With a VPN running, your traffic will appear to originate from the remote server you're connected to. You can bypass network or geo-restrictions on games. This is an increasingly popular (Opens in a new tab) kind of cyberthreat that affects gaming companies and players alike, and it's super easy for griefers and salty rivals to pull off if you're not using a VPN. DDoS attacks happen when a bad actor looks up your unconcealed IP address and overloads your gaming server or network with a ton of requests, making you lag badly or booting you offline completely. You can protect yourself from distributed denial-of-service (Opens in a new tab) attacks. Do VPNs really help with gaming?įor gaming specifically, using a VPN has two notable benefits: This anonymity has its advantages: It allows you to bypass firewalls, evade geo-restrictions on streaming services and movies, torrent safely, and work remotely without putting company data at risk. In a nutshell, a VPN makes it extremely difficult for anyone (from hackers to your internet service provider, or ISP) to see who you are, where you're logged in from, and what you're doing on the internet. This scrambles any data you send or receive and hides your Internet Protocol (IP) address, or the unique number associated with your geolocation that's assigned to your device when it's connected to the internet. What is a VPN, exactly?Ī VPN is a service that routes your traffic through an encrypted tunnel to one of its private servers before it's sent out over the internet. Here's what you need to know about picking the right VPN for gaming. But there are some important caveats to be aware of before you download one for your PC or console ( via router or hotspot).

Billed as closed, secure connections that protect you from common cyberthreats and unblock restricted titles, they sound as OP as a Blasphemous Blade or a Blue Shell.

Endorsements from big-name streamers have put VPNs (or virtual private networks) on many gamers' radars.

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