VPN’s are meant for providing the security and privacy of an online user. They are designed in such a way to anonymize the user identity online. If you are new to VPN term, let me explain a brief introduction about the VPN service.
What is a VPN?
VPN is a service which lets the user queries solve from their private servers by hiding the user real IP address and other digital traces. It simply hides all the user information from hackers and data intruders. VPN’s have many benefits, and many people are using for unblocking Netflix, Spotify and some people are also using VPN for unblocking Cryptocurrency exchanges.
Paid or Free VPN? Choice makes difference
VPN services come in two plans, free and paid. A free VPN service provides online anonymity to the user by giving some free bandwidth like 100MB data per day. It is completely free and you just need to open an account to start using the service.
But here, the actual problem comes, to run a VPN the company needs to spend amount to maintain the server. If they are giving it for free then why they are doing for? Yes, they earn money by selling your data to advertisers. If they don’t earn from you, they are using your data to make money. So, we always advise our audience to go with paid VPN’s instead of going for privacy violated free VPN services.
How to test your VPN is leak-proof or not?
There are many factors are considered while testing a VPN. Even the paid VPN’s also under some leaking radar in the past. If you paid for a VPN and it leaks your data then it is completely useless. Here are the best ways to test your VPN protection capabilities.
1. DNS Leak Test
DNS Leak Test is a very popular way to determine VPN is safe to leaks or not. It is the first and foremost test before buying a VPN service. Take the trial account of the VPN service you are planning and test its performance in the DNS Leak test.
When you activate a VPN service it starts anonymizing your IP address with their local server IP address and shows some other location. DNS Leak test is nothing but showing the user IP address. So test your VPN before activating and after activating the service on DNS Leka website. If the before and after IP address is the same, it means your VPN is leaking your details.
To start the test, open your browser and go to dnsleaktest website. Test the VPN before and after activating the custom location. Another site Whatismyipaddress also does the same the DNS Leak Test.
Browserleaks is yet another tool for analyzing your connection details. It can show very detailed information about your online connection like IP Address, Hostname, Country, ISP, ASN, Timezone, IPV6 Leak Test, WebRTC Leak Test local and Publick IP addresses, Flash leat Test, DNS Leak test and many more.
Also, there is an open secret that many VPN’s leaked your actual info through Google Chrome extensions. In the past, companies like Hola, Opera VPN and a few more leaked the user information through Google Chrome extension.
To test your VPN Google Chrome leak proof or not follow the below procedure.
- Activate the Chrome plugin of your VPN service.
- Now go to chrome://net-internals/#dns
- Here click on “clear host cache”
- Now visit any website of your choice and check the results at the above panel.
2. WebRTC Leaks
Another possible VPN leak can be tested using WebRTC test. WebRTC is a technology developed from browsers to communicate in real-time. This service is useful to make a live video and audio calls through a browser and some VPN services are not capable enough to protect your actual IP from WebRTC service.
To check your VPN is leaking through WebRTC or not visit Roseler’s WebRTC test page and note down the IP address displayed on the page. If it shows the real IP, then you must disable the WebRTC on your browser.
All popular browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Opera generally have WebRTC enabled by default. To kill WebRTC on Chrome, install the ScriptSafe extension from the Chrome Web Store. For Firefox users, you can install Disable WebRTC addon.
We tested these extensions and add-ons to make sure they working or not and the results were successful.
Summing up
Blocking WebRTC is a good practice for taking a basic step towards your online privacy while using a VPN. However, it is not enough to maintain your privacy completely. Select a good VPN which don’t leak information in WebRTC and other leaks which are mentioned above. We have already suggested some good VPN’s for Windows, Android and iOS platforms in the past. So, pick the best VPN which don’t leak in any above conditions and maintain your precious online privacy.