Using a VPN is a must for every internet user but choosing a VPN is quite difficult. There are certain features you should check out before opting for a VPN service or app. For example, VPN Kill Switch. It helps you protect your privacy even when you are using a VPN service. If you do not know about VPN kill switch, this article will let you know. Here is what’s a VPN kill switch and why you need this.

What is a VPN?

VPN or Virtual Private Network is such a service that lets you browse the internet anonymously. When you open a website or play a video or listen to the music on Spotify, you share an IP address with that website. No matter whether you play YouTube video or open this particular website, your IP address is stored by a tracking service. VPN helps you get rid of that tracking. In simple words, VPN will let you hide your original IP address while browsing the web.

How does VPN work?

A VPN works as a middleman between you and the website you are trying to open in your browser. If you do not use a VPN, your computer gets connected to the website directly. However, if you use a VPN, your computer gets connected to a server first. Then, the server connects you to the website. That way, the website doesn’t capture your IP address. Instead, it fetches the VPN server’s IP address. In a nutshell, this is how VPN works.

Why do you need a VPN?

Although there are so many reasons, why an internet user should use a VPN, the primary reason is protecting privacy. Nobody wants to be tracked, and every website tries to track the users as much as possible. Therefore, if you do not want to be tracked by a website’s tracking service, you should start using a VPN.

Secondly, you can lift the region-specific content barrier with the help of VPN. There are many websites that are not accessible from a specific region. If you want to browse such websites, you can use a VPN or Virtual Private Network.

What is a VPN Kill Switch?

As mentioned earlier, when you use a VPN, your computer stops sharing your browser and location related information with the website. But, there is a catch that you must understand if you want a 100% secure connection while using a VPN.

The aforementioned scenario happens when you have a valid VPN connection. In other words, that thing goes on as long as the VPN server is up and running. But the whole secure and encrypted connection goes into vain when VPN server loses connection. When you are connected to a VPN and opened a website, but the VPN has lost its server connection, you are at risk since your IP will be connected to the website directly as the middleman has gone. After that, the website’s tracking system will start gathering your computer information since the VPN is down.

This is where VPN Kill Switch shines and does the job to protect your privacy. If your VPN service has a Kill Switch, it will cut the connection immediately when your VPN is down.

You might have seen this scenario. There are some VPN services that cut the connection sometimes. That means those VPN services have VPN Kill Switch and they have cut your connection because there are some issues with the VPN server. In simple words, this is a must have security feature that every VPN app should have.

Does your VPN app have VPN Kill Switch?

This is quite difficult to say whether your VPN app has a Kill Switch or not. However, most of the popular and reliable VPN apps and services have such a security feature. For example, you can find this in NordVPN, IPVanish, ExpressVPN (Network Lock), etc. If you are using these VPN apps, you just need to enable this functionality.

However, if you are using a different VPN service or app, the best way to know the availability of this feature is by contacting the respective support. They will ensure if your current VPN app comes with a VPN Kill Switch or not.

As you can understand, a VPN Kill Switch is a very important part of Virtual Private Network. It lets you shut down the connection when the VPN server stops working. Therefore, do check and enable this feature as soon as possible.