Using VPN For First Time - Experiences ?
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mike88 last edited by
Being a longtime user of Opera I understand that it has a free VPN feature but there is little official info about it on the web. I wondered what the benefits of using it would be, and whether it is reliable, easy to switch off etc , don't want to get stuck in another Country ! Also is it as secure as browsing "normally" or does it have its limitations ?
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leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by
The purpose of a VPN is to hide the user's true IP address, so if you don't really need to to it then the VPN may not be that useful for you.
When you use a VPN, all your traffic - in this case, your traffic in Opera - goes through the VPN server(s), so it being secure or not may depend on how much you trust the VPN provider.
Opera's built-in VPN is very easy to turn on and off, you just need to click on the VPN icon at the left of the address bar. Only when enabling for the first time you need to do it in settings page.
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A Former User last edited by
With the help of a VPN you can surf more anonymously: Websites can no longer collect your IP address, which was assigned to you by your Internet provider (and which could be traced back to you via this provider). Instead, website operators only see the IP address that belongs to Opera's VPN. And your internet provider does not know which pages you have visited.
In addition, the VPN offers a security gain because the data traffic is additionally encrypted.
The disadvantage of almost all free VPN offers is that the servers are often overloaded. I use Opera's VPN almost continuously, and the surfing becomes measurably slower thereby. Sometimes connections fail completely with timed-out errors etc.
Some websites evaluate the IP address of their visitors in order to be automatically displayed in the appropriate language. Depending on the selected VPN this may mean that you have to look for the option to change that website's language to a language you understand.
In order not to endanger your anonymity when using a VPN, you should remain alert: For example, there are extensions that could bypass the VPN setting, revealing your "real" IP. Also, some websites use scripts to determine whether a VPN is being used. And there are settings (for example "Bypass VPN for default search engines" or the WebRTC settings) to consider.
