What VPN stands for

For a long time only the geekiest nerds knew anything about VPNs, but that's changed thanks to the popularity of services like Netflix. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and is a very fancy way of saying that your data is kept secure by passing it through a separate connection when it travels over the public Internet.

What you might not realize is that the data you send across the Internet is not secure, even if you think it's safe because you used a password, or because you're using your browser to hide your identity. None of this is true. The only way to transfer data/use the Internet is to hide your data inside another connection, and this is exactly what a VPN does for you.

So, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) works like this -  you connect your computer, or other device, to the Internet. Once you're online you then use VPN software to create a connection to a secure server in the same country as you, or usually in another country altogether. Once your VPN connection is established whatever data you send across the Internet is then routed through this second connection, making it complete secure.

The best way to imagine a VPN is that it creates a tunnel through the public Internet, and your Internet connection is hidden inside that tunnel. That's why you'll hear some tech heads talking about things like "tunneling protocols". There's no need to get into any of that to understand what a VPN can do for you.

For years VPNs were used to help business people connect to their office servers to collect emails, or view the company's Intranet site. VPNs back then were tricky to use, with unstable software, and physical password devices required. These days VPNs are very easy to use, and give you the level of Internet privacy you've always been entitled to in the first place. They're also an ideal way to access geographically locked content. One example of this is being able to access US-only content when you're based in France. Netflix is one perfect example of why more and more people are using VPNs, even though it's ridiculous that Netflix is forcing paying customers to use a VPN to access content they're already paying for. But anyways...

So what VPN stands for is Virtual Private Network, but what it really offers you is a secure, private way to connect to the Internet without anyone being able to snoop on you.

Using a VPN as a firewall...kinda

I'd never really considered this until recently but a VPN is actually a pretty effective type of virtual firewall really - there's not just a software or middleware layer of protection between you and any potential attacker. What you have instead is a range of closely monitored servers that are patched and protected against all types of weird hacker attacks so even if a hacker or other cyber criminal does decide to attack your VPN connection their intrusion will be spotted immediately by the folks at Hide My Ass VPN and they'll be stopped cold.

Now just becase you'll be connected via a VPN DOES NOT mean that you can go online without firewall or antivirus software - in fact you'd be nuts to ever go online without full and proper software protection. Using HMA VPN just means that you're adding even more security to your connection, you might take a bit of a speed hit on your connection but it also means your connection is more than 100% secure which is a good trade off from where I stand.

In a world where cyber crime and identity theft is on the rise every single day you're going to need every single advantage you can get your hands on and a Hide My Ass VPN account is the easiest way for any average computer user to use a VPN set up. Plus there's all the other advantages it offers too.

Using A VPN for Anonymous Web Surfing

Hide My Ass VPN It only takes a few crooks to make any town a dangerous place and the same thing has happened in the online world - except cyber criminals can be far harder to spot and are usually far more technically capable than you. So you need to make sure your computer is as secure as possible and that you do everything you can to mask your real identity online. One of the simplest and quickest ways to do this is to hide your IP address.

Now if you want to hide your IP address you'll have a choice of either using a proxy of some kind, which is not a bad idea but you're limited in the amount of protection and anonymity it gives you. WIth the proxy you're still connecting using your own Internet connection which means you're also fully exposed to any potential online risks. Basically it won't take very much for a hacker to trace back through a proxy and attack your connection plus when you're using a proxy you're generally relying on a handful of IP addresses and changing them is a pain in the ass too!

A VPN service like Hide My Ass gives you access to over 33,000 IPs spread across 287 severs in 51 different countries so any hacker trying to track you down is going to have a hard time if you can change your IP address with a single mouse click - which you can with HMA. The Internet was designed to be a resource used by everyone minus the politics and policing that we have to experience in other aspects of our lives but fortunately using something like Hide My Ass means that your online browsing habits are kept entirely private.

On top of keeping your online stuff anonymous using a VPN is also a great idea for sending or receiving sensitive information. In fact in my old daytime jobs when I used to work overseas I could only connect to our office network via a token-based (RSA) secure VPN connection. Why? Well folks the public Internet is full of hackers looking for unsecure connections and IP addresses to attack - any business with an ounce of sense will never, ever send sensitive documents or data over a standard Internet connection; VPN is the only smart way to do this.

So if you do value your privacy then you need to seriously consider using a secure and easy-to-use VPN service.

The Hide My Ass (HMA Pro) VPN Service

If you've never heard of Hide My Ass VPN before then relax because I'm going to use this blog to introduce you to one of my favorite tech finds ever. For what this service costs and what it offers me in return it's a no-brainer. Actually if you're involved in any form of SEO, Internet marketing, market research or you're just concerned about your online safety and privacy (thanks Edward Snowden!) then using a service like Hide My Ass (HMA) will be pretty much perfect for you.

I'm sure when you hear the words "virtual private network" your eyes automatically gloss over and you just mentally switch off - it all sounds very complicated doesn't it? A virtual private network basically allows a group of computer to communicate with each other but with an added layer of security because your "data" isn't being sent over the Internet publicly - instead it's travelling through a kind of private data "tunnel" - that's why it's called "private" networking.

If you were going about creating your own virtual private network then yes it could get pretty complicated and you do need a certain level of technical skill to create one. But with Hide My Ass VPN all you need to down is sign up for an account, create a username and password and then simply download the software and connect yourself to it. You won't need to worry about anything except choosing which server you want to be connected to and that's that - and there are literally thousands of different servers in different countries that you can use.

But why even use a VPN and how can it benefit you? Relax folks I'm going to explain all of that and even show you Hide My Ass VPN in action over the next few posts.

In fact once you've used the Hide My Ass VPN service you'll be wondering how you ever managed without it!