Hello,
I am a complete and utter noob to VPN’s. I have a VPN app downloaded, I logged in, and I am connected. But how do I actually use this VPN? I expected there to be a search bar where I can now search for whatever I wanted on this VPN. Is that not how this works?
If I just open up my browser and start searching, is all of that traffic now going through the VPN that I am connected to, or do I have to somehow make my browser talk to my VPN?
TY
Mods really should pin a post explaining in layman’s terms what a VPN does and does not do. It seems like every 2nd post in this sub illustrates the complete lack of understanding out there. I actually never realized just how pervasive this thinking is until joining this sub.
While the VPN is active your whole internet should go through it. Browsing, gaming, everything.
Your internet connection is now 100% running through the VPN. Browsers, games, Spotify, Discord are all running through your VPN connection.
There aren’t any obvious visual changes, just like there wouldn’t be if you changed from your home wifi to the Starbucks wifi.
You can try googling “what is my location” and see if it’s the same as when you disconnect the VPN. Try changing the country if that’s an option on your VPN client.
Two years later and I thought you might find this funny. I’m in the same position as OP so I searched google “how to use a VPN” and one of the top results was this Reddit post…
I can’t tell if you’re being sassy with me or not, but I will pretend you are not. I looked through the wiki/FAQ of this sub and didn’t see my question answered. Also, my question isn’t what a VPN does and does not do. ITs about how to use a VPN from a “rubber hits the road” perspective. The wiki/FAQ of this sub didn’t answer my question, and a little bit of googling didn’t answer my question either. Therefore, I felt warranted to make a post to this sub asking. If I have this question, I’m sure other newbies do too.
Well I actually tried to follow my own recommendation and post a layman’s guide here but after typing for 1/2 hour it was instantly deleted, not sure why. But I agree the wiki/FAQ here is a tad technical for some, hence why I wanted to do this.