What Should You Look For in a VPN Provider

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Many are still been wondering with the question “why would I want to use a VPN?”
Well, here’s a short information on what to look for in a Virtual Private Network or VPN Provider.

Having a VPN means is you are connecting your device to another device that acts as your devices proxy. Many internet users when thinking of a VPN they think of their office network or a VPN connection to connect their work LAN. But there is wide acceptance and practical uses for a VPN for home users as well. A VPN can be used to help anonymize yourself while browsing the internet and a good VPN keeps the entire connection secure and encrypted.
Advantages of using VPN or Virtual Private Network :

VPN Offers Privacy – Simply Put a VPN hides/masks your computers IP address and anonymizes other data so that the sites you visit cannot trace that connect back to your private computer.  You can be effectively anonymous with a good VPN as long as you aren’t providing your information in web forms and whatnot.

VPN Offers Security – With an encrypted VPN connection you don’t have to worry about hitting HTTP sites or sites that are non-encrypted because not only are you anonymized, your entire connection is encrypted with a good VPN making it generally a tad more secure when browsing online.

VPN Offers Region Content – I had someone in Canada want to visit some US based websites like NY Times and Washington Post and other sites which have region limits or content based on your region.  They were able to proxy as a US address with a VPN and the target sites provided them content as if they came from the US.  The same thing applies to other media, Netflix US has different content than International local Netflix so some people want to just access content that is not available in their region and a VPN allows them to access that content.  Note:  Netflix blocks VPN’s and many types of sites try to ban/block VPN’s including governments, but more spawn up as some are blocked and it is a cat and mouse chase.
VPN For Torrenting – I am not condoning torrenting, but if you do torrent movies, games, music or any other content then you will definitely want to use a VPN for Torrenting.  Again, I am not endorsing torrenting content but if you then at least be smart about it and use a VPN to help minimize your exposure.  Note torrenting can consume a LOT of bandwidth, so see below about what to look for when getting a VPN.