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I know basically what a VPN is from work, but saw this and am wondering whether it's worth it
and exactly what it accomplishes.


Buy VPN | Private Internet Access VPN Service

First, does it really accomplish anything other than blocking
tracking etc?

Would like to know if all my present Firefox security add-ons
are still necessary, such as NoScript, Better Privacy, the various
Ad Blockers, etc, and the no-tracking things like Ghostery,
Google Privacy, DoNotTrackMe, etc.

I like the protection but those apps can slow things down,
and having to temporarily allow this or that also gets frustrating
over time.

And are the anti virus and malware apps still needed?

Last, I'd like to keep XP but with MS not supporting it any
longer, was wondering if a VPN like the above would help
in any way to lessen the dangers.

Thanks!
 
A VPN is about a secured end-to-end connection.

Once the site to which you connect is pumping out responses, all the issues for privacy, security, adblocking still are in-play. The VPN does not assist you nor participate to ensure the far-end has not been compromised (aka infected).
 
@jobeard, on a related note, my Avast updater popped up earlier today & told me I should turn my VPN on. I think VPN stands for Virtual Private Network so my question is do I need to turn it on & if so, how on my W7? TIA. :)
 
This type of vpn service is to hide p2p downloads (torrents etc...). It doesn't secure your computer any further, you can still download something malicious through this vpn connection.

Certain types of vpns are to access resources at work (for example, working from home) and others are used to provide privacy against traffic analysis. You can use TOR to hide your web browsing from the traffic analysis, nsa, your ISP, etc....

I know basically what a VPN is from work, but saw this and am wondering whether it's worth it
and exactly what it accomplishes.


Buy VPN | Private Internet Access VPN Service

First, does it really accomplish anything other than blocking
tracking etc?

Would like to know if all my present Firefox security add-ons
are still necessary, such as NoScript, Better Privacy, the various
Ad Blockers, etc, and the no-tracking things like Ghostery,
Google Privacy, DoNotTrackMe, etc.

I like the protection but those apps can slow things down,
and having to temporarily allow this or that also gets frustrating
over time.

And are the anti virus and malware apps still needed?

Last, I'd like to keep XP but with MS not supporting it any
longer, was wondering if a VPN like the above would help
in any way to lessen the dangers.

Thanks!
 
This type of vpn service is to hide p2p downloads (torrents etc...). It doesn't secure your computer any further, you can still download something malicious through this vpn connection.

Certain types of vpns are to access resources at work (for example, working from home) and others are used to provide privacy against traffic analysis. You can use TOR to hide your web browsing from the traffic analysis, nsa, your ISP, etc....
To whom are you responding to? Or just commenting?
 
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