Virtual Private Network, known as VPN for short, has grown in popularity among Nigerian internet users after the Government’s suspension of Twitter in the country.
On Friday, June 4, this year, the Nigerian government suspended the operations of Twitter in the country and accused the American tech giant of meddling in the country’s affairs.
Though Twitter continued functioning for some hours after the government’s announcement, Nigerian tweeps woke up the next day denied access to the social networking platform.
VPN can let users change their IP address, the unique identifier of a device on the internet, or a local network, to make them appear as though they are in a different country.
The government-ordered blockade of Twitter access by telecoms companies and internet service providers (ISPs) led Nigerians to seek alternatives that resulted in the massive download of various VPN apps.
VPN allows you to access geo-blocked websites and content from all around the world. VPN can let users change their IP address, the unique identifier of a device on the internet, or a local network, to make them appear as though they are in a different country.
In addition, a good VPN will secure your internet connection, protect your privacy, and hide your identity, keeping you safe from hackers or anyone else who might be trying to track your online activity.
But with all the benefits that come with using VPN, many people tend to forget that there can also be a few of these disadvantages:
VPN slows down your connection speed
Everything said above that VPN can help you do actually comes at the price of a very slow connection. While this may sound like no serious problem, but we all know nobody enjoys sitting and waiting for websites to load or for streaming content to finish buffering.
VPN may cause disconnection and unintended consequence
After downloading the VPN, a user may discover that while busy browsing, you may be suddenly disconnected. This requires you to reconnect, which can be slightly frustrating. The main problem with this, however, is not just the inconvenience of having to reconnect, it is that the moment your encrypted connection drops, your real IP address is exposed, and you are no longer anonymous.
VPN configuration is no child’s play
If your VPN is not configured properly, you may experience IP and DNS leaks that make your private data vulnerable to hackers and other online threats.
While it was necessary to point out these downsides of VPN, however, the advantages of VPN, particularly as bypass technology, far outweigh the obvious disadvantages
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