Your IP address is basically your home address on the internet. When you access the internet, websites, applications and services can see exactly where you’re connecting. And similar to your home address, your IP address says a lot about yourself: where you are, what your ISP is and even tendencies regarding what you’re doing online. But here’s the thing: sometimes you need to change that address. Let me explain why.
The Growing Problem of Regulation on the Internet
We are living in a increasingly fractured and regulated world by the internet. What you can get online frequently depends entirely on where you just so happen to be located physically, and honestly, it’s only going to get worse.
Take the United States. You would think that in the great free nation, the internet would be, you know, free. But some states started blocking access to adult websites (check out how to access PornHub anywhere here). In Florida and a couple of other states, websites have been restricted by age-verification laws and there’s a patchwork of what one can access where.
And then, of course, there is China and the UAE, where censorship by the government is the norm. Social media platforms, news sites, and messaging apps are frequently blocked, controlling what citizens can see and say on the internet.
Even in France, it’s not much better. Local news site 01net says that YouPorn has recently been blocked in the nation due to issues regarding compliance with regulations. The pattern is clear: governments around the world are censoring the internet, taking what might be an open network and turning it instead into a series of censorious enclaves.
Why Changing Your IP Address Is the Solution
If you change your IP address, what you’re really doing is telling websites you’re visiting from a different place. This simple thing opens up so many doors and fixes so many problems simultaneously.
First, it enables you to bypass geographic censorship. If a site is censored in your area but not elsewhere, surfing on an IP address somewhere else makes it available to you. Second, it conceals your privacy by masking your true location from advertisers, tracking companies, and anyone else who might seek to build a profile based on you. Third, it protects you from targeted attacks—if the hackers don’t know your true IP address, they can’t directly target you.
How VPNs Do It Easy
This is where VPNs come to the rescue. A Virtual Private Network not only changes your IP address – it does so safely while hiding all your internet traffic. When you subscribe to a VPN, your information is sent via one of their servers in a city of your choice, and you take on the IP address of that server instead of your own.
But not all VPNs are equal. The biggest feature to search for is a no-log policy. This implies the VPN company doesn’t record your online activities, your browsing history or your connection logs. Without logs, there’s nothing to surrender to authorities or spill in a data breach. Your privacy remains your own.
VPNs also provide you with actual, everyday benefits. They protect you when you’re browsing on public Wi-Fi, prevent your ISP from throttling your speeds and enable you to stream content outside your nation. Whether you’re traveling abroad or you just want to access TV shows that aren’t available in your location, a VPN enables you to access them.
Discussing VPNs, you can’t speak about them without giving credit to NordVPN – a service that surely keeps all these promises. With unlimited traffic data, you can play, watch, and surf to your heart’s content without worrying about data limits. They offer servers in over 165 locations worldwide which means you’ve got loads of options regarding where you’d rather be seen to be connecting from.
What differentiates NordVPN is their NordLynx protocol: their very own proprietary tech that makes it hands-down the fastest VPN money can buy. That makes NordVPN ideal for streaming, gaming and playing online bookies abroad. They also include dedicated P2P servers for safe, stable torrenting, even under heavy censorship. And yes, they have a no-log policy too to protect your activity completely.
Here’s the catch—all these sophisticated features at a moment when NordVPN is giving 73% off their plans:
The Basic package has the essentials, but our plus-recommended package is where it’s really excellent. For just $3.99 a month, you get all we discussed—plus NordPass, their excellent password manager, and anti-malware with tracker blocking. That’s nearly $300 saved over 27 months. The Complete plan comes with NordLocker offering 1TB of encrypted cloud storage, and for users in the US, the Prime plan’s NordProtect is also included for extra data protection (a savings of some $450 over the same time frame).
Still not convinced? NordVPN offers an unconditional 30-day money-back guarantee. Try the service, and if you’re not satisfied for any reason, you can get a full refund.