Virtual Private Network or VPN are services that allows you to securely explore the internet without the risk of being censored or plainly hacked by cybercriminals but there is more to that fact because as the online word becomes more crowded with billions of people on the daily, there are some companies that harvests information and data from people’s browser and sell those to advertisers or some other worst organizations.

Being able to perform things such as internet payment transactions needs to be done securely which is one reason that internet browser developers made it obligatory that anyone should always include “HTTPS” which basically secure internet requests.

But speaking of VPN, this is a complete life saver especially for anyone that is working from home at this period of the COVID-19 pandemic since not many people will be having the luxury of using their company’s internet network which is usually secured. Doing it on your own require that you understand what is best for you and whatever it is you are doing.

As mentioned earlier, secured communications between client browsers and servers are super important for successful transaction of information or they’d be grabbed and stolen by hackers who basically make money online by selling those information stolen in dark web. Data that can be stolen includes Passwords, account information, contact address and any other relevant information.

As a business owner or an employee who is working away from office or maybe you’re just an individual wjo wants to enjoy the internet without much fear, then you should understand that the use of VPN service is really essential to the success of you surfing the web securely.

As of today, there are hundreds of VPN services across the world basically offering really great option to anyone that wants to use their services. One of such service which I’ve used in the past on my Android device is CMVPN which is basically free.

The advantage of free VPN services like this allows you to securely connect to the internet securely while mimicking a different location. Say you’re in China and since the country bans the consumption of some US Based services such as YouTube and Facebook, you can just switch your location to the US and that’s it. But then another interesting thing about this free service is that you can use them anytime but let’s go ahead and talk about advantages and disadvantages of free VPN services.

Because they’re free, you can get to use them on any device that you want assuming the one you picked is cross-platform. Take HotSpot Shield as an example, the company has a cross-platform VPN application which works both on mobile and desktop computers and that way, you can have a 24/7 secured connection to the internet.

While they’re free, there is usually some hurdle that comes with it, big traffic which leads us to the disadvantages quickly. Since there are too many people who are also trying to use it for free just like you, there might just be some lags while surfing the web and that might not be good for you especially if you’re using it to transact business.

Aside the lag, freemium account generally have limitations and this mostly hurt how far you can go with free VPN services. While there are still some that offer really great option despite being free, some just suck at it. Some also limit how many hours you can use the service per 24 hours which means you’ll be needing to turn it off every once in a while.

In the past, I’ve tried a number of VPN services myself and i permanently think CM VPN is among the free ones out there and then I got the 1.1.1.1, VPN Hub and Thunder VPN are other great alternatives which I tried and they all worked fine. In fact, the aforementioned VPN all have great reviews from users who have seen how cool they are.

So if you want to have a secure communication with the internet at all times, it will be good to do the following as it will ensure your safely surfing of the internet at all times possible.

STEP ONE: IS you need to know whether you’re going to be using the connection on your home or cloud network which means you need to decide if you’ll be connecting to your home or just office network as that would require you having a router. Another thing that can help make that possible is to purchase a small server if you’re a small business owner as that can become your VPN endpoint.

But as an individual user who basically want to use VPN for secure communication over the internet, then you can opt for our list of best VPN services. There are infact some applications that can run both on either Mac or PC as mentioned above.

STEP TWO: is to consider the speed of the connection as that is one super important thing to consider when opting for a VPN service especially in 2020. Though there is now 5G, the LTE network is basically still what is more common as 5G is still out of reach despite numerous smartphone makers are now increasing the numbers but the popularity of the 5G network is dependent on carriers.

That said, you need to avoid the super-slow VPN service providers as that will hurt your business and work badly which isn’t good in itself. But that aside, the next thing after safety is speed and that is why speed is an important factor to consider when picking a VPN service.

STEP THREE: is to pick which service offer the most secured communication protocols which is especially an important factor for any business owner. While PPTP have had it’s own time, it might just be a good idea to opt for providers who offer OpenVPN and L2TP/IPsec.

While OpenVPN might come first on many list as being the best secure protocol for VPN provision, it’s just not supported on smartphones but if you’re operating solely from a computer such as Mac, then this shouldn’t be a drawback for you. Meanwhile L2TP/IPsec is supported on smartphones and tablets meanwhile most VPN providers offer both depending on which service you go for.

STEP FOUR: Is to ensure your provider protects your data and privacy securely. While it’s possible to use some browsers in complete incognito, it might be ideal to have a well secured VPN just as I’ve mentioned above that the internet is a really hostile place and you want to secure all your data and information well enough in order to not fall into the wrong hands which could cost you or your business a lot.

STEP FIVE: As a business owner, using a free VPN service might not be a good idea especially if you’re running an e-commerce store. or you use your server to send email messages and anything which is deemed business-worthy. Meanwhile the capacity of most free providers are quite limited and that could affect how well you can perform and there are in fact some fake services which offers free VPN solution but are just plain liars.

Which is why you should always pay attention to comment sections and reviews on Google Play store and Apple App store. In most cases, people who’ve had bad experience will usually voice out their dissatisfaction publicly on these platforms and that can guide your decision.

Sven Dietrich, associate professor at CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice and former senior security architect at NASA, said, “A VPN can be of great benefit by securing legitimate business activity behind a somewhat opaque layer, but it can also be an authorized conduit for malicious activity into the small business network.”