While VPN Gate appears to be exactly what it purports itself to be, and there is no apparent commercial agenda or data harvesting operation, there are issues with it that may make you decide to sideline it in favor of a paid-for VPN solution. Being free for internet users all over the world at the point of use merely adds to the attractiveness of the package.īut is it really as good as it seems? More importantly, should you trust the platform to protect you when you’re online? This is where you should exercise a little more caution. The fact that it is open-source (opens in new tab) and community-powered is appealing, as is the way it was originally created by an academic institution and not a corporation. Even more so if you don’t want to spend any money. In principle, making use of the features and functions inside VPN Gate seems fantastic. Once you’ve downloaded a VPN client, you can follow the instructions found on the How To section of the VPN Gate website (opens in new tab). OpenVPN (opens in new tab) is an obvious choice. However, if you’re planning on connecting with an iOS or macOS device, you’ll need to download VPN software specific to these platforms. This open-source software is another University of Tsukuba project that enables users to connect to one of the VPN Gate servers located throughout the world. This is what enables VPN Gate to be used on iOS and macOS devices, as well as Windows and Android devices.Īnyone wanting to make use of the VPN Gate platform will also need to install the SoftEther VPN software.

On the other hand, however, it also makes it something of a security risk as we’ve mentioned above.įrom a technical point of view, VPN Gate works with several VPN protocols including SSL-VPN, L2TP/IPsec, OpenVPN, and Microsoft SSTP. Without volunteers, VPN Gate would cease to exist. VPN Gate’s network infrastructure is completely powered by volunteers who allow their VPN servers to become a part of this global experiment.

The third was the ongoing risk of cyber espionage or hacking when using an unsecured public network.

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