Christopher D. AndersonYou may have heard of the term VPN. A VPN (Virtual Private Network) is an internet technology that, simply put, creates a better, more secure connection. It does this by encrypting and sending your internet traffic through a private server. Which can be anywhere in the world. These servers are setup to be more secure and run faster and they can also give the user anonymity by hiding the ip address, further protecting your data.
This technology is widely used on both computers and phones. The latter especially because of the ease of access to data. The cool thing about this is that you can also set up a VPN to use on your PlayStation 4 and you’ll get most of the same benefits from it. There is a variety of different VPN’s to choose from and all come at different costs. Some are even free although you’ll likely hit a data limit and then have to start paying. Definitely do your research though and pick what works best for you. But let’s take a look at why you would want this kind of service to begin with. Here are 5 reasons to use a VPN for your PlayStation 4.
Less Lag
Having a VPN gives the user a more solid connection as you basically have a dedicated server of sorts. What this amounts to is that there is the potential to have little to no lag when playing games. Less in-game lag means you’ll do better playing the game. Online shooters benefit the most from this. Whether you’re playing Battlefield, Call of Duty, or Destiny, having a good connection is super important. No more cussing at the screen when you miss that shot because of a lag spike.
Access to Data from Other Countries
This is more for people in other countries outside the United States but it works the either way. Having a VPN will make it so you can access the PlayStation Store from a different country. For example, I live in the United States but I could use the VPN to make it look like I’m in Europe, which would give me access to their Playstation Store. As I mentioned, this works the other way around too. There are a lot of times when you can get a game cheaper in the US store. You would also have the chance to get earlier access to games as some games are released earlier in other countries.
Protection from DDoS Attacks
A VPN can also protect your connection from DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks. Basically, DDoS works by stressing a server by sending a huge amount of data causing it to slow down and possibly shut down altogether. Which as you imagine wouldn’t be very helpful if you are playing something online. There are many cases (especially on the PS3) of someone using a DDoS attack to mess with and even outright ruin other people’s gaming session. And we all remember when the entire PSN was shut down a few years ago. That was a DDoS attack. With a good quality VPN service, a DDoS attack will be stopped before it can affect anything on your end. Again, no slow down or lag.
Mask Your IP Address
Most people don’t really use their PlayStations to browse the web. But if you do happen to do this, a VPN will help you there as well. A VPN can mask your IP address (basically a number that says where your computer or PS4 is located) which can help protect any of your data traveling across the web. This also helps with the aforementioned DDoS attacks. In other words, it will be that much more difficult to locate your system, protecting it from most of these kinds of attacks.
Protect Your Privacy
At the end of the day your privacy in general is a pretty big deal and a VPN can help with that as well. Because a VPN hides your IP and runs on a private server it makes any data going to and from your PS4 that much more secure. This is a major reason VPN is a big deal on phones since they are used for so much in our lives and contain a lot of sensitive data. And while it may not seem like there is important data coming and going from your PS4, there actually is. If you have used the Store at all then there’s important data tied to your funds. More specifically where they come from, such as a credit card or your PayPal info. A VPN will help protect that data.
As you can see, having a VPN can have quite a few benefits for your PlayStation 4. Less lag and more security will make for a better gaming experience all around. It’s not overly difficult to set up either. A little research and some time and patience and you’ll be good to go. A VPN can make a pretty big difference in our gaming lives.
Did we miss anything? Do you have a VPN connection set up with your PS4? How has it worked for you?
That first one makes no sense – a VPN introduces more network overheard, not only in encrypting the connection but in changing where packets are routed and requiring extra hops to get where it’s going. I would expect a VPN rarely, if ever, reduces lag. The only way it would reduce lag is if there’s a specific slow bottleneck between you and what you’re connecting to, that the VPN effectively routes around – but it’s equally likely that the VPN route will end up introducing a bottleneck you wouldn’t normally have, and creating lag.
The rest of your points make sense, but that one simply doesn’t. Is there something I’m missing?
Thanks for your input. A VPN can potentially decrease lag by taking a more direct route to the servers whereas your ISP might not. Sure there is a chance that there might be more overhead but more often than not a VPN will have less ping which equals less lag. Depending on the VPN you can also make some adjustments to make a more direct connection.
Thanks for your input. A VPN can potentially decrease lag by taking a more direct route to the servers whereas your ISP might not. Sure there is a chance that there might be more overhead but more often than not a VPN will have less ping which equals less lag. Depending on the VPN you can also make some adjustments to make a more direct connection.