Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What's the best (free) firewall & VPN for MacOS?
- Thread starter Sweet Potato for Easy Poo
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The whole point of a VPN is to hide your traffic or obfuscate your traffic from trackers, ISPs, prying eyes, etc. That's why you pay companies to use their servers and their ISPs to route your traffic.
Good VPN companies will have thousands of VPN servers throughout the world so you can choose where your traffic comes from. Good VPN companies will also encrypt/hide your traffic so it is hard to identify you to what you are connecting to.
If you are using a VPN and logging in with an account at a website - that defeats one of the purposes of the VPN because the company that houses the account will know it is you.
VPN'ing to another PC on your local area network then having that machine send out its traffic would be pointless imo. There are some people who set up VPNs locally on their network just to encrypt traffic for a higher level of security (above and beyond https).
Hackers will often use a VPN to a VPN to a VPN to a VPN to try to mask their traceability.
Again, a VPN is usually used to secure traffic when security is non-existent - such as a public WIFI hotspot at your Starbucks, college, or Airport. While HTTPS traffic is encrypted, a lot of other traffic is not - and packet sniffers on the public wifi can easily steal that information. VPNs ensure that the traffic between your computer and the VPN server is encrypted.
VPNs also allow you to change the location of your Internet requests. For example: Netflix in Peru has far more show offerings than Netflix in the USA (I have relatives in Peru). So one can get a VPN to a server in Peru. Problem is, VPN companies aren't keen on paying for all that bandwidth usage - because that affects other people trying to use that VPN in Peru too - that's why on average, most VPNs have terrible speeds because some people use it to stream music/videos/etc - but someone pays for that bandwidth and server and it affects other people trying to use it. That's why there aren't free VPNs that are all that "good" in a sense.
I'd highly recommend taking some courses on internet security. Most HTTPS traffic is encrypted and as long as you have a normal ISP - VPNs usually aren't needed or even recommended. Using an up to date OS, with an up to date browser, with an adblocker usually does wonders. But again, even in that setup, if you're going to bad sites - no amount of antivirus, adblocker, up to date OS patches are going to stop infection. Thus it is important that whoever is operating the computer be educated first and foremost. This is why most security experts don't even run antivirus software or adblockers - they know what to do to avoid that stuff in the first place - most run throwaway virtual instances.
Good VPN companies will have thousands of VPN servers throughout the world so you can choose where your traffic comes from. Good VPN companies will also encrypt/hide your traffic so it is hard to identify you to what you are connecting to.
If you are using a VPN and logging in with an account at a website - that defeats one of the purposes of the VPN because the company that houses the account will know it is you.
VPN'ing to another PC on your local area network then having that machine send out its traffic would be pointless imo. There are some people who set up VPNs locally on their network just to encrypt traffic for a higher level of security (above and beyond https).
Hackers will often use a VPN to a VPN to a VPN to a VPN to try to mask their traceability.
Again, a VPN is usually used to secure traffic when security is non-existent - such as a public WIFI hotspot at your Starbucks, college, or Airport. While HTTPS traffic is encrypted, a lot of other traffic is not - and packet sniffers on the public wifi can easily steal that information. VPNs ensure that the traffic between your computer and the VPN server is encrypted.
VPNs also allow you to change the location of your Internet requests. For example: Netflix in Peru has far more show offerings than Netflix in the USA (I have relatives in Peru). So one can get a VPN to a server in Peru. Problem is, VPN companies aren't keen on paying for all that bandwidth usage - because that affects other people trying to use that VPN in Peru too - that's why on average, most VPNs have terrible speeds because some people use it to stream music/videos/etc - but someone pays for that bandwidth and server and it affects other people trying to use it. That's why there aren't free VPNs that are all that "good" in a sense.
I'd highly recommend taking some courses on internet security. Most HTTPS traffic is encrypted and as long as you have a normal ISP - VPNs usually aren't needed or even recommended. Using an up to date OS, with an up to date browser, with an adblocker usually does wonders. But again, even in that setup, if you're going to bad sites - no amount of antivirus, adblocker, up to date OS patches are going to stop infection. Thus it is important that whoever is operating the computer be educated first and foremost. This is why most security experts don't even run antivirus software or adblockers - they know what to do to avoid that stuff in the first place - most run throwaway virtual instances.
Last edited:
Avoiding data mining - adblockers are usually best for that. Apps like: AdGuard Pro - making sure any web traffic you use is HTTPS will do that then. Setting your browser not to save cookies. Not clicking on ads helps. Not using Google helps - use a search engine like DuckDuckGo on all your devices. Not using social media helps. Using cash to pay for purchases at stores helps with preventing data mining.
VPN is only used to encrypt traffic when you think the traffic is at risk of data loss - like public wifi hotspots (airports, colleges, Starbucks, etc). It won't stop tracking if you're doing your normal stuff on it.
Setup a virtual environment like VMware and or a darker browser like brave in private mode. Clear buffers when done
Last edited:
This article at Wirecutter has both a good overview of VPN basics and some recommendations:
www.nytimes.com
I was close to getting Mozilla VPN (https://vpn.mozilla.org/) but have decided to wait since Wirecutter says it is testing Mozilla VPN for an upcoming update to the article.
The Best VPN Service
You might not need a VPN, but if you want to add an extra layer of security to your web browsing, Mullvad has been our pick for years.
www.nytimes.com
I was close to getting Mozilla VPN (https://vpn.mozilla.org/) but have decided to wait since Wirecutter says it is testing Mozilla VPN for an upcoming update to the article.
I have accounts for PIA and NordVPN. Since their apps aren't available on the M1 App Store, I decided to use SurfShark, even though it is still the Intel version. I got 3 years of shark for $85 and it has been working well with no DNS leaking., or constant disconnects. The streamlined UI is better than the aforementioned services, in my opinion.
I have nothing but trouble with my Surfshark VPN, I still have 1 year to go on my sub, seriously thinking of forgoing that and going back to Nord. iMac, MBA M1 iPad pro12.9, basically everything. Very disappointed.
What kind of trouble? Nord is solid overall. I did experience some disconnects and it would often have trouble automatically reconnecting.
NordVPN is what I've been using for the last 3+ years (just bought another 3). lol. It's worked fine for me for my worldwide travels for work (though haven't used it much for 2020, lol).
I have been getting better speeds with Shark than I was with Nord. More than likely, that is just because Nord is more heavily used. Nord has really gone up in price, as have a lot of the well known VPN's. Good thing they offer substantive sales regularly. No way I am paying $12 -$14 a month. lol
I'll have to check that out. Yeah, agreed - no way $12-$14 a mo. I hopped on Nord's thanksgiving? sale for $89 for 3 years last year - but I haven't used it much at all for a year now. I wonder when they'll send us back to work.
Your state will probably be one of the last to go back to what we remember as normal. Hopefully, it won't be something that drags out another year or two.