How to Set Up and Use a VPN

Virtual private networks (VPNs) are no longer niche business security tools. If you’re a fan of podcasts, YouTube, or even a frequent Reddit scroller, then the odds are that you’ve seen countless VPN ads. The marketing hype around these tools is massive, and navigating that can be confusing if you’re unfamiliar with what a VPN is. We’ve been testing VPNs for more than 10 years, and we’re here to help you understand this thriving market of privacy tools. Read on for what VPNs do best, how to pick a good one, and how to use it to improve your online privacy.

Do You Need a VPN?

VPNs are easier to use than ever, but explaining what they’re good for is not. This might help, though. Back in 2021, the Federal Trade Commission issued a report outlining how much internet service providers (ISPs) know about their customers (you). One particular paragraph in the report makes a powerful case for VPNs:

This means a single ISP has the ability to track the websites their subscribers visit, the shows they watch, the apps they use, their energy habits, their real-time whereabouts and historical location, the search queries they make, and the contents of their email communications. […] They use this data to create advertising segments, including segments that reveal sensitive data such as race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, financial status, health status, and political beliefs.

A VPN can stop most of that data from falling into your ISP’s eager hands. When you switch on a VPN, your traffic is routed through an encrypted tunnel to a server operated by the VPN company. That means that your ISP or anyone else peeking in at your network won’t be able to see your actual web traffic.

Because your traffic appears to come from the VPN’s server, your actual IP address is effectively hidden. This obfuscation makes it harder to track your online activities. Since IP addresses are distributed geographically, a VPN hides your true location. This feature can come in handy if you want to spoof your location. Location spoofing works by connecting to a VPN server in a different region than your home network. Connecting to a remote server will make your data appear to originate from that location.

Spoofing is a useful feature if you’re trying to avoid local restrictions, such as accessing a particular website or a regional streaming catalog. However, depending on your location and the degree of surveillance your government imposes, using a VPN to bypass laws can be risky.

As with any tool, it’s essential to understand the limitations of a VPN. What a VPN won’t do is completely anonymize your traffic. While a VPN will stop snoops from peeking at your data, it can’t remove every trace of you from the internet. Personal details you plug into forms and logins will still be retained by websites.

Additionally, VPNs can’t stop websites from tracking your movements through cookies, browser fingerprinting, and trackers. Installing an ad blocker can make it much harder for advertisers to follow your movements across the web.

A VPN also cannot prevent malware from infecting your system. You’re better off with a standalone antivirus to protect your system against incoming threats like malware, trojans, and phishing scams. If you’re in the market for both tools, several VPN providers have released broader security suites, like NordVPN and Surfshark One, that bundle a VPN and antivirus in one package. Some even include additional options such as password managers and identity theft protection. 

Whether or not you need a VPN depends on how important your digital privacy is to you. If the idea of companies being able to monitor your activities gives you pause, then it is worth adding a VPN to your security toolkit. Data has become a valuable currency for advertisers, companies, and bad actors. We think it is best to limit nonconsenting access to personal information wherever possible.

How a VPN Works

How to Choose a VPN

Choosing the right VPN will come down to personal preference, but we can give you a framework for making that decision by going over the most useful features to look for. When we test and review VPNs, we consider a handful of key metrics. 

Privacy is the most important aspect of a VPN. If it logs information and has a history of handing over user data, then it’s already not making the top of our list. We look for VPNs that have accessible and easy-to-read privacy policies that explain what measures the companies take to protect user data. Next, we look for third-party audits by security companies like Cure53 and KPMG. These audits are done by external firms that verify (or shed light on holes) in the VPN’s claims. Then, we look for real-world scenarios where the VPN has had its policies tested by authoritative agencies. We evaluate the VPN’s response and take particular note of companies that did not retain or hand over user data.

Once we understand how a VPN handles data, we look at its features. At a minimum, a VPN service should allow you to connect at least five devices simultaneously. The best services easily surpass this requirement, and some now place no limit on simultaneous connections. Another baseline requirement is that a VPN service should allow P2P traffic on its servers.

It’s also useful to know where a VPN company is based. This isn’t always the business’s physical location, but a legal distinction that explains what jurisdiction the company calls home. The local laws may (or may not) mean that these companies are not beholden to data retention laws. Companies that are headquartered in a set of countries known as the Five-Eyes Alliance (FVEY) have a data-sharing agreement that can be a cause for concern. Operating in one of these countries isn’t an automatic sign that the VPN keeps data. However, it could mean that, if the VPN does retain data, it could share it with international law enforcement or government agencies. 

Unlike this VPN server, Mullvad is located in Switzerland. (Credit: Mullvad/PCMag)

Speed is another major player. We perform extensive speed testing to determine the fastest VPNs and ensure connecting to a VPN won’t unreasonably bog down your data. That said, speed is a difficult factor to definitively measure. Our testing environment is a good indicator of speed in that region, on that specific hardware, and during that particular time. Many factors can impact performance from hour to hour, let alone week to week. Because of this, we regularly reassess our testing to provide an accurate average experience. However, your experience may not be reflective of ours, so it is best to take speed tests with a grain of salt and not use them as your main deciding factor.

While we review a lot of VPNs, our list of ones that we wholeheartedly recommend is slim. We spend a lot of time trying to determine if a VPN is trustworthy before we pass along our verdict to readers. We do this by talking directly with companies, reviewing their policies, and digging into their history. Where you draw the line on trust is personal, but we only recommend VPNs that we would be comfortable trusting with our personal information. 

Our final consideration is price. The average among the VPNs we’ve reviewed is around $10 per month. A VPN that charges a couple of dollars more or less isn’t necessarily a problem, but you should take a keen look at what features it is adding (or neglecting) to justify that price point. You can usually get a discount if you buy longer-term contracts. However, we recommend avoiding long commitments until you’re sure you’re happy with the service. Start with a short-term or, better yet, free subscription to test a VPN in your home before you take the plunge on an annual (or longer) plan.

Should I Pay for a VPN?

Yes. Good free VPNs are out there, but they invariably come with caveats. It’s best to avoid completely free VPNs, as these services often take payment in the form of your data, which is exactly what you should be trying to avoid. The best bet is a premium VPN’s free version or trial. VPNs like Windscribe have free subscriptions, but limit the data that free subscribers can use. Proton VPN is one of the only truly free options without major drawbacks. It is our top choice for free VPNs because it places no data limitation on free users. Sadly, most VPNs are far from free, but you don’t need to break the bank to get one. Our list of cheap VPNs is a great place to start if money is tight.

Getting Started With a VPN

Now that you’ve done the hard part and picked a VPN, you’ll want to get it up and running. Most providers make this easy, though it can feel counterintuitive if you’ve never worked with these apps before. For many VPNs, you actually have to sign up and pay before you can download the desktop app. Mobile users on iOS or Android will have it much easier, since those downloads are controlled by their respective app stores. 

Once you’ve installed the app, you’re usually prompted to enter your login information. In most cases, this is the username and password you created when you signed up for the service. Some companies, such as IVPN and Mullvad, use privacy-protecting anonymous login schemes that can initially be confusing. Be sure to read the instructions carefully.

Mullvad uses an account system that only requires your account number to access. (Credit: Mullvad/PCMag)

Once logged in, your VPN app will likely auto-connect or prompt you to connect to the VPN server closest to your current location. That’s done to provide better speeds when using the VPN, as performance degrades the farther the VPN server is from your actual location. The best VPNs route your traffic through a server designed to provide you with the best speeds, but the closest and fastest servers aren’t always the same, especially during peak hours.

As far as the basics are concerned, that’s it! Your information is now being securely tunneled to the VPN server. More advanced users or those interested in more control over the VPN can go the route of manual installation without an app. This process involves changing the operating system settings to use the VPN service’s infrastructure. Most VPN services will have documentation on how to configure your devices.

TunnelBear has a friendly interface and offers a free subscription. (Credit: TunnelBear/PCMag)

That said, we discourage general users from going down this path right away. Manual configuration does give you a more advanced toolkit to work with, but it means you’ll have to manually keep the server information on your computer up to date. See our story on how to set up a VPN in Windows 11 for a deeper dive if you’re considering this path.

How to Choose the Right VPN Server

Picking the right server will depend on what you’re trying to accomplish. You might not want to be connected to the server the VPN app recommends every time. Many VPNs offer specialized servers for streaming, gaming, or torrenting.

Proton has a list of available servers, but you can also use an interactive map. (Credit: Proton/PCMag)

You may also want to pick a regional server to access certain sites or content, since services like Netflix can block VPNs. Then there are servers that offer enhanced security options, such as access to multi-hop. Multi-hop routes your traffic through multiple VPN servers before sending it out, which increases your privacy at the cost of speed. Whatever the reason, the best VPNs let you quickly and easily jump to a different server on demand.

Proton brands its multi-hop connections as Secure Core because its servers are given additional levels of physical security. (Credit: Proton/PCMag)

Advanced VPN Features to Look For

Each VPN has a different set of features, so we can only generalize what you might see when you open the app’s settings. However, we encourage you to read the documentation and explore the app.

Most VPN services include a kill switch, which prevents your computer from transmitting information if the VPN disconnects. This is helpful in preventing small bits of data from sneaking through unencrypted. If you suddenly find that the internet has cut out, check if your VPN’s kill switch has been tripped. If it hasn’t, then your unencrypted data was likely picked up by your ISP. A good VPN will trigger the kill switch every time without fail. 

Some VPNs allow you to select a VPN protocol. This can be intimidating since the protocols have weird names, and companies rarely provide information about them and what changing the protocol will do. In general, you can leave this alone and let the VPN automatically select one for you.

If you’re interested, though, WireGuard is the most common VPN protocol. It’s open source, boasts the newest encryption technology, and might be faster than other protocols. OpenVPN and IKEv2 are good choices, too.

If you’re concerned about VPNs slowing your connections or blocking important traffic, you should consider a VPN with split-tunneling. Names for this feature vary by company, but the gist is that you can decide which apps use the VPN for their traffic and which can transmit without it. TunnelBear, for example, includes an option not to tunnel any Apple apps to ensure they function properly on a Mac. Frequent gamers who need a VPN may want this option to keep their latency low.

Some VPNs have settings that allow your machine to communicate with local devices (that is, LAN devices or devices on the same network), which may also help. However, remember that even with LAN traffic and split tunneling, applications that let you remotely cast media to other devices, like Chromecast and Apple AirPlay, often don’t play nice with VPNs.

When Should I Use a VPN?

We recommend connecting to a VPN whenever possible to protect your privacy. If privacy isn’t a concern and you just want to access streaming content, then you can leave it off until you need to access a certain catalog. If you’re mostly worried about shady Wi-Fi networks, maybe your VPN only comes out when traveling. At a minimum, you should use a VPN whenever you’re using a network you don’t control, especially if it’s a public Wi-Fi network.

Most devices automatically connect to any familiar-looking Wi-Fi network. That’s out of convenience to you, but it’s trivially simple to impersonate a Wi-Fi network. Your phone or laptop may connect to a digital honeypot without you realizing it. This and other exotic attacks are, by definition, rare. Understanding all threats out there is still useful, however.

VPNs for Android and iPhones are a little trickier, particularly if you frequently move in and out of cellular coverage. Each time you lose and regain data connectivity, the VPN has to reconnect, which can be frustrating as it can interrupt calls and downloads.

NordVPN has a coherent design across all platforms, including iOS. (Credit: NordVPN/PCMag)

Ultimately, a VPN will make monitoring your web traffic harder for your ISP and others. They can also help access blocked streaming content, making it harder for you to be tracked online. Everything else depends on the VPN you pick. Once you understand what you want a VPN for, you’ll be able to find one that meets your needs.

Chris Stobing contributed to this article.

About Justyn Newman

Senior Security Analyst

I’ve been writing about technology since 2012, focusing on privacy. With companies vying for user data, AI skimming it for tools, and countless bad actors seeking to exploit it, safeguarding the information we put onto the internet is more important than ever. I have always been passionate about protecting user privacy, data, and anonymity. Prior to joining PCMag as a senior analyst to cover VPNs, I was the lead editorial manager at WizCase, where I spent four years honing in on the finer details of privacy networks and tools.

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