If you travel, you need a VPN. If you don’t travel you probably need a VPN. Specifically, you need ExpressVPN.
What is a VPN?
I’m assuming you know that VPN stands for Virtual Private Network and its purpose is to make your computer appear to be located somewhere it is not actually located.
Why do you need a VPN when you’re traveling (and when you aren’t)?
Ages ago when I was young and did not know how the world or business worked I got a teaching credential and taught high school science. The internet at the school was heavily censored. But it was censored by the school board, meaning they had no idea what they were doing. So when I needed information from the World Wildlife Fund that was off-limits. But the World Wrestling Federation was fine. What do these two entities have in common? Their acronym, WWF. Ah, censorship.
Censorship is overcome with a good VPN.
Internet access regulations
Internet access regulations are incredibly different across the world. I’m from Flagstaff, Arizona. The newspaper there is the Arizona Daily Sun. It’s not hard-hitting investigative journalism, but it is a lovely local paper that I read to stay connected with my hometown. There’s just one problem, the Daily Sun, apparently, sells user data to unnamed organizations. In the European Union websites have to disclose to whom they sell user data or they are blocked. In much of Europe, I can’t access the Daily Sun.
These types of regulations are overcome with a good VPN.
The Great Fire Wall
When I was teaching at the university level I had all of my material on Google drive
- documents
- research
- slides
- sheets
- everything.
When I arrived at the university in Jinan, China I discovered that all Google products were blocked.
China also blocks Youtube, so all my videos for my classes were inaccessible.
This was quite a problem.
This is when I discovered ExpressVPN.
ExpressVPN to the rescue
China has the Great Wall and now the Great Fire Wall. China has become the world’s leading expert in internet censorship. Most VPNs do not work in China – but ExpressVPN does!
And, wow, are the men and women at ExpressVPN good.
When I was living in Jinan the Chinese government was really pushing to block VPNs and most VPN providers were unable to cope. But ExpressVPN worked around every block that was put up. Many times, I’d get a message from ExpressVPN that they had been blocked and were working to fix it, and they always did, and fast.
I discovered that ExpressVPN was THE service used by all my colleagues (foreign and Chinese) and most of my students. In fact, almost everyone I met with a VPN in China had ExpressVPN.
The moral of this story is,
- if a VPN works in China it works everywhere.
- If a VPN can breach the Great Fire Wall there’s no question it can hop over Thailand’s picket fence. No offense to Thailand. I love Thailand.
A note on censorship
In Thailand when I ran into a censored site I’d get a screen with the Thai Royal symbol stating that the given site was off-limits. I appreciated the fact that the government was being honest, transparent in its censorship. They were not trying to hide anything. And yes, I get the oxymoron of transparent censorship.
China is also open about censorship. They tell you they are doing it and if you don’t like it don’t go there. I like the honesty of the Chinese government.
The internet is censored in the U.S. too. You just don’t know it. The U.S. does it secretly, behind closed doors, and then gives the impression that it’s not doing it. That’s lying and that’s wrong.
Every country is different
What I’ve found while traveling and living in so many different countries is that every country has different internet access protocols. So, having a VPN allows me to have consistent access to the sites I regularly use, whether that’s Google Docs or the Daily Sun.
I also do a lot of research on a lot of sites. Everything from
- Airbnbs
- political stability
- airfares
- language learning
- country safety
- economics
- tourist information . . .
I need to know I have access to the information I need.
It’s also interesting to do searches without the VPN on to see what comes up.
Every company is different
It’s not just countries that have different access protocols, so do companies. Netflix, for example, is not available in many countries. It is available everywhere with ExpressVPN. And speaking of Netflix, when I’m learning a language and want to watch a movie in that language, I’ll switch my ExpressVPN setting to that country, go to Nexflix and get movies in that language.
You need ExpressVPN
Before you leave for your next trip install ExpressVPN. It’s impossible to know all the regulations and censorship laws in every country. Don’t take the chance of not being able to access the documents you need, the information you are searching for, or miss messages from friends and colleagues because a site is blocked or not complying with the local regulations.
ExpressVPN gives you the security to know that you have access to everything you need everywhere.