So what is a VPN?
A VPN is short for Virtual Private Network. Having a VPN connection can provide the internet user with 3 essential things: security, anonymity and freedom.
- Security: A VPN offers security by encrypting all your internet traffic. This prevents others, such as governments and hackers, from intercepting your data.
- Anonymity: You can browse the internet anonymously because your personal IP address will be hidden from the rest of the internet as soon as you connect with a VPN server. Normally, others can link your online actions to your identity and your location based on your IP address. When you use a VPN your actions online can only be traced to the VPN server, but no longer to you. Most VPN providers won’t disclose or even monitor what you do via their servers. You’ve thus become anonymous on the internet as you can’t be identified or traced through your IP address.
- Freedom: A VPN can offer the user more freedom online. It allows you to connect to servers all over the world. When you connect to a VPN server in a certain country you will be able to access the internet as if you were physically in that country. This can be useful because the internet isn’t freely accessible in all countries. Some countries censor part of the internet or impose restrictions on social media sites or online streaming services. In the same way, some Internet Service Providers limit and censor websites and apps you can access. By using a vpn, you gain freedom from their throttling and censoring.
ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) are starting to crack down and block access to certain apps. With the current net neutrality issues, its only going to get worse. If your blocked from logging into our tv service app and get a failure error code when trying, its more than likely that your isp is now blocking access to our streaming server. You can try resetting your modem and router and even your device but if it persists then you will need a vpn to thwart their efforts.
The best vpn I have come across and recommend to everyone is ipVanish. They offer a 7 day money back guarantee and are as cheap as $6.49 per month. Super easy to create an account and get it set up. They have apps available for easy use on most devices. It works great on firetvs or firesticks or android boxes and is a good compliment to our tv app.