I'm wondering if it makes sense to use a VPN on my personal computer. It's used to access various websites and general types of things.

If a VPN is a good idea, can you suggest services I should look into?

Also I live outside Colorado but I've seen articles that say I can get Denver sport by changing the location setting in a VPN. Is that correct? For those of that are technically challenged, is changing location in a VPN easy?


P.S. I realize that the NFL is dropping out of favor but I grew up in Denver watching the Broncos (the family had season tickets). I still enjoy watching Broncos games - but not enough to pay for the NFL season ticket package.

I have PIA VPN on my phone and all my computers. The only downside to having a VPN is that I have to turn it off to stream Netflixs or Amazon. Also turn it off for large downloads as it can slow you internet down but it is not bad. Other than that it is a great tool.

there are several VPN services, Nord VPN is popular, google VPN and find one that fits your budget and options.

THey are not difficult to manage, most come with several connections in the plan meaning you can do the main PC, couple of wireless devices like tablets and phones.

You can setup the VPN to come on all the time, or whenever you like.

If it's your home network and you're making sure no one else is connected to it but yourself, why would you need to use a vpn?

I bought a five year vpn plan because I was supposed to be traveling around the country and overseas.

I plan to use the vpn when I'm using other networks and the vpn will shield my data. I also planned on usig the vpn to stream netflix and other streaming services overseas as the vpn could make it look like I'm i San Francisco when I'm actually in Timbuktu.

What are you trying to accomplish with a VPN? It only protects your data from your device to the terminator (usually a server at the VPN provider). The traffic from the provider to whatever site you're going to is sent as it normally would. If you want to further encrypt your local traffic it will do that, it can also hide your location (i.e. make it seem like the traffic is originating from another location - for instance the location of the VPN server).

Any recommendation for a vpn for Mac products? Desktop, ipad, phone.

I would use a VPN if I wanted to do anything sensitive connecting to a public WiFi network. If you'e connecting to your own router with a WPA2 encrypted connection, or a wired connection, I don't see the need.

quote:

Originally posted by SR:
I'm wondering if it makes sense to use a VPN on my personal computer.

What it does is encrypt your traffic and send it to a server where it is decrypted and sent on. I believe this also receives traffic coming to you, encrypts it and sends that back. That is useful if you don't want your ISP to know what/where you're up to, or are traveling and are at risk of connecting to unsafe networks.

VPNing can be done in ways that confuse/hide your physical location. In that case, services like video entertainment act and price differently than if they knew where you are. For example, NFL access is super cheap in Ireland, when my son was studying there, but when he came back and tried to access his account, they denied login knowing he was in the US. Now, if he'd had a VPN with an Ireland option, he could have used that and kept viewing.

Downsides:

1) speed (possibly minor)
- your stuff all now goes out to the VPN's server, wherever that is, rather than directly, and everthing coming back to you goes there instead of coming to you. The added transit adds time to the packet shoveling, and their server needs a bit of time to re-direct the packet to you.
- In addition to the extra transit and handling, your traffic needs to be encrypted/decrypted.
2) cost (for the paid services)
3) minor configuration effort to get it set up, and the mental effort of turning it on and off as needed/not needed.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: joel9507,

If you want to protect yourself from eavesdropping from your internet provider, or hide where you are from the website or service you are using, a VPN can help.

If you are trying to protect yourself from the company whose website or service you want to use, or to keep your traffic hidden the entire way from your PC to their server, a public VPN won’t help.

There are two big limitations of public VPNs: the first is that your traffic still ends up unencrypted when it leaves their network and heads to whatever server you are trying to use. These companies don’t exactly have endpoints sitting in Google or Microsoft’s data centers, so your data still travels over a connection visible to third parties for part of its trip. The second is that a VPN doesn’t hide WHO you are from a website or service that you need to log in to. It only hides WHERE you are from the server. This is useful for getting around geo-blocking like trying to watch Netflix from overseas or trying to watch Japanese TV from America.

If you don’t trust the company selling you internet service, or you want to watch Netflix overseas, public VPNs are useful. If you don’t want Google tracking you online, a VPN won’t help.

- Bret

 
I rely on my self-configured firewall for the home network. I use a VPN on my iPhone and Macbook Pro only when I am on someone else's wireless network, which is not often. On the phone, I can just as easily turn off Wi-fi and use cellular data only.

quote:

Originally posted by maxdog:
Any recommendation for a vpn for Mac products? Desktop, ipad, phone.

NordVPN is a fine choice for Mac based devices.

Thanks for all the input. After reading the comments the objective would be to control location - if it looks like I'm in Denver I can get the local channels and watch the Broncos.

I guess I'll have to look into the costs.

Nord is fine and has browser level plugins Expect to have to turn it off to visit some sites though.