With so many hacking attempts, ransomware infections,
malware attacks and cyber-crimes happening these days, there’s an
increased level of focus on online privacy of internet users.
Active
use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) seems like the only good option
to effectively alter your virtual location and add a solid layer of
security to your data packets. Apart from providing you easy access to
the restricted/blocked websites, an efficient VPN service protects you
from cyber fraudsters and peeping advertisers too.
An off-the-hat example in this regard is the Hotspot Shield VPN review, an excellent VPN service
from Anchorfree. VPN clients are generally tailored to protect user’s
privacy online as well as let them gain access to restricted websites
and/or services.
For the sake of today’s discussion, we’ll like to go into the top 5 characteristics you should look out for when selecting a VPN service provider.
Complete Privacy
The first and foremost criterion you should pay heed to is complete anonymity. Any good VPN vendor worth its salt would offer you shared IPs and avoid maintaining any activity logs.
Maintenance
of logs can prove to be a risky affair and may backfire if the logs end
up in the hands of hackers, sensor boards and/or government
authorities.
The best VPN providers may even go to the extent of
accepting anonymous payments, via bitcoins, ripple, litecoin, ether or
other crypto-currencies.
Solid security
Different
encryption protocols deliver different security levels; while some are
excellent, some maybe just good enough. You should find out the kind of
encryption used by the prospective VPN service.
The
other security measures used by these services include security audits,
firewalls, PCI compliance, secure VPN nodes, dedicated servers and
more. The good ones don’t normally charge a lot for added security
features.
Provision for torrents and file sharing
Although
this may not be everyone’s requirement, if you’re specifically seeking a
VPN service to download torrents, make sure that the provider you have
in mind allows them.
You may need such torrent download and file sharing services to share videos, audios, reports, files etc.
with your colleagues/friends. Many VPNs avoid providing such services
as P2P file sharing often infringes upon others’ copyrighted material.
Good variety of server locations
A
good VPN service provides IP addresses (servers) from a wide range of
global locations. In case you need an IP address of a specific country,
you should check whether it’s available with the concerned provider or
not.
For instance, if you’re keen on accessing YouTube videos or Netflix content available only to the US audience, you may need a US IP address to do so.
If
on the other hand your requirement is of multiple IPs from different
countries, you must make sure that the VPN provider allows such IP
switches. Here’s a detailed video from Gary that elucidates the
nitty-gritty and overall working methodology of virtual private networks
(VPNs).
Reasonably priced
Pricing
of such VPN services is something that must never be taken for granted.
You may find tremendous variations between different VPN providers.
It’s not advisable to go with the cheapest service at the first instant.
Please remember – quality never comes cheap and you always get what you pay for!
However,
it doesn’t also mean that you should automatically opt for the most
expensive plan. You should ideally opt for an all-round plan wherein you
can remove the features you don’t want (and thus reduce the price).
Furthermore,
make sure that the payment options available with the provider are okay
with you. A money-back guarantee and/or a trial period is always
welcomed!
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