Heading to school, college students have to do without some of the comforts of home. Such comforts might include free meals and laundry, but that list should also include a reliable and trustworthy internet connection. Students may not know who is managing their network connections at school or who can see their network traffic. A virtual private network, or VPN, can help improve your online privacy—on campus or anywhere else.

In this article, we'll examine affordable, reliable VPN services we think will appeal to college students. If you're using remote learning offerings to attend classes, take a look at our picks for the best VPNs overall, for use by the average person at home. We also recommend checking out our lists of the best cheap VPNs and the best free VPNs, since most students are still paying tuition even if they're learning remotely.

What Is a VPN?

Switching on a VPN creates an encrypted connection between your computer and a remote server operated by the VPN company. Your data travels securely to the server, and then out onto the open internet.

This can improve your privacy in a couple of ways. First off, it prevents your school and internet service provider (ISP) from seeing what you're up to online. ISPs have enormous insight into your online activities and if your school is also your ISP, they might as well. If that makes you uncomfortable, a VPN can help.

By hiding your true IP address, a VPN can also make it harder for advertisers and others to track your movement across the web. And because your data appears to be coming from the VPN server, not from your computer, a VPN stymies anyone trying to figure out your geographic location.

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Do I Need a VPN at School?

While digital security news can often feel like a cavalcade of downers, there have been some serious improvements in online security in the last few years. Most sites now use HTTPS, and the march of progress has improved the security of Wi-Fi networks. Those were two of the most urgent reasons to use a VPN. However, there are still scenarios where a VPN may improve your privacy, so consider your priorities before you dive in.

A Wi-Fi network may be more secure, but people and devices can still be tricked into connecting to networks they don't intend. That's especially true when you're using numerous Wi-Fi networks. You might use the school network at your dorm or library, or you might sign on at the quirky local coffee shop that will be replaced by a Panera when you visit for your 15-year college reunion. Even if HipsterCoffeeShopWiFi is safe, it's easy to accidentally connect to the highly suspicious HipsterCoffeeShopWiFi_.

VPNs are also great at getting around restrictions imposed by whoever is running the network. If you're using a network that blocks BitTorrenting or some other online activity, for instance, a VPN may help unblock websites or services you want to use.

Of course, if you need quick access to the latest show, you'll probably stick to streaming. Some networks may block streaming services, especially those that fall into a gray legal area. A VPN can help access these sites, and even unlock streaming services that are restricted to specific geographic areas—the BBC iPlayer is a good example. Unfortunately, some mainstream streaming services block VPNs, too. To make matters even more confusing, a VPN may work with a service one day and not the next.

What Doesn't a VPN Do?

VPNs are useful tools, but they aren't magic shields that protect against all the threats out there. This is true whether you're attending classes in person, or social distancing from home.

Although VPNs can block some of the tricks advertisers and corporations use to track you as you move across the web, they don't prevent all forms of tracking. A VPN will do precious little against browser fingerprinting, for instance. It's a good idea to use a tracker or ad blocker if this is a concern for you.

While some VPNs offer a modicum of protection against malicious websites, VPNs are no substitute for antivirus. If you just got a new laptop to take to school, or to use at home, you should protect that investment from malware.

A VPN also can't adequately protect you against phishing attacks. That's when an attacker uses a convincing email or specially built website to trick you into entering your personal information. Browsers are pretty good at catching phishing sites (antivirus software is usually the best), but better safe than sorry: scrutinize every site you visit and every link you click.

Lastly, you should use a password manager to create unique and complex passwords for each site and service you use. Where possible, switch on multi-factor authentication (MFA or 2FA), too. These two tools will make it much harder for someone to take over your accounts.

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How We Pick the Best VPNs for Schools

Given that the US is tied to a system that saddles college students with enormous debt, we favored inexpensive VPNs that offer either a free trial or a free version.

Even if you plan on purchasing a VPN subscription, we highly recommend trying out a VPN with a free version first. If the VPN you'd like to buy doesn't have a free option, we recommend using a short-term subscription instead. This way you can test out a VPN and see if it is blocked by any services you really need.

Most free VPN subscriptions have some kind of limitation—either the amount of data you can use, or the number of servers you can connect to, and so on. Proton VPN is notable as it offers the only free plan that does not include a data limit. Opera VPN's free plan also has no data limit, but it only encrypts Opera browser data.

Do I Need a VPN If I Attend Classes Remotely?

Even house-bound students can benefit from a VPN. As we said above, ISPs have enormous insight into what you do online and can sell your anonymized data, which is a bit ridiculous when you consider that you're already paying them. And your personal data is valuable. Just look at this story, and hundreds of others all targeted at students. Using a VPN can help keep advertisers from tracking you across the web, even when you're browsing from home.

For remote learners, keep in mind that your school's remote learning tools may not play nicely with a VPN. You might find yourself blocked, or perhaps unable to use high-bandwidth services like video conferencing apps with a VPN. If that's the case, there are a few things you can do.

First, use a VPN that will let you select a specific server and try reconnecting through a different VPN server. You can also use one of the aforementioned best free VPNs to see if the VPN jibes with everything you need to do.

Second, consider a VPN that supports split-tunneling for web domains. This will let you run the web traffic for certain apps and websites outside the VPN.

If all else fails, just switch your VPN off when you need to. Privacy is important, but so is education. You can always turn it back on later.

Can Schools Block VPNs?

Your college might very well have a blanket ban on VPN use, since using a VPN could potentially prevent them from enforcing other usage rules—like the prohibitions on BitTorrent I mentioned earlier. If you're schooling at home, your family might have parental controls on their network which might block VPNs.

When we first researched this story, a representative from TunnelBear VPN explained that the most likely way a VPN would be blocked would be if the network administrators block the specific ports used for VPN traffic. The OpenVPN protocol, for instance, requires port 443 or port 7011 to function. To test if those ports are being blocked, you can type www.portquiz.net:XXX into the URL bar in your browser, and replace the XXX with the port you're curious about.

Proton VPN takes a different, more automated approach. A representative of the company told us when we first ran this story, "If the Proton VPN app encounters a block, it will automatically search for an unblocked port." If the connection is still blocked, the company advises toggling between OpenVPN TCP and UDP connections in order to find unblocked ports.

The TunnelBear VPN representative said that it's possible, albeit less likely, that a university might block the VPN at the protocol level. Some VPNs include tools to get around this. They work by disguising your VPN traffic as something innocuous, such as HTTPS traffic. For TunnelBear VPN, this feature is called GhostBear, but it has other names depending on the VPN service you chose.

We only accepted VPNs that allowed BitTorrent on their servers. Note, however, that free trials and free versions sometimes limit the servers you can access, which may cut you off from the VPN servers designated to handle BitTorrent traffic.

What's Next on the Security Syllabus?

When you're all set up with a VPN, antivirus, a password manager, and MFA on all your accounts, there's still work to be done. Consider graduating to higher privacy protection. Everyone, from intelligence agencies to online advertisers, is hungry for your data. A new crop of privacy services specializes in hiding your identity and pulling your information out of data broker services. Many people get their start in activism at campuses, so consider using a secure messenger service and an encrypted email provider.

(Editors’ Note: While they may not appear in this story, IPVanish and StrongVPN are owned by Ziff Davis, PCMag's parent company.)

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