4 Reasons Why You Should Use a VPN Today

Shalom Solomon 8th June, 2021

In the wake of the recent Twitter ban in Nigeria, a lot of Nigerians have been troubled. Twitter as a social media app does not only serve as a means of communication and socialization.It has grown in years past to become a tool for marketing, for networking, for communication and in the case of social media influencers, a source of income. The short of it is that some businesses actually use Twitter to carry out their operations.
The ban imposed by the Nigerian Federal Government would cripple a lot of these activities.

But, despite the restrictions placed by Internet service providers like Airtel, MTN, Glo and Etisalat, people have found a way around the ban on the social media application. Businesses are back on Twitter, people are still tweeting.
How? With a VPN
What is a VPN, how does it work?

This would be the focus of this post.

What are VPNs?

VPN is an acronym for Virtual Private Network. Cristina on AVG defines VPN as

"a private network that encrypts and transmits data while it travels from one place to another on the internet."

Therefore, using a VPN to connect to the internet would allow you to browse the contents of websites privately, anonymously and securely as well as gain access to restricted web content. This is especially for countries like Nigeria and China with bans on the use of certain social media apps.

Are VPNs a Recent Invention?

Nope, they aren't.
VPNs have been around for quite some time, way back to around the 1990s. The first VPN was invented by a Microsoft employee Gurdeep Singh-Pall. Who started working on a Peer To Peer Tunnelling Protocol (PPTP) and in 1999, it was published.
VPNs were first developed by businesses and companies only for communication and transfer of documents and files between their employees.

After some time, VPNs were improved to a better version with better security.
Techies soon discovered that individuals could also benefit from the security and anonimity offered by VPNs. Bam! That's how we have many VPNs today, all around the world making life easier for everyone.

Are VPNs Legal?

VPNs are still very much legal in Nigeria according to most recent research. There is no rule outlawing the use of VPNs in Nigeria and most countries, so you are free to download and use one.But, using VPNs for illegal stuff remains illegal and can get you sanctioned.

Types of VPN

There are two basic forms of VPNs are classified based on their protocol.

A VPN protocol is the type of technology the Virtual Private Network provider uses to secure and encrypt your data.

1. Open VPN

2. Peer to Peer Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)

1. OpenVPN

This simply means that the source code of the VPN is open (available) to anyone mostly developers to go through.

Which is a good thing because, the VPN provider would not be able to do things like steal users data without their consent.

Also, other developers can work on the VPN source code and improve on it. VPNs that use this type of protocol are usually better secured and are mostly not free.

2. PPTP VPN

The Peer to Peer Tunneling Protocol has been in use for a long time. It is the first type of protocol developed for VPNs.

It is also the most common VPN protocol because it is quite easy to set up. What's more, this type of protocol is used for most of the free VPN you see.

On the downside, it has a lot of loop holes especially security wise. So if you are looking for a VPN for security reasons, steer clear of those with this type of protocol.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Why Should You Use a VPN?

VPNs have a few wonderful benefits asides letting you gain access to certain banned social media platforms. Let's see what these are:

Security

Virtual Private networks encrypt your messages and online data. So when anyone tries to peek at your data, all they'd get is a bunch of scrambled data which is basically nonsense code if they cannot unscramble it.

Anonimity

On the internet, your IP address is your identity. It is the unique set of numbers that identifies your device when it is connected to the internet. It links to your internet service provider and your location too. Websites you visit would have access to this information. A VPN would replace your IP address with its own thereby letting you browse freely without trace.

Change Location

With a VPN, it is possible to change your location easily. Once you connect the internet using a VPN, your location automatically changes to the location of any of the VPN's servers.

This is why you can use a VPN to circumvent restrictions on the internet placed on certain locations.

Access to Restricted Content

If you live in a region where there are restrictions on using the internet or some apps, a VPN would allow you to access them.

Since your location changes to that of the VPN's when you connect to the internet through one of it's servers, you can get access to restricted content.

This is why you can browse, surf and download on the internet for free using a VPN.