Jim Rossman: VPN 101

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

This week a reader writes:

"I've been reading a lot lately how VPN can protect your privacy, avoid marketing ploys and help with hacking. At one time, my university provided VPN for us when we were overseas (helped get through the Great Firewall of China), but I have no idea how it might be implemented for private use. Could you address the pros and cons of using a VPN service, and how one goes about setting that up?"

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, which is a service you load onto your computer or phone to improve privacy and security.

A VPN runs all your internet traffic through a “tunnel” to the servers run by the VPN company. It also encrypts all your traffic so not even people sharing (or stealing) your home Wi-Fi can intercept it.

VPN can also hide your real IP address, which is the unique address assigned to every device that connects to the internet.

A VPN can also route your traffic through other countries, so it appears you are located in that country.

I haven’t personally tried, but if you connect to a VPN server located in another country and then launch a streaming service like Netflix, you can view that country’s streaming offerings, which can be very different from the U.S.-based titles.

Once you research VPN services, you’ll find services that are free and services that have a monthly (or annual) subscription.

Because of the nature of the task you’re asking the VPN service to provide, I don’t have a free VPN I’d recommend. You’re asking the VPN to secure your most sensitive data, and you don’t want to find out the hard way that you get what you pay for.

Free VPNs will show you ads and even sell your data to third parties.

The most recommended VPN services include SurfShark, NordVPN and ExpressVPN.

You’ll find these services offer subscriptions starting at just a few dollars per month, but do your homework. The prices will vary depending on the features offered and the number of devices you can protect.

Once you subscribe to a service, you’ll download the VPN software for all your devices, including your smartphones, and walk through the steps to log in and set up the protection you choose.

Some services, like SurfShark, offer software that can run on some Wi-Fi routers to protect all the traffic going through all your wirelessly connected devices.

What are the pros?

A VPN is another layer of protection, which is a good thing, especially away from your home when you might be connecting through a public hotspot like a hotel or coffee shop.

A VPN can also hide you from third-party tracking, which can reduce the amount of data collected about you.

What are the cons?

A VPN won’t protect against viruses or malware. You can still get infected if you visit the wrong websites or follow suspect links.

A VPN can also introduce latency (slowness) to your connection, especially over cell networks.

I use a VPN to access resources at work because it’s required, but I personally don’t use a VPN in my everyday internet use, but I also don’t connect to public Wi-Fi networks. If I’m spending the night at a hotel, I’ll opt for using the hotspot feature of my cell phone, which is more secure than any public Wi-Fi.