While you might argue that the sole purpose of a VPN is to help protect your online privacy, there are many people who are using a virtual private network service without knowing exactly what it does. What they know about VPN is that it can help them access the sites that are blocked by the government or the ISP. They don’t know that the virtual private network is also capable of protecting their network connection from various online threats as well as keep their browsing sessions anonymous.
Due to this lack of knowledge, many people are using VPN without second thoughts, and they use the service without actually checking the privacy policy of the service providers. As a result, they don’t fully take advantage of the anonymity feature provided by the VPN service. If you are one of these users, you should consider taking the full advantage of your VPN’s online anonymity feature. Here are 5 tips to maximize the anonymity of your VPN connection:
1. Don’t Just Install The VPN App On Your Browser
Many VPN services provide the users with the browser extensions for their VPN apps although the number of supported browsers might vary. However, most services will at least provide one browser extension that the users can install on their browser, so that the data transmissions that are done via that browser will become encrypted. Unfortunately, most users will only install the VPN on their browser, meaning that they will only benefit from the privacy protection for as long as they use such a browser. If you want to maximize your anonymity, you should not only install the VPN app on your browser, but on your OS platform as well.
2. Install Your VPN On All Devices That You Have
If you want to get the full benefit of online protection from the virtual private network service that you use, it is always better to install the VPN apps on all devices that you have. Not only that you should install it on your mobile devices, like most people do, but also you should install it on your desktop computers, Linux machines, smart TV, or even game consoles. Of course, you might not be able to install the VPN app directly on certain devices like game consoles and smart TV, but you can always install it on your router.
3. Check Your Private Connection For IP Address And DNS Leak
Using a VPN connection doesn’t mean that your connection is fully anonymous yet unless you check whether there is an IP address or DNS leak. There are certain websites that you can use to check whether your private connection is leaking your IP address or DNS information. You can use those websites to check whether your network connection is fully private before you use the connection to do your regular online activities. The IP address and DNS address leak might not be apparent immediately unless you check it with the IP address and DNS leak checker website.
4. Make Sure That The Kill Switch And Firewall Feature Is On
Your online activity won’t matter much if you suddenly have your private connection turned off due to certain reasons. In fact, for a VPN service, connection drops are quite common. So, in order to prevent your VPN connection from leaking your real information online while it is experiencing connection drops, you should turn on the kill switch feature to prevent it from happening. This feature will help you to turn off the whole network connection in the event when you experience connection drops in your private connection. Also, be sure to turn on the firewall feature to protect your devices from hackers and other online threats.
5. Use A Dedicated Private IP Address
Some VPN services will offer you to use a dedicated private IP address instead of using a shared private IP address. They will offer this service to you for an additional price. However, in return, you will get the full benefit of anonymity in your online activity because your dedicated private IP address is the IP address that is used only by you. It is not being used by other VPN users, so you use the dedicated IP address from the VPN service provider just like you use the dedicated IP address from your ISP. It will give you lots more privacy protection benefits in your online activity.
Those are the tips to maximize the anonymity of your VPN connection. Don’t just use your VPN connection to access blocked websites. Use it to maximize your online anonymity by following these tips.