A Virtual Private Network (VPN) hides your IP address from malicious individuals, corporations, and the government. It works by facilitating safe connection between your device and the network you’re connected to. It reroutes your online traffic via its own server through a secure tunnel. In essence, it acts as a protective barrier between your device and your network provider or Wi-Fi router.
If you’re passionate about gaming, you’re definitely bound to play games that require your device to get connected to the internet. In any case, it would be highly beneficial for you to get a gaming VPN. In fact, making use of a paid VPN could enhance your gaming experience.
Benefits of Using a VPN for Gaming
- Protection Against Other Gamers
Not everyone plays online games like you. Some become so obsessed with the games they play that loss would be mentally damaging for them. In this kind of case, the sore loser could find a way to track your location down through your IP address and hack into your online banking, email, or social media accounts to hurt you. In other cases, these hackers could even stalk you offline.
One of the most extreme cases of gamers attacking other gamers is swatting. It involves the cyber-attacker calling emergency services to your address. In some cases, swatting has proved to be fatal for victims.
A VPN protects you from this type of attack by masking your IP address.
- Protection Against DDoS Attacks
A DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack is one where a gamer is forced offline due to the overloading of the victim’s system. Gaming might expose you to potential DDoS attacks. If you use a VPN, this wouldn’t be the case as the hacker would simply attempt overloading different servers.
- Playing Games of Your Choice from any Region
There are certain games that are restricted to a part of the public. Sometimes, these games need several servers to handle all the traffic flowing to their systems. A game could also be restricted to certain regions when they are newly released. In this case, being outside a particular region could stop you from playing your favorite game.
Typically, when you connect to your ISP, you connect to a server in your location. However, when you use a VPN, you can connect to several thousands of servers in varying locations in the world. Since the VPN would change your IP address and show your location as the region you’re connected to, you’d have no issues playing games online with your friends.
- Lessening Lagging and Ping
Have you ever experienced periods in your game sessions where your powers seem to be non-existent or action you make seem off? This could be caused by delayed ping times. If the time taken for data travel between your device and the game server is relatively lengthy, you are experiencing lagging.
If you use a VPN to connect to a server close to the game server, ping time would ultimately be reduced.
Gaming is a fun activity. However, when the people you compete against try out malicious ways to hurt you, your hobby could lead to your worst nightmare. When you use a VPN for your gaming, you would be protected against all sorts of characters you could meet online. Also, a VPN offers you several benefits like eliminating lagging and giving you access to geo-blocked games.
Chris Jones @ TurnOnVPN