VPN: A Must for Gaming

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network that allows you to establish a protected network connection while browning online. A VPN provides a virtual room for communication between your device and the World Wide Web. It encrypts your internet traffic and hides your real identity by concealing your original IP address. Hence, it prevents the prying eyes from monitoring your online activities and fully protects your privacy. It also helps in securely transferring data if you work remotely.

However, not only for your work or online browsing but also VPN can be of great help while gaming. If you’re willing to play a game, which is banned in your country, you won’t be able to access it due to geo-restrictions. But with a VPN, you can easily play that game while masking your real IP address and location. There is more to it. Go through the below section to know all about VPN for gaming. 

Why should I use VPN for gaming?

Though VPN offers many advantages like increased security, privacy, and anonymity yet, there are several more benefits of using it for games. VPNs have always appealed to gamers with promises of high performance and increased security. Here is a list of benefits to using a VPN for gaming.

1.   Protect Yourself Against Swatting: 

Although it is not very common, cases have been registered where gamers get angry over each other while playing multiplayer games. It is time to address and protect yourself from any kind of stalking offline or online. 

Don’t let a disgruntled player find your IP address. He could hack your social media accounts or even track down your location. He may even end up swatting where an intruder makes fake calls to another person’s home. You can protect yourself from all such nuisance by using a VPN while playing an online game.

2.   Avoid DDoS attacks:

A DDoS -distributed denial-of-service is an attack where an intruder sends a lot of requests from compromised computers to your system. Responding to a large number of requests at the same time forces your system to ultimately go out of service. 

A long time ago, these attacks were mostly reserved for the website, but now the software is readily available, and your opponent can time DDoS you down. Your opponent will win the game even before you have started playing.

3.   Stay Safe on Public WiFi:

Whether you enjoy playing games on your phone or laptop, there may be an occasion when you are not at home and need to connect to the network with the help of public WiFi. It’s time VPN acts as your saviour. 

A VPN ensures you are safely connected to network security and prevents any outside threats. The common examples of such scenarios are hotels, restaurants, airports, and even malls. In addition, VPN provides you security from the following threats:

• Unencrypted Networks: Unencrypted network means the data between your device and the router that connects you to the internet is available for anyone to look into. Also, most of the public WiFi channels are unencrypted, and most are secured using VPN. 

The hijacker won't only get access to the information that is related to your gaming site but can also intrude on your credentials related to a different social site that may connect to WIFI while you are playing.

• WiFi Sniffing and Snooping:  It is hard for you to log out from all your social sites and banking apps every time you play games. Cybercriminals may check all your activities on WiFi traffic while you may play games. 

Hence, they can see everything that you do online. This not only breaches your security but now they can get information about your social media, credit card accounts, banking accounts and hijack the same.

• Malware: As public WiFi is not much secured, there may be software vulnerabilities in your device that allow a hacker to install malware on your device.
• A good VPN will encrypt the data for you even though you might be using public WiFi. Even if a hacker can still intercept your data, he won’t be able to decode it. You are secure and all ready to win your favorite online game.

4.   Forget About Bandwidth Throttling:

Commonly, many ISPs (internet service providers) throttle your internet speed, especially when they notice specific traffic on the network like gaming. Also, different games consume different amounts of internet data depending upon the quality of the game you are playing. 

Many ISPs throttle down your internet speed once they see a specific amount of data used by you. Hence, you won’t be able to play them efficiently. To have unrestricted access to your game, VPN is a must. With the help of a VPN, you can avoid ISP from data throttling as VPN encrypts your data. 

Hence, it makes it harder for your ISP to figure out whether you’re gaming or simply surfing the internet.

5.   Play Online From Any Region:

Mostly you geo-blocked outside the country you are living in. This means that you can only connect to the servers in the country you are living in. For example, if you are in the US, you could only connect to the gaming servers that are in the US and not in another country. 

Thus, you could not get access to the games that don’t have servers in your country. But now is the time to show you gaming skills across the borders.

You can access any game at any time you want just by installing a VPN. VPN has servers in multiple regions. You can connect to the VPN server located in any area, which in turn will get you connected to the game server located outside of your country.  

Hence, VPN allows you to access all sorts of game sites and services that have been geo-restricted by joining a server overseas.

6.   Enjoy New Releases Earlier [If Your Favourite is Released to Certain Areas First]:

You will hardly find new games that are released worldwide. You can’t get access to them until the games are released in your country. VPN solves this problem for you. 

Just install a VPN in your phone and connect to a VPN server in a location where the game has been released. You get access to the game the moment it is released for the users and play to your heart’s content!

7.   Play Banned Games

Different games may be banned for various reasons, for example, games with excessive violence, drug use, violence, and even graffiti. If you are living in an area that has banned your favorite game, use a VPN to connect to a server in a country where the game you want to play isn’t banned.

8.   Don’t Worry About IP Bans:

You don’t worry at all if your IP address (Internet protocol) has been blocked for a particular game. VPN encrypts all your private information, including the IP address of your device, while you connect to the VPN server. 

It then reassigns your device one its IP address to request the content for your query. After receiving the content, the data is again encrypted and sent to you. The VPN client will, in turn, decrypt the data, and you can access the same. 

Hence, you can easily get through the IP filters at a university or corporate firewall and enjoy gaming anytime you want.

9.   Reduce Lag and Ping Times:

Long ping times- The time it takes for data to send and receive between your device and the game server often is the main cause of lag and can ruin your game session. It is no fun to play a game where your one takes much more than it is optimally required. 

However, with the help of a VPN, You can connect to the VPN server that is closest to your game server. This reduces lag time, and you will be able to showcase your gaming skills properly.

How to Install a Gaming VPN?

You must secure an internet connection while playing games. You must follow the following steps to lavish all benefits of the free VPN.

1. Prepare your device: You need to prepare the device for VPN services by uninstalling any already existing VPN client. You should simplify your network by unplugging the unused devices.  
2. Install VPN Clients: Start by installing a VPN client on your gaming device. Log in to the app after the installation of the VPN client app; it automatically connects you to the nearest server. You can also check for a setup tutorial.
3. Choose protocol for VPN: VPN offers you a wide range of protocols that you can choose from; common examples include OpenVPN- an open-source protocol, L2TP/IPSec- Tunnel Protocol often bundled with the IPSec protocol, SSTP- Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol, PPTP- Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol, etc. Choose any of the protocols based on your requirements.
4. Troubleshoot and fine-tune the connection: Usually, VPN clients start working right away, but if it doesn’t work automatically, try switching the VPN server. For improvised usage, you can also change the settings that you have applied to the VPN according to your business's requirements. For example, a VPN provider offers the KILL-SWITCH option to prevent the data from being sent or received when VPN is turned off.

Now that you know how to install a VPN for gaming, you need to find out what VPN to install.

5 Best VPNs for Gaming

When you have already decided that you will use a VPN while gaming, you might as well find the ones you should use, but luckily for you, we have done all the research and found some of the best VPNs that you could use.

1.   VPN Surf

VPN Surf is a fast and reliable VPN for online users. You don’t have to be hardcore or advanced gamer, but you can still use VPN surf and unblock new content as a beginner. You simply need to connect your device with the VPN, and it will help you browse millions of websites online. For example, if you are trying to play a game that is not available in your country with VPN Surf, you can get it for free. There is a 7-day "Try it before you buy it" trail in VPN Surf. So, you can check out the VPN before deciding whether or not it is good for you.

2.   NordVPN

You can choose your own IP address in NordVPN and use it for millions of purposes—protecting your online security is the first purpose. NordVPN is famous for its security measures and is also currently one of the many that offer full privacy protection and anonymity. However, unlike VPN Surf, it does not offer any free trial. But you can still get a money-back guarantee if you don’t like it after using NordVPN for 30 days.

3.   Tunnel Bear

Tunnel Bear is one of the free VPNs you can find online, but it is a little more superior to the rest. It offers 1,800 servers from 23 different countries and also provides you with full anonymity. However, both VPN Surf and NordVPN are faster than Tunnel Bear. And it is a lot more expensive than the rest.

4.   Proton VPN

We like the user interface of ProtonVPN, which is not necessarily beginner-friendly but works. It offers 1,259 servers from 55 different countries and only boosts your internet speed. In fact, ProtonVPN is one of the fastest and safest VPNs we have ever come across. But it has one downside—ProtonVPN is expensive because of its many useful features. And it does not offer any free trial for its premium version.

5.   ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN does not come with a free trial, but it ensures you get what you pay for. Yes, ExpressVPN is perfect. It is reliable, fast, protects your privacy, and comes with high-end security measures. But unlike VPN Surf, it costs a lot and also does not allow you free use.

Now, if you are using a VPN simply for gaming purposes, you could use any among these 5. But we still encourage you to go for VPN Surf since it offers what the rest lack. For example, if you find speed and security in ExpressVPN, it still lacks affordability. 

VPN Surf makes up for it. It is fast, secure, reliable, and affordable for gamers and also allows you to browse the internet endlessly and anonymously. Basically, when you are using a good VPN, you won’t have to worry about your IP getting banned because the VPN itself will hide your IP when you connect to the internet. And that makes playing the geo-blocked video games easier. With VPN Surf, you can do that effortlessly.

Conclusion

Whether you are playing the game on your PC, a gaming console, or your smartphone, a VPN for gaming protects you from several threats. Moreover, it not only protects your device from several security issues but also allows you to access geo-blocked games and surpass IP filters. Install it once on your device and forget about the data security threats while playing online games. Stay connected for more information regarding staying safe online. If you have any more queries, use the comment box below.