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Why We Use NordVPN

Submitted by Joel on Tue, 01/14/2020 - 11:27

We've used NordVPN since August 2018 when we first started this crazy adventure in Cyprus. A VPN makes your internet usage anonymous, so it's really hard to track what you're doing or where you are. We've sang it's praises and suggested it to people, so we decided to get an affiliate link and write up a post about it! This is the first time using the link, so let us know how it goes!

Why do we use NordVPN?

Well, I've known about VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) for many years, but we didn't really travel that much to require us to use one. But then we decided to go crazy, sell all of our stuff, and leave everything behind to go on this now 18 month adventure. So I started looking for a VPN. The reason I chose NordVPN is because Philip deFranco told me to. He had an advertisement for it, I did my due diligence research, got a good price, and never looked back!

The reason we use a VPN is that it protects us online when we're on foreign internet services. In Fort Dodge, we used Mediacom for our internet, so we could have used a VPN to prevent them from gathering info on our internet usage, which is a pretty important use for it... but we just never pulled the trigger on it. 

Once we started traveling, though, it becomes REALLY important. If you use any router (WiFi) for internet without knowing the people that set it up and really trust them, you are putting your internet security at risk. Furthermore, if you're in a country that doesn't have solid privacy laws, even using their CELL TOWERS puts you at risk!

How do we use NordVPN?

It's pretty easy to use. You can either have it on all the time or turn it on when you feel the need to add that extra level of security. Why not just have it on all the time? Well, that added security does slightly slow down the speeds, which makes sense. We've been to several places with sketchy internet, so adding that layer just made it that tiny bit slower. We'd still turn it on for logging into our accounts (banks, websites, etc), but for regular browsing, we didn't need it as much. In really good internet areas, though, it's pretty much always on.

One of the coolest things about NordVPN is that you can use it to emulate other countries. Since it makes your internet usage anonymous, you can select where it looks like you're from. For those that don't know, you can tell where users access your websites from, which is how advertisements can say, "Get better auto insurance in Des Moines!" A VPN masks that info so instead you'll get, "Get better auto insurance in New York!" 

Streaming services also offer different choices depending on your location, so you can access other content, which is nice as Americans trying to watch their Netflix shows! Some services block you when you have a VPN on, though, which is a really strange choice to me. Amazon does this, which is one reason I have a Netflix account and not Amazon Prime. If I don't want my internet provider to know I'm watching Jack Ryan, I should get to have that power, right?! 

NordVPN does have ways around that, though, like with obfuscated servers. But if Amazon tells me they don't want me to use their service with a VPN, then I just won't use their service, so I don't have much experience with that aspect of NordVPN, but it is something they offer. 

NordVPN has a whole suite of tools

There are other services offered by NordVPN, but I've honestly never used them. We're pretty basic users and when we signed up, they didn't have all these other services so I didn't explore them at the time. Here are some of the services from their info:

  • Lots of encryption services beyond just the typical stuff to protect your data.
  • CyberSec which helps protect you from malware and bad sites.
  • Internet Kill Switch which helps you isolate bad actors and turn them off.

They also have the normal good-company stuff, like guaranteed uptime, 24hr customer service, money-back guarantee, etc. You can also have multiple devices, so we just have one account for our phones, tablets, and laptops. We signed up for the three year plan to save even more, but they have monthly or yearly plans, too. It's still less than $100 for three years, which is really good, I think. 

There are some free VPNs out there, but I worry about how they make their money. If you want to protect your privacy, it's probably best to use a premium service like NordVPN. They don't have logs of your activity at all, so you're completely protected. 

So if you wanna try it out, here's our affiliate link! Let us know what you think in the comments below!