Which is not to say that VPNs are worthless, but rather that you'll be better protected if you know how best to use a VPN.Ī VPN is first and foremost for protecting your privacy, not guarding against malicious sites or malware. A VPN just safeguards your Mac's web traffic. Unfortunately, there isn't a magic suit of armor for your computer that protects it from all the world's attacks. Keep in mind, however, that VPNs and streaming services are locked in a cat-and-mouse struggle, so a VPN that works today may be blocked tomorrow. For this reason, Netflix and other streaming services work very hard to block access to VPN users. If you live in the US and tunnel to a VPN server in London, you could watch Netflix content that's only available in the UK. This same property of a VPN can be used for far more mundane purposes, like accessing streaming content that's available in other countries.
It's a vitally important role, but we don't evaluate VPNs on their ability to bypass censorship, since our getting it wrong could have catastrophic consequences for our readers. Journalists and activists have used this property of VPNs to bypass the restrictions put in place by repressive governments. If you connect to a VPN server in Canada, you'll appear to be browsing the web from somewhere in the great white north. You can also use a VPN to spoof your location by connecting to a distant VPN server. Advertisers and anyone else interested in monitoring online activities have a harder time tracking you while the VPN is active. That's handy, since an IP address can be used to track your movements across the web, and to discern your approximate location. Because your traffic appears to originate from the VPN server (not your Mac), an outside observer can only see the IP address of the VPN server. VPNs help protect your privacy in other ways, too. VPNs do hide more of your data, however, and protect your DNS requests, denying ISPs even that insight into your activities. It's true HTTPS does prevent observers from intercepting your information.
There's a strong argument that the widespread adoption of HTTPS already protects your data, and VPNs are overkill. Most of us already fork over a hefty chunk of change to our ISPs, but now those same companies are trying to profit off their customers by selling anonymized user data. A VPN shields your online activity from internet service providers (ISPs).
That's handy for anyone who needs to make use of public Wi-Fi networks, since it's not always clear who owns those networks and even whether it's safe to connect. The encrypted connection prevents anyone on the same local network as you-and even the person who runs the network-from getting any information about what you do online. All your web traffic is sent through this encrypted connection, exits the server, and then rejoins the internet as normal. When you switch on a VPN, it creates an encrypted connection between your Mac and a remote server operated by the VPN company.
#Download vpn free for mac 2017 how to#
How to Get Started With Project Management.How to Find Free Tools to Optimize Your Small Business.How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill.How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad.
0 kommentar(er)
