Virtual private networks aren’t essential only for securing your unencrypted Wi-Fi connections in coffee shops and airports. Every remote worker should consider a VPN to stay safe online. Here are your top choices in VPN service providers and how to get set up.
If finding the best VPN for your needs was a simple matter of comparing prices and features, this guide would not be essential reading. The fact is you won’t find the right VPN without first understanding how a VPN service accomplishes its primary mission: keeping you safe online. Fundamentally, most VPNs (virtual private network) provide two services: Encrypting your data between two points and hiding the IP address (from which a general location can be derived) where you’re located. For those traveling or out and about, the first function was critical because most Wi-Fi available publicly is unencrypted — so anyone on the network could see what you were sending. But VPNs also serve to hide your IP address, replacing the address logged on servers with one in a completely different location — even a different country. For those worrying about stalking or other threats, this feature could save lives. Most consumers, though, find streaming VPN features compelling because — in some cases, and with dubious legality — it allows them to spoof their region of origin to get access to streaming media and sports blacked out from their home locale. There is no doubt that you should use a VPN service provider when you’re using public Wi-Fi when away from home. But what about when you’re at home? Should you use a VPN then? My general advice is that it’s not critical for most people at home, since your ISP rarely wants to look at your traffic. But if you live in an apartment with a bunch of curious roommates all sharing one router, a VPN might prove valuable. If you’re connecting to work and want to make sure you’re taking all the precautions you can (and if your employer hasn’t given you a corporate VPN to use) a VPN service would be useful. If you’re connecting to websites that log connection information and you don’t want to leave tracks where you are (especially where your home is), you might want to use a VPN. You get the idea: If you want extra protection at home, then a VPN isn’t a bad idea. Now, let’s be clear. Using a VPN does add a bit of a load on your computer and can often slow down your connection. That’s because your data is encrypted, decrypted, and sent through intermediate servers. Game responsiveness might suffer. If you’re a first-person shooter player, you might have enough lag to lose the shot. That said, both computers and VPNs have gotten a lot faster. When I first used a VPN, every… thing…slowed… down… to… an… unbearable… c-r-a-w-l. But now, the negative impact is almost unnoticeable, and at least one service we spotlight below (Hotspot Shield) actually increased performance, making it one of the fastest VPNs we’ve seen. Also, most (but not all!) of the providers we spotlight limit the number of devices you can connect simultaneously, so you may have to pick and choose which home devices connect through a VPN. Also: Why even the best free VPNs are not a risk worth taking We’re also spotlighting paid services in this article, although some of them offer a free tier. I generally don’t recommend free VPN services because I don’t consider them secure. Think about this: Running a VPN service requires hundreds of servers across the world and a ton of networking resources. It’s boo-coo expensive. If you’re not paying to support that infrastructure, who is? Probably advertisers or data miners. If you use a free service, your data or your eyeballs will probably be sold, and that’s never a good thing. After all, you’re using a VPN so your data remains secure. You wouldn’t want to then have all that data go to some company to sift through — it completely defeats the purpose. Before we jump into our cornucopia of VPN services, I want to make it clear that no one tool can guarantee your privacy. First, anything can be hacked. But more to the point, a VPN protects your data from your computer to the VPN service. It doesn’t protect what you put on servers. It doesn’t protect your data from the VPN provider’s VPN servers to whatever site or cloud-based application you’re using.
