VPNs: How they work and how to choose the best one for you
I’m sure you’ve heard me mention VPNs before on my show. With hackers, thieves and scammers constantly out in full force, ready to steal your money, now’s the time to get on board.
VPN is short for virtual private network. What this means is when doing your banking online, hackers can’t step in the middle and steal your account information and drain your money. A VPN also stops your internet provider from tracking you and lets you unblock websites and bypass filters. You need it on your computer, laptop, tablet and phone.
I know you’re frugal like me. There are a lot of free things in tech. Most of the time, huge gotchas go along with free tech, so you have to know that you shouldn’t ever want to use a free VPN.
Here’s the dirty secret those other companies do not want you to know
Usually, a free VPN will sell your data and collect everything, and I mean everything, that you do when you’re using it. A free VPN will slow down your connection while collecting all your data. It’s free for a reason. You are paying with your data, and boom, it begins. You start getting more spam, targeted ads and maybe robocalls.
You need a VPN that doesn’t track you or collect your data. First, I’m going to tell you how a VPN works. If you want to skip all that below, you can get the VPN I use right now. Tap or click here and get three extra months free with a 12-month ExpressVPN plan.
How VPNs work
Here’s a geeky definition. A VPN is a layer of protection between your devices and the internet. It hides your IP address and your location. It also encrypts your data after leaving your device and traveling to whatever website you’re visiting.
Most importantly, a VPN provides a layer of security. Look at the picture below:
Whether it’s a computer, smartphone or tablet, it connects to the web through an internet service provider. Those servers send you information and they pick up information about you, your IP address, location, device and more.
A VPN blocks the two-way exchange of information. The IP address and location data come from the VPN host’s server, so the servers on the other end learn nothing about you or your data. Hackers, scammers and thieves won’t be able to access your data, travel or money.
5 ways to increase your PC's download speed
You may have a poor internet connection if downloads take forever to reach 100%. Outages or poorly-constructed websites could also be to blame. Whatever the cause is, try these tricks to increase the download speed on your PC.