The IP you see on the tests is not my real IP, therefore IPVanish didn’t have any DNS leaks. The only thing I was looking for in these leak tests was whether my real IP address became visible despite while having IPVanish active. This is why a VPN that leaks your DNS information is like a parachute with holes in it - utterly useless (and dangerous).īut when I put IPVanish through the ringer, the results came out negative - IPVanish did not leak my real IP address.ĭon’t be confused with the technical mumbo-jumbo in these screenshots below. Your VPN prevents this by taking your browser’s request and sending it through an anonymous IP address before it gets to your ISP. The thing is, without a VPN, your ISP (and all the sites you visited) can read and monitor your DNS information without your knowledge - thereby compromising your privacy. This server then connects your browser’s request to the right website. You see, every time you search for something on the web, your browser sends a request through your ISP which then forwards your request to a DNS server. To do this, I used two different tests: DNS leak tests and a Virustotal scan.ĭNS leak tests are important to find if your VPN leaks your DNS information. Now, I then put IPVanish to the test to determine if they were all bark and no bite. This is why we always have to read the fine print.Īs you can clearly see, IPVanish does not log your data. The thing is, a lot of VPN companies say one thing on their home page but do something entirely different based on their logging policy. The next thing to look out for isn’t really a security feature but it’s still a key factor in a VPN’s overall security: the company’s logging policy. IPVanish has a built-in kill switch so there’s less need to worry if you’re in a place with constant interruptions to your internet connection. In simple terms, a kill switch protects your privacy by killing an app in the event of a disturbance in the force (or when the connection to the VPN is interrupted, potentially exposing your data). Kill switch, logging, and leaksĪnother security feature to look for is a built-in kill switch. So it’s a good idea to weigh your options when choosing the right protocol for your purposes. The downside? SOCKS sacrifices security for speed as it doesn’t possess the same encryption standard. This allows you to enjoy the speed and security of a VPN without the need to download third-party software. IPVanish does offer a unique alternative: Socket Security (SOCKS), which is a special proxy server protocol. While the OpenVPN protocol is preferable for its speed and security, it does have the downside of needing to download a separate client directly to your device to access the required certificate for a secure connection. IPVanish then couples their military-grade encryption with the three major VPN protocols: OpenVPN, PPTP, and L2TP. This military-grade encryption is what the NSA used to secure the data of the federal government. So it’s good to see that IPVanish offers the industry-standard AES 256-bit encryption. Anyone stealing your data packets will find only a jumbled mess. The fact that they're readable, though, means your information, unencrypted, is readily available to anyone willing and able to access it.Įncryption scrambles the information in these data packets so they become unreadable to anyone who doesn't have the encryption keys (usually just you and the person on the other end of your communication). So why do I confidently say IPVanish is secure? For starters, encryption.įor those unclear on why encryption is important: All information you send and receive is compiled into readable data packets. The bad news: The service is based in a “risky” location (I’ll explain this in a sec). The good news: Based on features alone, IPVanish is secure. On that score, I’ve got good news and bad news. Any VPN worth its salt will offer (at least) decent security before anything else. Security is, after all, a VPN’s main feature. I always talk about security first every time I review a VPN.
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