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Anca Dinculescu
Jul 21, 2017 · 6 min read print again.

VPN APPs: What are the most important
features to have?

— -5 actionable tips that work for all — -

Photo Credit: Asaf Hanuka illustrator
Using an internet connection without a VPN in place has its
shortcomings. Ranging from security issues to data throttling and data
selling without consent, using a VPN to overcome these threats while
online has become increasingly popular nowadays. It is safe to say that
VPNs are a thing of mainstream culture today, rather than an exotic
tool for all the right reasons.

A few years ago, adopting a VPN was not the simplest of tasks for IT
managers for a number of reasons which included: deployment,
compatibility or interoperability issues and the expense of these
systems. Things have changed. VPNs are now entering the mainstream,
and many companies view them as a telecommunications necessity
from both security and cost perspectives.

Originally designed to reduce the costs of connecting branch o ces to

the main o ce of a business, VPNs addressed the concern of high costs
of leased lines and dedicated connections. The next matter-of-course
step was to adapt VPNs to individual remote use, for internal network
access and secure operations across the internet.

Widely used by companies to protect corporate data, Virtual Private

Networks took over the personal data arena, as well, to such a degree
that the use of a VPN has become an almost inalienable, “basic right”,
for virtually any kind of private data exposed to the internet.
Beyond connectivity a VPN implicitly means that a secure bridge has
been created between any given device using that connection and your
business server and that can be on your premises or in the cloud.

FEATURES TO LOOK FOR:
 Photo Credit: Gabriel Silveira illustrator

However, there is still a level of abstract that goes into a VPN

connection, especially the ones designed via cloud, since it’s an
intangible product and often little know in terms of what aVPN
connection should o er as features. As VPN providers ourselves we
listed some of the most important features that make the whole VPN
concept a bit more streamlined. When choosing a VPN provider we also
recommend reading reviews for speci c feed back from people who
already tried that VPN app.

* ENCRYPTION*
They say that a VPN is only as good as its encryption capabilities, but
encryption in itself is not the simplest of topics. The terminology used
to determine how secure a VPN connection is, can get very confusing,
very quickly.

OPEN VPN CYPHERS

AES- 128, the Open VPN Cipher used by My IP.io, remains secure as far
as the AES in general is regarded (AES stands for Advanced Encryption
Standard- right above AES-128 is the 256-bit keys — also known as the
AES-256, which is basically the same encryption standard adopted by
the U.S. government and used by security experts worldwide to
protect classi ed information.)

The mathematics of the 128 bit AES goes to show that a billion billion
years are required and a supercomputer for a brute force attack to crack
it. With this in mind we say that 128 is pretty impressive on its own.
PPP

In a remote- access VPN, tunneling typically relies on Point-to-point

Protocol (PPP). When searching for VPN apps you should come across
one of these three protocols based on PPP:

• L2F (Layer 2 Forwarding) — Developed by Cisco; uses any

authentication scheme supported by PPP;

• PPTP (Point-to-point Tunneling Protocol) — Supports 40-bit and

128-bit encryption and any authentication scheme supported by
PPP;

• L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol) — Combines features of PPTP

and L2F and fully supports IPSec; also applicable in site-to-site
VPNs
 Credit Photo: Adrià Fruitós — illustrator

SECURE SHELL — SSH

SSH, also known as Secure Socket Shell, is a network protocol that

provides administrators with a secure way to access a remote computer.
SSH also refers to the suite of three utilities that implement the
protocol: — slogin, ssh, and scp — that are secure versions of the earlier
UNIX utilities, rlogin, rsh, and rcp.
My IP.io comes bundled with a variety of VPN encryption protocols,
supporting all the latest security protocols including SSTP, PPTP,
IPSec, L2TP, SSTP and 128bit –AES, OpenVPN cipher.

*AUTO-RECONNECT AND PORT
FORWARDING*
One exciting feature is also port forwarding that enables you to connect
to considerably more seeds/peers. The disadvantage of port forwarding
is having an open port in your rewall, which always carries some
security risk, so as a rule, it is best to have as few ports open as possible.

*TRANSPARENCY*
Always go with the VPN provider that is most transparent about things
like: logging and the privacy policy they have in place.

*KILL SWITCH*
This is a feature that will make sure your IP Address isn’t accidentally
exposed in case of a dropped connection with the VPN server. It can
react virtually instantly, block your internet connection before your
computer has a change to reconnect to the internet outside of your
secure VPN tunnel.

*LOCATION SWITCH*
If you are more of the globetrotter typology than the security oriented
one or a combination of both, then watching the Olympics live while
they happen is a thing for you. For bypassing geo restrictions that your
local networks might have for remote gaming or remote working, or
listening to location-restricted streaming internet radio a good VPN
means a location diverse server list you can chose from.

Geared with brand new locations from California to Florida, from

United Kingdom to Germany or Australia to Japan, My IP.io comes
with brand new locations to chose from.

Introducing a much more location diverse dedicated VPN service, our

latest server acquisitions are located in:

• USA California

• USA Oregon

• USA Ohio

• USA North Virginia

• USA Florida
 • Brazil

• United Kingdom

• Germany

• Australia

• India

• South Korea

• Singapore

• Japan

Now that you know how to address the “location” aspect of a VPN,
remember that My IP’s latest server locations were hand-picked to
deliver the most reliable speed. We continuously update our server
locations by analyzing numerous data points, among which:
Connection success rate, Customer usage and Speed.

*SPEED*
It is a known fact that major mobile network operators purposely
curtail the speed of your connection in order to limit the amount of
data you consume. Sometimes as low as 32 kbps.

Using a VPN hides the kind of tra c you’re using, so ISPs can’t
discriminate against high-bandwith ones — Net ix and possibly other
streaming services like Hulu or YouTube can fall into the same category.
Major companies like Verizon or Comcast have previously used these
practices.

When choosing a location it is also important to check things like:

Speed Index, Latency, and Download Speed, as these are all important
factors.

This is what they mean:

Speed Index: shows how fast the VPN server is; the higher the number,
the better the server.
Download Speed: it tells you how fast your VPN server is able to
download information; also the higher, the better.

Latency: it’s the time it takes for a data packet to go from your device to
reach the VPN.

You can also check the speed of your VPN here.

All in all, we can’t really imagine or sometimes even function outside

the online paradigm, from accessing sensitive data at work, to hailing a
cab, to social media, to online shopping, we’re putting a lot of corporate
or personal data out there in what has become a too easy to be felt
routine.

All this data is subjected to government snoop, hacking and

“hacktivism” and evensimple browsing can be susceptible to data
trawling. You don’t have to be a security advocate to understand the
necessity of using a VPN while online, but simply a privacy minded
person in a strictly monitored environment or in a completely open one,
it makes no di erence, really.
 Credit Photo: John Holcroft illustrator

My IP.io, the platform of choice for many agile businesses, trusted

brand by thousands of happy business owners.

MyIP.io is a self-managed VPN network platform, delivering fast, secure

and reliable VPN service , designed with the professional focus in mind.
Our platform caters to a wide demographic through three channeled
directions:Personal,Dedicated and Business, so it makes for a wonderful
choice for corporate or personal use at the same time.

Engineered as a global platform,MyIP.io is a VPN service provider

committed to developing applications and services that preserve an open
and secure Internet experience while respecting user privacy.