Let’s face it, if you’ve spent even a fraction of your daily life online, you will have heard of a VPN. It’s easy to immediately switch off whenever your favourite online creator starts the usual 2-minute spiel about their latest VPN sponsor, but you know what? They could be on to something.
You might be thinking: How on earth could a Virtual Private Network heighten my movie experience? To elaborate on that, first we need to briefly dive into how a VPN actually works.
How does a VPN work?
The simplest definition of a VPN is it’s something to keep your online traffic hidden from anyone trying to spy on you. Your online activity is sent through an encrypted “tunnel” towards the VPN server, where your traffic is then decrypted and sent on to the final destination.
So, if anyone were to try and obtain your IP address to figure out your physical location, all they would see is the IP address of the VPN server. OK… But how will staying hidden online affect how you watch your favourite movies and TV shows?
Unbound and unlimited
What’s one of the most annoying things that comes packaged hand-in-hand with every streaming service? Bloody buffering. We’ve all been there, and we’ve all tried our hardest to mitigate the effects.
Pausing the film for 5 minutes, resetting your Wi-Fi, closing the app and reopening in. We all know it’s fruitless, but we try anyway. But have you ever considered that your Internet Service Provider might be the reason for the constant buffering?
Unfortunately, even with an “unlimited data” package, your ISP can still throttle your bandwidth. This normally happens during high-traffic times of the day (just after school or in the evening when you get in from work) in order to reduce server stress.
Or your ISP will spy on your actions and make a decision to throttle your bandwidth based on your activity. Streaming HD quality movies/series constantly, using file-sharing sites, or gaming are all good reasons for ISPs to decide to slow your internet.
However, with a VPN, you’re effectively veiled from their scrutiny. They can see you’re connected to the internet, but they can’t see what you’re doing.
This next point is something that’ll be a benefit for a lot of you. Using a VPN will allow you to access any geo-blocked content that wouldn’t otherwise be available to you. Want to watch something that’s only available to the US? Simply load up your VPN, connect to a server in the US, and your streaming service will think you’re watching it stateside.
Speaking of accessing US-only content, MGM have been feeling bad about withholding No Time To Die for so long. In the “Free to Watch” section of YouTube in the United States, the first 19 James Bond films, starting at Dr. No and ending with The World Is Not Enough, are available to view!
Which VPN should I choose?
There’re so many out there. How do you know which one to pick? One thing is for certain though — don’t think you’re being smart by picking a free VPN. They’ve gotta make their money somehow, and that normally involves selling your activity logs to advertisers.
From reviewing the market and our specific needs, we’ve found that NordVPN is the best option. They boast more physical servers than any other VPN service, and those 5000+ servers are located across 50+ different countries. That’s a lot of choice.
Plus, NordVPN have regular subscription deals. Their current Christmas offer provides 3 months of free service, so if you want to prep your house for ultimate holiday movie-viewing comfort, then make sure you snatch that deal up while you can.
