Do you need a VPN?

Do you need a VPN?

I have been asked on multiple occasions for recommendations for a VPN service. Since I never felt the need for one and didn’t have one, I really didn’t have an answer to the question. Yesterday, I had a need for one, so I did some internet research and decided on ExpressVPN.

To start with, let’s explain what a VPN is. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. Once the underlying software or firmware is setup, one logs onto a VPN with a user ID and password. After the connection is established, all data traffic moving back and forth along that connection is encrypted. Anyone intercepting the data stream will not be able to decipher it.

Although the VPN connection is travelling over the internet, this connection, an “encrypted tunnel”, acts functionally the same as if you had run a super-long Ethernet (network) cable from your device (computer, tablet, smartphone) to a router or a network switch at a remote location. With that connection established, you can have access to whatever resources at the remote location the software has allowed you access to.

So, for example, I have a VPN established via the firmware of my home firewall to the firewall of a business at a remote location which allows me to manage / troubleshoot resources (computers, printers, scanners, network access storage devices, etc.) on that network as if I were there with my laptop plugged into their network.

The “resource” that these vpn connections host is an internet connection from a location other than your current location.

So, why would you want to do that?  Privacy.

Your ISP (Internet service provider), such as Comcast, or Verizon, can see everything you do, what sites you visit, what you download; everything.  For me, the vast majority of the time I say “so what!”.  “I don’t have anything to hide”.  But yesterday I didn’t want Comcast to see something.  Since the point of all this is privacy, I won’t say what.  To get that privacy, I used a VPN.   Why not use the VPN I already described above?  Because, since I manage that location, I would be no more private than if I did the same from my home internet.   The internet connection needs to be seen as coming from a location I am not associated with in order to achieve privacy.

I subscribed to the ExpressVPN service for 1 year.  The cost of the subscription was $100 for the year or about $8 per month.  Signing up was simple.  After you sign up they provide you with a link to download their software.  After the software is installed you have the option to let it automatically run when you startup your computer or not.  When it is running, you have an On/Off button.  I contacted their customer support via “chat” a couple of times with questions, and both times I received a fast and accurate reply.

I was concerned about my internet speed when connected via the VPN.  I have been enjoying a 240 down / 12 up mbps connection via my Comcast ISP.  Using the New York VPN Server I measured 47 / 11 (measured on speedtest.comcast.net  ) .  ExpressVPN has a speedtest you can run that measures the speed from your location to all their servers independently in all countries.  It measured a high of 28mbps download speed from the New York Server to a low of 421 kbps for the server in Egypt.   So although this is a major hit to my available bandwidth, for practical purposes, it is fast enough to do what I want to do without being noticed (I don’t plan to use the server in Egypt).

So for some examples of when I will use the service (press the on button).

• If I’m out of the country and I don’t want to be blocked from Netflix I can stream from a server located in the USA.
• If I’m trying to access Canadian sites which are are limited to locations in Canada, I can access them from a Canadian server.
• If I’m on public wifi when I’m out of the house I can prevent spying / intrusion .
• Anything else I want to keep private from my ISP or anyone else.
• Some items you purchase have prices that vary by the location of your ip (internet) address.  Perhaps you can save $1000 on an airline ticket by shopping the same site from different ip addresses in different countries.