to everything you do online. That means every online place you visit knows exactly where you’re located thanks to your IP address. But a VPN hides your personal IP address. Instead, the IP address of the VPN server you connect to is what shows up online. VPN servers are set up to host users and connect them to the internet, but they’re also configured to encrypt and decrypt the data you send and receive from websites online. (The data needs to be decrypted so your computer or mobile device can read it.) Another way VPN servers are unique is that they’re often located in different countries, like the US, UK, Sweden, or Germany. By hosting servers in different cities and countries, a VPN protects you from ads targeting certain geographical regions. What’s more, if a VPN connection can make it look like you’re surfing the web from a condo in California or a flat in London, it’s also possible for you to get around region restrictions on certain websites or apps. One example is cookies. You can think of cookies like a sort of digital ID card that you show to websites you visit online. That ID card includes information about you, like what pages on a website you visit, what’s in your shopping cart when you shop online, and any personal information you’ve volunteered, like your name. With ad companies, the cookies you create can contain information about multiple sites you’ve visited if those sites all contain ads that are managed by one advertising company. There is good news, though. Cookies don’t give these ad companies or websites access to your computer or any personal information you haven’t purposefully shared online. And cookies can’t infect your computer or device with viruses or malware. Also, you can easily delete cookies whenever you want. And if you choose a server that’s located far away from your current location, it takes more time for your internet connection to travel there and back. It’s likely you won’t notice much of a change if you’re on a decent NBN connection. But this is the main reason we don’t recommend using a VPN with satellite NBN internet—because your internet connection already needs to travel thousands of miles above the Earth and back. If you’re looking to speed up your NBN connection, here’s a selection of the fastest NBN 100 (Fast) plans around. Tap the dropdown selector to look at other speed tiers, like NBN 250 (Superfast) and NBN 1000 (Ultrafast). This is because of latency, or the time it takes for your data to travel from your computer to the VPN server, then to the satellite, and on to the website you’re visiting. While VPNs are legal in most Western countries, there are some countries where VPNs are banned. Mostly countries with super-restrictive governments like Iraq, China, and Russia. It’s also important to know that, while a VPN is legal, it doesn’t make illegal acts okay. This includes activities like piracy, cyberstalking, and hacking. Also, using a VPN to get around geo-restrictions, like streaming a TV show that’s only available in the United States, is more of a grey area. It’s likely a violation of the app’s term of service, but the worst they can do is ban your account. Here’s a current list of countries where VPNs are illegal:
Belarus China Iran Iraq North Korea Oman Russia Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates
We also mentioned that VPN providers have to follow the laws of the countries they’re located in. For example, if your VPN provider is located in a country where the government could legally make VPNs hand over information, then your VPN could potentially hand over your personal information to a foreign government. Even if you personally don’t live in the same country as your VPN provider, your info could still be compromised. Here are a few quick things you should look for when choosing a VPN service: You don’t need to know the technical details of how each protocol works (unless you really want to). You just need to know which ones are the most secure. Keep in mind, which protocols you can use will also depend on what type of device you have. Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol with IPsec (L2TP/IPsec): L2TP/IPsec is a little bit newer than PPTP, and it’s more secure, but it’s also slower. Some websites that use firewalls might also block your L2TP/IPsec connection, which is annoying. Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP): SSTP is super secure but works only on Windows devices, so you can’t use it on your Macbook or iPhone. On the bright side, SSTP doesn’t get blocked by firewalls as much as L2TP/IPsec. Internet Key Exchange, Version 2 (IKEv2): You can use IKEv2 on basically any device (except Linux-based systems) and it’s very secure. It’s also faster than some other protocols like L2TP/IPsec. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES): AES is recommended by governments and cybersecurity experts, including the NSA. It’s typically used with 256-bit keys, which means it has 2^256 potential key combinations. Yow! Uhh, yeah. That’s a huge number of combinations. So you can imagine how much time and money it would take for someone to crack AES security protocols. They’d be sillier than a yodeling pickle to try it. If your VPN provider does keep logs, then there’s a record of you somewhere in the world. That means information about your online shopping habits, that one time you illegally torrented a movie, and even your dive into the dark rabbit hole that is yodeling veggies could potentially get out. We recommend using a VPN any time you’re online, but especially if you use public Wi-Fi at the airport, a cafe, the library, or elsewhere. VPNs stand between you and the websites you visit so your data isn’t as vulnerable to leaks and theft. And if you’re at home, it’s a good idea to install your VPN service directly on your router so it protects your entire private network.
