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In simple terms Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a connection which establishes private network over a public network system. A VPN is a growing service used by modern innovations. In fact nowadays many industries are adopting VPN for their organization's growth.Â
Despite of the fact that VPNs are popular anonymity services, still there are many people who does not know whether they need a VPN or not. In order for making a decision whether to have it or not, you have to understand the main advantages and disadvantages of it. Even though VPN provides many benefits to the user, at the same time it has its own drawbacks as well. You must know both the benefits and drawbacks before using the VPN. Especially if you are a new user. Furthermore you should always remember that not all the VPNs are created equal. Each VPN has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. However there are some set of pros and cons which they share in common.Â
In this article, you will get the detailed knowledge on the 7 Advantages and Disadvantages of VPN | Risks and Benefits of VPN. At the end of this post, you will know the pros and cons of using VPN.Â
Let's get started,
1. Provides AnonymityÂ
The real IP address which you are using to visible to almost all of the websites. Using VPN you can essentially mask your real IP address and encrypt the data. Since the real IP address is not visible, hackers won't be able to steal your personal informations and ISPs or the government cannot monitor what you do online. Furthermore in certain countries it is perfectly legal for the ISPs to sell your personal datas to the advertisers. However these kinds of threats can be completely prevented by using a VPN service.Â
2. Avoid Geo-restrictions Â
Geo-restrictions is a way of content providers to block websites for people in certain geographical areas. This is done to comply with certain legal procedures. Normally when you try to access a webpage, you are sending a request with your real IP address. From this IP address the webpages can know your location very easily. If your location is one from the blacklisted list, you will be denied access immediately.Â
Since a VPN replaces your real IP address with another one, these webpages might think that you are from the right geographical area. Hence, VPN services has the capability to provide access anywhere in the world.Â
3. Protection from Cyber attacks
Day by day the cyber criminals are getting stronger. They have the capability to eavesdrop on your network connection, especially the Wifi. Even they can create spoof Wifi connections for tricking users to connecting them. The most popular way for cyber criminals to create a fake Wifi connection is through the public Wifi. If users fall for such traps they can loose all of their confidential informations including the credit card and bank account details.Â
Well for preventing such attacks, users can use a VPN service. A VPN connection encrypts your connection in a way that it looks completely gibberish to the attackers. This means that your private informations are safeguarded whenever you use a VPN.
4. Prevent Bandwidth Throttling
Bandwidth throttling is a way of limiting the bandwidth. This is usually done by the ISPs once a month or a week for improving their services. Even ISPs can do bandwidth throttling for making you to purchase higher subscription and data plans. Especially it can be experienced by the users who use the internet regularly. Due to this a reduction in online speed be seen often. By using a VPN service, your ISPs will not be able to monitor your online activities and the amount of bandwidth consumed. Therefore, even if you use more bandwidth, they won't take any necessary actions.Â
5. Improved Gaming Experience
The fact that many people might not know about VPN is that it can actually enhance your online gaming experience. There are some games which are restricted to certain geographical areas. Since the IP address is hidden by using a VPN, you can eventually get a chance to play them. Moreover using a VPN for gaming means that you can avoid unfair IP bans and DDoS attacks.Â
6. Bypass Firewall
Same as Geo-restrictions, the network admins can implement firewall to prevent you from accessing certain webpages. The firewall blocks certain computers using the IP address which you are log onto. If the IP address complies with the one used by you, you cannot access the webpages anymore. Since the real IP address is hidden in VPN, you access those pages without any issue. Even this can be used to access blacklisted websites.
7. Helps you to save money
For the same product online retailers might display different prices depending on which geographical location you are from. Usually prices seems to be high for developed nations than less developed nations. This is done by the online retailers to generate more profit and market their products.Â
Hence, this can be also be prevented using a VPN. A VPN can make you seem like you are from a less developed area by connecting to a server in that particular region. As a result you can notice a significant price reduction. But this method cannot be guaranteed 100%. Some websites use tracking cookies instead of price discrimination tactics. Therefore, you will not be able to see any price reductions here. In this case, you should clear the cache everytime before using the VPN.
1. Slowsdown the Internet Speed
Sometimes when you use a VPN you can notice a speed reduction. This is because of the data encryption. Since the data is encrypted in VPN, it has to travel more than usual. This can lead to speed hit in connections. But this speed hit is so small that it is barely noticeable. Despite of this, there are 3 main factors which decides the speed hit.Â
Those are the,
2. Costs more money
Despite there are plenty of free VPN services available. Many of them don't offer the complete protection needed by the user. Moreover using them is not a reliable option. If you use them your privacy could be in danger. Hence, you need to go for a paid VPN service for enjoying a full complete protection. However paid VPN services will not be convenient for everyone since they charge a subscription fee every month.Â
3. Device Compatibility
While VPNs generally support most of the devices and the operating systems. There are some platforms those are not supported. This is because these platforms are not widely used. In this case if you want to use VPN in such platform, you have to manually setup a VPN connection. Besides that if you have a computer with a VPN connection, you can directly connect it to the unsupported platforms using an ethernet cable. But it will drastically reduce your online speed.
4. Privacy IssuesÂ
VPNs are meant to provide you the complete protection. But there are some VPN services that can potentially be a treat. Especially the free VPN services with no properly configured encryption. Moreover there are chances where these VPNs can sell your data to third party companies. And also the VPNs those tend to keep the log user data could put your privacy in danger. With these kinds of VPNs the purposes of VPN is defeated in the first place. However a paid VPN service offers complete protection with no log user policy.
5. Connection Droppings
Connection droppings are one of the most frequent problems faced by a VPN user. When this happens you will have to face the inconvenience of reconnecting it. Apart from that your real IP address can be exposed since your encrypted connection is no longer in work. Due to this your anonymity can be lost. But the VPNs with Kill Switch feature can be used to prevent this. A VPN with a kill switch feature instantly disconnects from the internet when the connection from the server is lost.
6. Configuration Difficulty
Not all the VPN services are configured properly. An improperly configured VPN can make your confidential information vulnerable to attackers. IP and DNS leaks are one of the most common issues faced as a result of a improperly configured VPN service. And also overall VPN services are not easier to use. Unless you are a tech savvy you cannot manually configure them. Therefore, it is always a better idea to offer for a VPN service with good user friendly experience.Â
Â
7. Legality Issues
Even though the use of VPN is allowed in most of the countries. There are some countries that consider private networks including VPNs to be illegal. If your country is in the list of blocked nations, you shouldn't use VPN. Despite of this if you use the VPN illegally, you may end up facing the consequences.Â
Despite of the fact that VPNs are popular anonymity services, still there are many people who does not know whether they need a VPN or not. In order for making a decision whether to have it or not, you have to understand the main advantages and disadvantages of it. Even though VPN provides many benefits to the user, at the same time it has its own drawbacks as well. You must know both the benefits and drawbacks before using the VPN. Especially if you are a new user. Furthermore you should always remember that not all the VPNs are created equal. Each VPN has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. However there are some set of pros and cons which they share in common.Â
In this article, you will get the detailed knowledge on the 7 Advantages and Disadvantages of VPN | Risks and Benefits of VPN. At the end of this post, you will know the pros and cons of using VPN.Â
Let's get started,
Advantages of VPN
1. Provides AnonymityÂ
The real IP address which you are using to visible to almost all of the websites. Using VPN you can essentially mask your real IP address and encrypt the data. Since the real IP address is not visible, hackers won't be able to steal your personal informations and ISPs or the government cannot monitor what you do online. Furthermore in certain countries it is perfectly legal for the ISPs to sell your personal datas to the advertisers. However these kinds of threats can be completely prevented by using a VPN service.Â
2. Avoid Geo-restrictions Â
Geo-restrictions is a way of content providers to block websites for people in certain geographical areas. This is done to comply with certain legal procedures. Normally when you try to access a webpage, you are sending a request with your real IP address. From this IP address the webpages can know your location very easily. If your location is one from the blacklisted list, you will be denied access immediately.Â
Since a VPN replaces your real IP address with another one, these webpages might think that you are from the right geographical area. Hence, VPN services has the capability to provide access anywhere in the world.Â
3. Protection from Cyber attacks
Day by day the cyber criminals are getting stronger. They have the capability to eavesdrop on your network connection, especially the Wifi. Even they can create spoof Wifi connections for tricking users to connecting them. The most popular way for cyber criminals to create a fake Wifi connection is through the public Wifi. If users fall for such traps they can loose all of their confidential informations including the credit card and bank account details.Â
Well for preventing such attacks, users can use a VPN service. A VPN connection encrypts your connection in a way that it looks completely gibberish to the attackers. This means that your private informations are safeguarded whenever you use a VPN.
4. Prevent Bandwidth Throttling
Bandwidth throttling is a way of limiting the bandwidth. This is usually done by the ISPs once a month or a week for improving their services. Even ISPs can do bandwidth throttling for making you to purchase higher subscription and data plans. Especially it can be experienced by the users who use the internet regularly. Due to this a reduction in online speed be seen often. By using a VPN service, your ISPs will not be able to monitor your online activities and the amount of bandwidth consumed. Therefore, even if you use more bandwidth, they won't take any necessary actions.Â
5. Improved Gaming Experience
The fact that many people might not know about VPN is that it can actually enhance your online gaming experience. There are some games which are restricted to certain geographical areas. Since the IP address is hidden by using a VPN, you can eventually get a chance to play them. Moreover using a VPN for gaming means that you can avoid unfair IP bans and DDoS attacks.Â
6. Bypass Firewall
Same as Geo-restrictions, the network admins can implement firewall to prevent you from accessing certain webpages. The firewall blocks certain computers using the IP address which you are log onto. If the IP address complies with the one used by you, you cannot access the webpages anymore. Since the real IP address is hidden in VPN, you access those pages without any issue. Even this can be used to access blacklisted websites.
7. Helps you to save money
For the same product online retailers might display different prices depending on which geographical location you are from. Usually prices seems to be high for developed nations than less developed nations. This is done by the online retailers to generate more profit and market their products.Â
Hence, this can be also be prevented using a VPN. A VPN can make you seem like you are from a less developed area by connecting to a server in that particular region. As a result you can notice a significant price reduction. But this method cannot be guaranteed 100%. Some websites use tracking cookies instead of price discrimination tactics. Therefore, you will not be able to see any price reductions here. In this case, you should clear the cache everytime before using the VPN.
Disadvantages of VPN
1. Slowsdown the Internet Speed
Sometimes when you use a VPN you can notice a speed reduction. This is because of the data encryption. Since the data is encrypted in VPN, it has to travel more than usual. This can lead to speed hit in connections. But this speed hit is so small that it is barely noticeable. Despite of this, there are 3 main factors which decides the speed hit.Â
Those are the,
- Distance to the VPN servers
- Kind of protocol
- Power of the encryption
2. Costs more money
Despite there are plenty of free VPN services available. Many of them don't offer the complete protection needed by the user. Moreover using them is not a reliable option. If you use them your privacy could be in danger. Hence, you need to go for a paid VPN service for enjoying a full complete protection. However paid VPN services will not be convenient for everyone since they charge a subscription fee every month.Â
3. Device Compatibility
While VPNs generally support most of the devices and the operating systems. There are some platforms those are not supported. This is because these platforms are not widely used. In this case if you want to use VPN in such platform, you have to manually setup a VPN connection. Besides that if you have a computer with a VPN connection, you can directly connect it to the unsupported platforms using an ethernet cable. But it will drastically reduce your online speed.
4. Privacy IssuesÂ
VPNs are meant to provide you the complete protection. But there are some VPN services that can potentially be a treat. Especially the free VPN services with no properly configured encryption. Moreover there are chances where these VPNs can sell your data to third party companies. And also the VPNs those tend to keep the log user data could put your privacy in danger. With these kinds of VPNs the purposes of VPN is defeated in the first place. However a paid VPN service offers complete protection with no log user policy.
5. Connection Droppings
Connection droppings are one of the most frequent problems faced by a VPN user. When this happens you will have to face the inconvenience of reconnecting it. Apart from that your real IP address can be exposed since your encrypted connection is no longer in work. Due to this your anonymity can be lost. But the VPNs with Kill Switch feature can be used to prevent this. A VPN with a kill switch feature instantly disconnects from the internet when the connection from the server is lost.
6. Configuration Difficulty
Not all the VPN services are configured properly. An improperly configured VPN can make your confidential information vulnerable to attackers. IP and DNS leaks are one of the most common issues faced as a result of a improperly configured VPN service. And also overall VPN services are not easier to use. Unless you are a tech savvy you cannot manually configure them. Therefore, it is always a better idea to offer for a VPN service with good user friendly experience.Â
Â
7. Legality Issues
Even though the use of VPN is allowed in most of the countries. There are some countries that consider private networks including VPNs to be illegal. If your country is in the list of blocked nations, you shouldn't use VPN. Despite of this if you use the VPN illegally, you may end up facing the consequences.Â
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