Browsing the internet without a VPN is like carrying a leaking water container on your camping trip. It’ll only be a matter of time before your precious filtered water seeps out completely, and you won’t even notice it. With the right tips, however, you can seal all the leaks and keep your data safe at all times.
While choosing a reliable VPN is a crucial part of this process, it’s not everything you should do. You’ll also have to set it up correctly and understand how to use it safely to get the most out of it.
Here are the top tips to guide you in that:
Make Sure to Use the Free Trial
This one may not be so much a use as a way of getting maximum value for your money. If you scour the market or use VPNBargain to get fantastic deals on different VPNs, like Nord, one of the most secure VPNs on the market, you will see a host of products that offer free trials and others that have money-back guarantees.
It’s always a good idea to use the free trial even if you’re sure the VPN meets your expectations and needs. That way, you can access more service time for less money. You can even try different platforms offering free trials just to get as much free service as possible. Besides, you might love a different VPN more, even though you didn’t expect it.
Connect to Your Nearest Server
If your objective in using a VPN isn’t to access services in a specific geographical area, use the “quick connect” option or a similar selection that connects you to the closest server available. By default, this option connects you to the server with the best speeds, so you won’t experience excessive slowdowns.
While some sources will advise against connecting to servers in your home country, doing so shouldn’t hurt your privacy. The only risks of connecting to a local server have more to do with what you’re using the VPN for and the laws in your country. If you’re doing something illegal, the chances of police raiding a locally-based server/data center are higher.
Save Your Favorite Locations
Most VPN providers have an almost endless list of servers you can connect to safely and securely. Such long lists can make finding your preferred connection location overwhelming, even though you may have connected before. You, therefore, want to save or pin (depending on the features of your VPN) your most-used or preferred locations to connect faster and avoid scrolling through the entire list.
Enable the Kill Switch
Any reputable VPN should have a kill switch feature, and while that sounds dramatic, that’s a solid feature to have in case your VPN connection is lost. Some users even feel that the feature can cause inconveniences since it stops all internet traffic if there’s a connection drop. That’s crucial, however, to avoid exposing your data to third parties, such as your ISP, if the VPN fails for some reason.
Turn on the Auto-Start Feature
Almost every VPN has an auto-start feature, which means it will activate at the same time your operating system, whether macOS or Windows, starts. Most products will give a prompt during the installation process, but you can also find the option in the VPN’s settings. This is a helpful feature to have on at all times if you want to be protected without even having to think about it.
Use Split Tunneling Where Applicable
Most of the top-performing VPNs in the market offer a feature known as “Split Tunneling,” or an equivalent feature that separates the sites and apps that should use the VPN from the ones that shouldn’t.
This is a lovely feature to have if you’re only interested in protecting the most sensitive internet traffic from your device, such as when shopping or banking. The sites or programs related to any of these activities will send their traffic via the VPN while everything else runs normally, thus minimizing the slowdown in your internet speeds.
Use Private Browsing Windows (Incognito)
While your VPN protects your traffic information, it won’t stop other forms of tracking like cookies. This means that some sites can still identify who you are. The best way to ensure you have maximum privacy is to use a VPN in combination with a private browser window. You can even activate additional features, such as location spoofing, to ensure your actual location remains a mystery.
Get Quick Assistance Choosing the Right VPN for Your Needs
The journey to maximum privacy begins with choosing the ideal VPN for your situation. With so many moving parts, however, this process can be quite challenging, especially if you’re doing it for the first time.
VPNBargain helps you to find the best deals for compatible, reputable, and reliable VPN products so you won’t have to do the heavy lifting. Head over to vpnbargain.com to see all the listings and claim your deal on the VPN that you feel is best for your requirements.
