If you pay any attention to my blog, you’ll know that for the last 3 years I have been living abroad. The world has many wonderful aspects to it (the mountains are GORGEOUS!), but stable and safe internet service is not one of those. My friend recently took her computer back to the States after a trip abroad to be repaired and the tech guy said she had more than 200 viruses on her system.
So if you aren’t looking to break firewalls and get into sites you shouldn’t be getting into, why would you want a VPN? You can find my list of the pros and cons of a VPN here. In general, I like the security a VPN provides to me, whether at home or abroad. I still use my VPNs in the US, especially if at a public location to avoid the same hacks, viruses, and trojans I worry about while traveling. A VPN can help keep you fast and safe. Sometimes. Depending on which VPN you choose. Also, it sometimes helps me bypass technical issues in the system. For example, my university uses Blackboard, but it does have random glitches that drop it a lot. About 25% of the time, it only works if the teachers use a VPN. When other teachers are down and out, those with a VPN can still get on.
To be honest, I actually go back and forth between Astrill and VyprVPN which runs at about $80/year for 1 device or $100/year for 2 device. Another one recommended to be was ExpressVPN which runs at about $100/year for 1 device and 1 phone/ipad (I’ve never tried them so I have nothing to give you for Express).
After more than 3 years as an Astrill user, I thought I would offer you a report on how it’s going. Continue reading →
Tags: Asia, Astrill, Life Abroad, Teaching Abroad, TESL, Travel, Virtual Private Network, VPN, Vypr
Deceptively Blonde 