Personal VPN for computer and mobile

[Goshute]

I'm reading a lot about the security advantages of Personal VPN. I'm familiar with corporate VPNs, but the personal arena is new to me.

Does a personal VPN really have security advantages? Anyone using VPN on their personal PC or Mobile? Comments? Pros and Cons? International travel issues? Recommendations?

[StuartR]

I use a personal VPN most of the time. I would never use public WiFi without it.

The advantages are:

• All packets between you and the internet backbone are encrypted. This not only protects your privacy but also prevents MiTM (Man in the middle) attacks, where someone sits between you and the target site modifying packets.
• Routing is protected, so if you connect to a false-flag WiFi hot spot, or even a fake cell phone tower your communication is still safe.

Edited to add
Also your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can't see where you are visiting. Most VPN services guarantee not to keep logs except if forced to by a court, so the history of your internet activity is not available to scammers etc.

[StuartR]

I tried NordVPN for a few months, with lots of foreign travel. I found that the performance hit was too large for much of my activity and I kept having to disable it. I am currently using CactusVPN which has much better performance. I use the VPN for my Android phone and tablet, as well as my Windows laptop.

[StuartR]

Post moved from Networking forum, to Security, as that is where we have other discussions of VPN.

[Goshute]

...currently using CactusVPN which has much better performance...for my Android phone and tablet, as well as my Windows laptop.

Thanks, Stuart, I'll try Cactus for a while.

[StuartR]

If you use CactusVPN on a Windows PC then the performance will be MUCH better if you use the open source SoftEther VPN client, rather than the CactusVPN one.

https://www.cactusvpn.com/tutorials/how ... n-windows/