Computers are an ever-present part of modern life. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s often easier to find free WiFi in a city than it is free water.
People locked out of even a subset of the computing experience will quickly start to complain. There are different ways to use computing platforms. When people are on the go, a smartphone should be a perfect fit; laptops when someone is planning on sitting down for more serious tasks. And, of course, desktop systems have their place as well.
But the importance of computers in day-to-day life should drive home a rather important point. People take safeguards for most of life’s essentials. You might have emergency food and water stored in the house or in the trunk of your car. You’ll usually have bandages and first aid supplies to help safeguard people’s health. People seldom consider just how they’d protect their computing experience. Or, to be more exact, protect their use of the internet. Because with modern computing the internet connection really is the main point of vulnerability.
Answers Before Questions
The good news is that people have been considering that point for a very long time now. People all over the world have considered just how to safeguard their computers. The short answer is that the overall consensus has come down to VPN-based solutions like TorGuard.
However, one should also understand why that’s the best solution. To get the most out of any system, one needs to understand what it’s capable of. A VPN has so much to offer that it can take a while to get a handle on all the options.
Real world examples you’re already experiencing
Imagine how you’d feel if you knew that someone was staring at you through the window right now. Standing, lurking, and writing notes about how you live your life; perhaps noticing what you like to eat and drink. The person might even be noticing whether you’re single, dating or married, or looking into what kinds of things you’re buying for family and close friends. This is all to try leveraging that information to manipulate you in one way or another. Most people would find it rather creepy.
The simple fact is that it’s happening constantly when you use a computer. Much of this comes down to something known as an IP address. One can think of it as roughly analogous to the address on your home. It’s basically the address of your internet connection.
Every time you do anything online it’s essentially holding out your internet’s location. This isn’t even analogous to telling every single cashier you do business with where you live.
It’s closer to informing the owners of any business of your address when you simply look into their store window for a second. It’s little wonder that companies want to track people by IP address. But it’s also little wonder that this isn’t something people want to endure. Lack of outrage is, in large part, simply due to the fact that most people aren’t aware it’s happening. But even the larger and more trusted companies are continually being found to spy on their users.
And on top of it, one simply needs to look at more authoritarian governments to see where things might go in the future. Many places have country-wide firewalls which ensure that citizens are unable to use some websites or services. And often times the attempts to block internet access come through a slower process that’s harder to notice.
How a VPN Offers Protection
A VPN is able to get around every one of those issues. And it’s able to do so in a way that’s virtually impossible to combat. The main reason is that it’s essentially sidestepping the normal process of internet communication. There’s usually a direct process of events when loading a site or using an online service. A user sends a request. The request is then processed and the resulting data sent back.
A VPN acts like a courier service for internet communication. The initial request is first encrypted. This ensures that it’s invisible to outside parties. This, in itself, instantly offers significant security benefits over traditional standards.
From there, the signal is handed off to a VPN relay located in a different area. This can be a different city, country or geographic area. It’s usually down to the user’s preference. The signal is essentially repeated at that distant point. And the resulting data is then sent from the relay point back to the user’s computer.
And the entire time, the IP address shown is at the relay point rather than one’s actual IP address. This essentially removes every privacy and security concern associated with the internet. Companies, advertisements, and even hackers won’t be able to track you by IP address, because the signal they’re seeing isn’t your actual IP address when you use a VPN.