VPN services are sometimes overrated and sometimes is a service that is not needed

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VPN’s are sometimes hardware based inside one’s router so that all your devices in ones home including streaming boxes uses the VPN service 100% of the time. Software based VPN’s can be turned off and on for the computer’s browser if one does not want everything in the home to be on the VPN. In many ways a VPN is overrated. Many times, VPN’s can slow down your upload and download speeds especially for people that subscribe to Internet speeds over 1,000Mbps. Someone using a 10,000Mbps upload/download connection to transfer large 300GB files back and forth most of the time will experience slower performance going through a VPN unless one is using a high-end VPN provider that has 100GB Internet servers or at least 10GB Internet servers.

Sometimes VPN's also have outages, and some companies in large cities subscribe to two separate Internet providers with load sharing and two separate VPN's so they never experience an Internet outage and never experience a VPN outage. It would be extremely rare to have two separate Internet providers or VPN providers being down at the exact same time. However large companies' setup private company owned secure VPN's between one router in one city and another router in another city instead of subscribing to a third-party VPN service,

While it is true that VPN’s encrypt 100% of all traffic between your computer and the VPN servers. That has really become a non-issue in modern days since 99% of all websites on the Internet are already encrypted without having a VPN. If one visits a website like Amazon or just about any other website without any VPN, the Amazon website or Walmart website is automatically going to setup a secure encrypted connection between their servers and one’s personal computer. VPN encryption was more important 5-10+ years ago when only 80% of websites used encryption, but today 99% of websites use the secure free 256 bit or 128 bit encryption between the website visited and your computer.

The only real advantage of a VPN is if one wants to hide the websites that one visits from their Internet provider, since the Internet provider only sees connections to the VPN server 100% of the time and no other Internet connections are recorded by the Internet provider. However, without a VPN service ones Internet provider will only see one going to Amazon, Walmart, or another website, however ones Internet provider cannot see what one is doing or purchasing on any encrypted websites since a free secure connection exists between one’s computer and the website that one is visiting. It is extremely hard to find a website that is not encrypted with the lock symbol in one’s browser. Clicking on the lock symbol tells the user the encryption level of the website which is usually 256-bit military level encryption for a bank or brokerage and sometimes 128 bits instead of 256 bits for various other websites.

While a VPN will hide ones IP address, sometimes one wants their IP address to be reported to the website to let them know they are currently in San Francisco California or Phoenix Arizona (weather apps and local specials need the correct city and state IP address to report correct information to the user). If one is shopping on Amazon or Walmart website, they are already giving that website their location when checking out. The other issue is that both VPN’s and individual websites can sell IP address information and other information.

One of the most dangerous things that people do with their browser on a VPN service or no VPN service, is that they forget to clear the cookies, tracking, history, and other site data. If one is using Microsoft Edge 64 bit browser or Firefox 64 bit browser the most important thing to do with those browsers besides regular software updates, is to setup the browsers to automatically delete all passwords, cookies, site data, and all other browsing activity as soon as the browser is closed. Many people have had VPN’s and their cookies from one website have reported personal information to various other websites. Someone without VPN service, and who has their browser activity constantly being deleted on browser close or manually deleted, is more secure than someone that has VPN service with a browser that never deletes the private information in the browser.

The only real advantage of a VPN is if one wants to hide their real IP address from all websites that one visits, and the second advantage is if one wants to hide the websites visited from their Internet Provider. But since 99% of all websites use secure free encryption already, many people do not care if their Internet provider sees the websites that they visit since the Internet provider does not see what one is purchasing or doing on the website. Also one has to trust their VPN service, a poor quality VPN service can choose to sell customer data and also a poor quality VPN service can slow down ones Internet uploads and downloads. For many people a VPN service is overrated and only offers privacy so ones Internet provider does not see the websites that one visits, and privacy of hiding ones IP address when visiting various websites.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2651...d-to-know.html