Surely you have noticed the number of ads and distractions on websites as you browse. Not only do these hinder the browsing experience by slowing down the load times and wasting one’s time (think of the ads that load before every other YouTube video!) but they may also lead to malware (adware, spyware, viruses, etc.)

Blocking ads can solve these problems! One of the ways to achieve this is to install an ad block extension directly to your browser.

There are several to choose from, below is a short list:

1. uBlock Origin: Highly recommended. Lightweight, fast, super easy to use, and open source! It is officially available in the extensions stores of the following browsers Chrome, Opera, and Firefox.
   *Note that ‘uBlock Origin’  is NOT the same as ‘uBlock’, the latter has not been tested by us*
2. Adblock: Another excellent ad blocker. We felt no difference in the effectiveness of this and uBlock Origin. uBlock seemed a bit less heavy on RAM but we did not run any tests so we cannot comment. Download it for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera.
3. Adblock Plus (ABP): A well-known and established ad blocker. We used to be huge fans until they introduced “Acceptable Ads”. This is not the place to talk about their practices; but if you’re interested you can read more about these on their Terms of Use page. Available for pretty much all browsers including the following Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera.

Enjoy the ad-free world =)

Let’s talk about Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) a bit.

The way one usually browses the Internet is very simple: you have an IP address from your internet service provider (ISP) and it is used as your identification on the internet. Hence, anything you do on the internet (surf web, play games, etc.) is linked to this given IP. It is not encrypted and therefore not secure. The diagram below shows this connection:

But how do we increase the security and therefore privacy? VPN is one solution. In its simplest form, VPN involves a connection from your computer to another. It then uses their network to complete your work. This makes your connection encrypted and therefore secure. Here is a diagram to demonstrate this:

While usually not its main purpose, VPNs can also help you with the geographical limitations posed by some services. Since VPN servers can be anywhere in the world, you can trick the receiver of data in to thinking you are located where the VPN server is. For example, if your VPN server is located in the U.S., by connection to it, you are sending your traffic through the U.S. Therefore, you are identified as being located there, regardless of your actual location. People have used this method to use U.S. Netflix services. Please note that VPNs increase your privacy but they do not make you anonymous. This is because the VPN server can eventually track you and find out who you are. To be completely anonymous, you can use the free service of Tor.

Examples of VPN providers

There are many VPN providers. We are in no way suggesting one over the other and that is out of the scope of this post. The purpose here is to show you some options that exist. Usually what you need to be careful is if the provider keeps logs or not. Refer to this list for an excellent comparison of the different providers. Here are a few examples (alphabetically sorted):

• BlackVPN
• CyberGhost
• Doublehop
• NordVPN
• Private Internet Access
• PureVPN
• VyprVPN