A virtual private network (VPN) is a secure tunnel that encrypts and transmits data to and from a remote or local network, protecting users from unauthorized access.
It’s an incredibly powerful tool that offers numerous advantages for businesses, organizations, and individuals alike — including improved security, privacy, and convenience.
Here are twelve of the essential benefits of using a VPN.
1. Security:
With a VPN in place, your online activities will remain anonymous when connected to a public Wi-Fi or over any other type of internet connection.
By encrypting data transmissions with high-level encryption protocols like OpenVPN and AES 256-bit encryption, all your communications will be kept safe from hackers and other malicious third parties trying to steal your information.
2. Privacy:
VPNs offer users an extra layer of privacy since their real IP address is masked behind the IP assigned to them by the VPN service provider.
This makes it difficult for anyone to track your location or identity without your explicit consent — meaning you can browse the web with no fear of being tracked down by marketers or spammers.
Combine that with other privacy means, such as learning how to flush DNS on Mac and other devices or clearing the browser history, and you should be golden as far as privacy goes.
3. Accessibility:
With most VPNs available on multiple platforms (including iOS and Android), you can easily connect from anywhere and access restricted websites or content with ease — regardless of geographical boundaries and censorship laws.
Whether you’re at home or traveling abroad, you’ll always have fast access to whatever content you wish to view online.
4. Reduced Costs:
By setting up a VPN, businesses can reduce their costs associated with long-distance communication fees as data is sent through the encrypted tunnel at much lower rates than traditional means of transmission such as audio/video conferencing services such as Skype or Zoom.
5. Increased Speed & Productivity:
A good quality VPN will offer increased speeds compared to unencrypted networks — meaning faster browsing experiences overall for employees who need quick access to certain applications or websites during their workday without compromising on security protocols in order to do so efficiently and quickly.
6. Online Shopping Savings:
Many online retail stores use geolocation technology which allows them to adjust prices based on where you’re located at any given time — meaning they could charge customers more if they were located in an area with higher demand for their products/services than others.
By using a VPN, however, customers can shop around different locations virtually without having prices affected as much due to this location adjustment pricing feature.
7. BYOD:
Businesses with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies in place often require their employees to connect via secure networks when accessing company data from personal devices outside of work premises.
But this isn’t always easy, nor cost-effective for many companies to implement unless they have invested in good quality VPNs that enable secure remote connections between multiple devices at once while also providing adequate levels of protection against cyber threats.
8. Total Anonymity & Avoidance Of Surveillance:
While there are many ways governments can track citizens’ activities through metadata collection tactics such as ISP logs etc., if you use a reliable no-logging policy-based virtual private network, then all your online activity remains totally anonymous.
Even if government agencies attempt surveillance on certain activities – VPNs offer users peace of mind knowing their data & identity aren’t being compromised unnecessarily.
9. Improved Quality Of Service For VoIP Applications:
Virtual Private Networks come with improved quality of service when used for VoIP applications such as video conferencing calls – because all traffic is routed over encrypted tunnels, thus reducing latency & buffering issues that cause poor quality sound & video streams.
10. Lower Risk Of DDoS Attacks:
DDoS attacks are becoming increasingly common due to how easy it is for hackers nowadays.
However, if you use a Virtual Private Network, then these types of threats are deflected since all traffic is secured behind encrypted tunnels, thus making it impossible for attackers to just guess where they should aim malicious traffic towards in order to achieve successful results.
11. Unblock Geo Location Restrictions:
As previously mentioned, some websites restrict access based on geographical location, but thanks to Virtual Private Networks, users can now bypass these restrictions by routing all traffic through another country’s server before hitting the destination URL.
Thus, making it appear that they are actually located elsewhere when they are still surfing the web from home.
12. Improved Network Performance:
Routing the browser via one secure, encrypted tunnel, businesses are able to not only enjoy better performance across their internal networks but also benefit from improved packet delivery.
That translates into faster loading times for websites and applications hosted remotely.