On the whole, the advent of online streaming services has been a boon for users everywhere, bringing accessible, on-demand entertainment content to people in every part of the world. In recent times, however, using online streaming services has become a more complex affair.
With online censorship creating digital borders to restrict user freedom and the prospect of a data breach or account hack looming larger than ever, many have begun to feel disillusioned with the idea of using online streaming platforms. Of course, with most of the latest and greatest TV series being released on these services, forgoing a subscription is easier said than done, and that’s where VPNs come into play.
With a VPN at your disposal, you can mitigate the downsides associated with contemporary platforms to revolutionize your streaming experience. Here, we’ll explain just how.
Bypassing Blocks
One of the most common causes for complaints among streaming service subscribers is the inability to watch their favorite shows when they travel abroad. This is due to the existence of geo-restrictions, which prevent users from accessing certain shows based on the location data garnered from their IP addresses, VPNs offer a viable solution.
VPNs work by diverting your Internet connection through a server in another part of the world. In doing this, they enable you to conceal your device’s IP address and appear online under the IP of the VPN server you’re connected to. This means that by using an India VPN server, for instance, you can appear online as a typical user from India, thereby allowing you to gain access to any content that might be exclusive to that country.
Likewise, VPNs can also allow you to use streaming platforms that are not even available in your country. This can help you to try new services and potentially even discover some new favorite shows to broaden your entertainment horizons.
Safeguarding Your Account
With cybercrime on the increase from one year to the next, you would be justified in feeling somewhat concerned about using an online streaming service. Where there are online transactions and payment details, after all, there is an incentive for hackers, so the risk of an attack, however small, is certainly real. Rather than cancel your subscription, however, a better option is to use a VPN.
By concealing your IP address, a VPN will allow you to maintain anonymity while you use your favorite service. This means that it is considerably more difficult for hackers to trace you and mount an attack. Moreover, a VPN will encrypt your data traffic, meaning that any sensitive information you put on your account will be protected in transit, keeping it safe from exploitation.
In this way, VPNs offer vital cybersecurity protection to ensure that you enjoy safe streaming.
Achieving Optimal Performance
Another common issue for streaming users is experiencing poor connection speeds when trying to catch up on their favorite shows or watch movies online. If you’ve encountered this, you’ll know just how frustrating it can be, and the cause may surprise you.
In many cases, poor connection speeds are the result of bandwidth throttling from Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This is something that ISPs do regularly to minimize network congestion, and it is usually triggered when a user is seen to be engaging in high-bandwidth activity during times of high traffic. As you might guess, streaming falls into this category, so it’s common to start streaming something only to experience issues with lags and buffering. Fortunately, a VPN can also help with this.
Since a VPN routes traffic through a secure tunnel and encrypts it, it keeps your activities private. This means that your ISP won’t be able to see what you do online while you’re using one. As such, you can avoid bandwidth throttling altogether.
Streaming with the VPN Advantage
Streaming services have made entertainment accessible and customizable, giving users the freedom to explore huge libraries of on-demand content that we never would have encountered otherwise. In this sense, they are one of the great innovations of the 21st century, but there are some complications to using them. Geo-blocking, cyber dangers, and bandwidth throttling can all make it difficult to enjoy your favorite streaming service, but with a VPN at your disposal, you can overcome these issues with ease to guarantee yourself a freer, safer, and smoother all-around streaming experience.
