CHOOSE THE BEST VPN PROVIDER

Nate Drake gives you the rundown on how to select the very best VPN service for your needs

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1996 WAS A GREAT YEAR. Major League Soccer came to the US for the first time, and the N64 was released in Japan and the USA. It’s also the year that brilliant Microsoft and US Robotics employees helped to create PPTP (Point to Point Tunneling Protocol), birthing the very first VPNs (Virtual Private Networks).

The original idea was that employees working remotely could securely ‘dial in’ to their corporate network to access resources. This meant any internet-connected computer could effectively become a part of any intranet.

PPTP has since been superseded, but the basic mechanics of modern VPNs are much the same —the ‘client’ creates an encrypted ‘tunnel’ to a VPN server, through which they can then access the network and the internet.

Recent years have seen the rise of many dedicated VPN online services, which allow users to connect to the internet via the provider’s own servers.

Connecting in this way means that a user’s IP matches that of the server itself, so they can appear to be in a different country. This is a good way to access geo-restricted content like Netflix.

Still, not all VPN services are created equal. In this guide, you’ll discover how to pick the best one for your needs.

WHY WOULD YOU WANT A VPN?