Do you need a personal VPN service? If you Google around you will see that a lot of people use VPN services to bypass the web restrictions from their countries, like in the Middle East or China. But a VPN can do so much more for you.

The VPN functions by encrypting all of your Internet traffic and redirecting it with a VPN server, typically located in the USA. This will have two immediate effects:

1. Your Internet traffic will undoubtedly be obscured from anyone “listening” at risk. Even your ISP or company could have no idea in regards to what your actual Internet traffic really is.

2. formula 1 streaming will be hidden from the websites you visit, thus offering you anonymity while online.

So even if you come in Wireless HotSpots, places that hackers often scout to find new victims, you may be protected with all the VPN. Firesheep, the Firefox plugin is really a preferred tool of the trade and is extremely simple to operate, even by amateur hackers, or “script-kiddies” as they are called in the underground community. The VPN encryption will also keep you safe from the Firesheep attacks.

The bad part is that everything comes at a cost. Two main issues to be discussed here:

1. When using the VPN you will experience a reduction in speed. This is caused by the encryption and the traffic routing. If you are in France and you also are employing a VPN server, your traffic are certain to get encrypted, sent from France to the VPN server in USA and from the VPN USA server redirected to it`s original intended destination. From there the traffic flows via the same route all the way back in France… That`s an extended trip right?

2. Most good VPN services are paid. There are some free ones, but folks have had bad reviews previously about free VPN service: limits on bandwidth, poor speeds and connection drops some users say. The paid services generally do much better in terms of performance. Expect to pay from 10$ – 20$ monthly for a good VPN service.

Another important aspect is the encryption the VPN uses. Currently SSL VPNs are considered to have the safest encryption. The most used SSL VPN protocols are SSTP and OpenVPN. Unlike other protocols they use certificates during the authentication process, creating a man-in-the-middle hacker attack extremely difficult.

So, my advice would be, if you value your privacy and security, get a VPN service and always use it in networks you take into account unsecured (like airport or coffee shops public networks).