You can even pretend to be somewhere else and spoof your location by connecting to a VPN in a different country. Your IP address is closely tied to your geographic location, so hiding it effectively prevents observers from figuring out where you are. The VPN server also hides your true location, because any observer monitoring your activities will see the VPN server's IP address and not your own. Because your web traffic appears to be coming from the VPN server, correlating it to you is much more difficult than if you didn't have a VPN. When you use a VPN, advertisers and three-letter agencies will have a harder time tracking you across the web. Even your ISP will be effectively blinded when it comes to monitoring your traffic. If there's someone lurking on your network or, worse, the owner of the access point has configured it to steal information, they won't see a thing. Your web traffic travels through this tunnel, and it exits to the wide-open web from the VPN server to which you are connected.

When you switch it on, a VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and a server controlled by the VPN service. That's why you need a virtual private network, or VPN. Even though the more secure HTTPS is successfully becoming the standard for web browsing, it doesn't protect everything and won't guard against threats lurking on public Wi-Fi or your own network. Unfortunately, not much has changed since the words fiat web were spoken.

And it was pretty good, albeit lacking in critical privacy and security controls. In fact, you can manually configure Windows 10 to use a VPN, as we'll explain-although you'll still need a subscription to a VPN service. While VPN companies provide apps to make setting up their products a breeze, that's not the only approach you can take. When you use a virtual private network, or VPN, you can rest assured that spies and advertisers aren't sniffing around your traffic, and it won't be intercepted by ne'er-do-wells, even if they're on the same network as you.

How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.

How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.

How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.

How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill.

How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad.

How to Block Robotexts and Spam Messages.

Windows 10 pro setup