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You may know what a VPN is but still feel a bit leery about using one. After all, hiding your digital tracks and appearing as if youre somewhere else sounds interesting, but how do you actually make it work? In this simple tutorial well show you how.
If you look over our overview of the best VPNs, youll notice that there are more than a few options to choose from, all of which have their own interface and way of working. For this guide, were going to use our favourite all-round service, NordVPN, which we find is among the most user-friendly (read our full-length NordVPN review for more on why we like it).
That said, NordVPN doesnt set the standard, either, so wherever we feel its necessary to point out how another service performs a specific function, we will. Now, with disclaimers out of the way, let’s take a look at how to use VPNs.
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How to use a VPN: the basics
To use a VPN, you need to first sign up for one and install it. In the case of NordVPN, its as simple as going to the website, entering your email address, payment information and creating account credentials, like your password.
Then go to the downloads page in your account, and pick the flavour of OS youre using (note that the Linux version is just run in the command line, theres no graphical interface).
Once youve downloaded the installer, let it do its thing. It will install a desktop icon and once the installation is finished, click on it.
The program will open and youll be greeted by NordVPNs main interface. This is just a map of the world from where you can choose places to connect to. However, if you dont want to use the map, you can also use the menu on the left; either way works.
When you click on a server location, youll be connected automatically. If, instead, you click on quick connect in the bottom right of the screen, youll be directed to your closest server. Whichever way you go, youll see that NordVPN is connecting and, once the connection is made, youll receive a pop-up notification to tell you that youre ready to go.
Where to connect to
While its nice to have the whole world open to you (in a manner of speaking), you may be wondering where to connect to. While its difficult to give concrete advice on this, here are a few general guidelines.
If your main concern is privacy and making sure youre not tracked, then try and stay as close to home as you can. If youre based in the UK, find a server close to yourself. There are a few places you can pick from (though you can always use quick connect if youre not sure).
You want to stay as close to home as possible because the distance between yourself and the server will affect your connection speed. If youre in London and connect to Manchester or Glasgow the drop in speed should be negligible, but connect to New York or Tokyo and youll feel the difference.
As such, we recommend you dont connect to faraway servers unless you have to: if you want to access Netflixs much larger selection of shows in the United States, for instance. Connecting from the UK, though, youll want to prioritise East Coast servers over ones on the West Coast to keep speeds up.
If youre ever having trouble with a specific server maybe its too slow, or it keeps disconnecting you just switch over to another one by disconnecting via the button in the bottom right.
To find a better one, instead of clicking on a country, simply select an individual server by clicking on the three dots next to a countrys name and then using the drop-down menu next to the word server.
Annoyingly, NordVPN numbers its servers, which makes it hard to find a specific one. If youre worried about this happening a lot, use ExpressVPN, instead. This names servers according to location.
Specialty servers and options
Now weve covered the basics of using a VPN, lets take a look at some more advanced abilities. NordVPN is one of the very few services to offer what it calls specialty servers: servers that have a specific function.
Of these, only the P2P servers, which are meant for torrenting, are useful. Double VPN only slows your connection down for no appreciable benefit, while the Onion over VPN connection is only for people that want to connect to the dark web, and even then is of questionable utility.
The upshot is that if your VPN of choice offers torrenting servers, use those. However, if it doesnt, just use standard servers. In the end, there doesnt seem to be much difference.
Other Settings
Generally speaking, no matter which VPN you use, youre best off always checking a few functions in the settings menu. Again, well use NordVPN as an example, mostly because its options are quite comprehensive. But the below counts for most other VPNs, too.
Before we go on, though, be warned: here be dragons! Unless you know exactly what youre doing, do not mess with most settings.The wrong toggle can put your security at risk, especially if you start messing with things like protocols and security systems.
In the case of NordVPN, the settings menu looks something like this:
The general and auto-connect settings explain themselves and can be messed with freely. They mostly are ease-of-life tweaks that determine when and how the VPN connects. Weve never seen a VPN that didnt offer options like this, so set them as you see fit. The interesting stuff is found below, under the killswitch tab.
A killswitch disconnects your device from the internet if the VPN fails for any reason. Unlike almost every other competitor, NordVPN has this disabled by default. Contrary to our own earlier advice, were going to recommend that you switch this on so youre sure to be protected even if the server is on the blink.
Other things you could look out for are split tunnelling, which lets you decide which apps use the VPN and which dont, as well as torrenting or streaming related options; these can differ a lot depending on your VPN.
Besides the killswitch, though, we doubt most users will need to access the settings menu. All you really need to use NordVPN is the main screen and the connect button. Have fun, and stay safe out there!
