VPN has become very popular as of late. Everyone seems to be using it, mostly to hide their identity on the Internet. However, VPN doesn’t only offer the identity concealment. There are even more useful perks.
The principle behind VPN
For all its benefits, not many people can answer the question ‘what is a VPN?’ Of course, it’s some kind of privacy solution, but what really is Virtual Private Network?
The name says it all. ‘Virtual network’ implies a secure channel of data flowing from… where to where? See, usually when you decide to connect to a website, you submit the data about your computer to a dedicated server. If this connection is not secured, your data will be exposed.
So, how does a VPN work? It’s a ‘private’ network for a reason – no one but you and the provider of the network know what data you just sent. VPN is basically another layer of connection, a parallel highway through which your data is going to a server. But the good thing is it’s encrypted.
While using VPN (https://hidemy.name/en/vpn/), you’ll be sending all data first to the VPN server, where it gets secured, and then to the final destination. It has a lot of uses, as you, doubtless, will see.
Why use VPN?
VPN is overall very beneficial, but let’s go over just a few very good advantages of using this software.
Privacy, Safety and Performance
If you consider using VPN, you’ll probably want it for these three features above everything else. It not surprising, they improve your online routine dramatically, and there are virtually no drawbacks.
It’s true that VPN grants you anonymity. It means basically that no one can track you or your activity. Remember, the data is sent from the VPN server, which can be miles away from you. Even if someone – like the government or an obnoxious vendor – wants to get tabs on you, all they’ll receive is gibberish.
And as for your history of activities, even VPN itself can’t tell where you went. They often don’t even collect this type of information. So, even if government forces them to disclose facts about their users, there will be nothing to disclose.
Safety means it’s very hard for anyone to hack you or steal your data, even through an open connection, like a WI-FI in cafes. Your data flow is encrypted, and that’s why no one can steal your personal data anymore.
As for performance, you can even improve the speed of your connection to certain websites. Since there are many available servers to pick from, you can connect to the server closest to where the website is run from.
Nonetheless, you can likewise make the connection slower by choosing a location far-away from where the website server is at the moment. So, if a website runs slowly, maybe you should pick a new server. You can do it in a few clicks.
Unlocking the Banned Material
For varying reasons, some companies on the Internet choose to forbid the residents of some countries to view parts of their content. Netflix is one such company. They can hide the show from you if your government doesn’t want you to see it.
Wouldn’t it be great to change your place of residence in a few clicks? Well, if you change your VPN server, the website will think you did. So, if there is a movie that only a German can watch, all you need to do is switch your VPN to Germany, and Netflix will be none the wiser.
It has zero consequences. The websites can’t battle the VPNs, nor will they – they do everything they can already. They can only ban your account separately, but there’s nothing in the rules about using the VPN, so they won’t do it. Therefore, using Free VPN won’t cause you any trouble.
Unintentional discounts
You can even pay less by switching to different VPN servers. See, different products may cost differently in some places. A ‘Big Mac Index’ explains that some countries simply pay less for everything, including the products. So, by switching you location to countries with lower BM index, you can get unintentional discounts on some products.
People in Eastern Europe, Africa or South America just wouldn’t buy their products if the prices were the same as for the United States. So, it’s not really an exploit, it’s completely safe to do so.
A VPN usually requires pay as well, so it’s a good way to return some of your investments by switching your VPN location for a financial gain. In the end, it’s a long-term investment
Instagram Exploits
There is a common problem for people who need multiple accounts on Instagram. The platform only allows you to create a few of them on each device. That’s why many users request the assistance from VPN in this problem.
VPN itself can give you just a few more accounts, because it only gives you a handful of new servers. However, a lot of VPNs also has large selections of proxy servers. They are different from VPN, and don’t you anonymity or nearly that much security, but what they do have is an advantage of numbers.
There are many them, and you can switch between different proxies as easily as you’d switch between VPN servers. Since each proxy server has its own IP address, for Instagram they are all separate devices. That’s why you theoretically can create a limitless amount of Instagram accounts with proxies.
And because of it, you can also use proxies when you need to work with several IP addresses at a time. VPNs like hidemy.name have a lot of these proxies all over the world.
Automated Website Scraping
Websites usually dislike being scraped of data, and they notice when you do it. But if different devices just happen to copy some information at the same time, they can’t really know if there any centralized scraping going on.
So, if you use your scraping algorithm (the VPNs sometimes provide them) on different servers to quickly copy the content of the website, the risk of being caught is minimal. The VPN can help, but proxies are arguably better because of their numbers. You can basically disperse the efforts.
Any sneaky automated scraping projects needs a VPN, obviously. But if you don’t really know how proxies work, you can get updated on https://hidemy.name/en/, as well as get your hands on some proxies right there and then.