How to Choose a Good VPN?

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) have been around since the late 1990s. They were created to help businesses share confidential information securely. Today, VPNs are a multi-purpose digital survival tool, and are offered by numerous companies for private and corporate use.

Given the vast range of VPN offerings, you might be wondering: How do I choose a quality VPN?

Here are four things to look for in a good VPN provider.

1. Numerous locations and unlimited server switches

The most popular use for VPNs these days is to unblock websites and access geo-restricted content. Whether you want to watch Hulu overseas or access Facebook in China, a VPN lets you enjoy your favorite websites wherever you go.

That said, it’s important to choose a VPN provider that has a wide range of server locations around the world. For example, if your media diet includes a healthy dose of Netflix, BBC iPlayer, and Rai TV, you’ll want a VPN provider that has servers in the U.S., UK, and Italy.

What’s more, you should expect your VPN provider to offer unlimited server switches. Some companies have servers all over the world, but limit the number of server switches allowed per day or month. The result? You could still be seeing those pesky “content is not available in your location” screens when you run out of server switches.

Morale of the story: Find a VPN service that not only covers the globe, but also gives you the flexibility to hop around it.

2. Long encryption keys and open standards

Unlimited server switches across dozens of countries may be great, but it means nothing if your VPN provider can’t keep you safe and anonymous online. A great measure of a VPN’s security capability is its encryption strength. Nowadays, the industry standard is 256-bit encryption, so named because it uses 256-bit keys.

With a key that is 2256 digits long, even if someone could use all the supercomputers in the world for a billion years to guess the key through brute-force hacking, they still wouldn’t crack the actual combination. Certificates, used to establish the authenticity of the connection, should be as long as 2048 or 4096 bit.

Furthermore, check that the provider offers leading VPN protocols like OpenVPN and IKEv2. OpenVPN is the current gold standard and offers the best combination of performance and security.

Don’t get tricked by VPN providers who simply claim to offer “military-grade encryption.” If they don’t provide 256-bit encryption or don’t use OpenVPN, move on.

3. No logs

The point of using 256-bit encryption is to prevent governments, internet service providers, and hackers from accessing your internet traffic. But while that may protect your personal information from external parties, it doesn’t prevent your VPN provider from gathering your data for themselves.

The solution? Look for a VPN provider that does not keep logs on you. In particular, make sure they won’t log your:

• Browsing history
• Traffic data
• DNS queries

While virtually all VPN companies collect some user data (e.g. connection date and server location used) for maintenance purposes, you should make sure the information they collect cannot be used to identify you.

Also, check that the VPN provider runs their own DNS service—you don’t want your online requests to end up on someone else’s records. And if the VPN provider accepts Bitcoin payments, it’s another sign that they respect your anonymity.

4. VPN kill switch and split tunneling

Even if a VPN checks all of the boxes above, it could still suffer from an occasional dropped connection.

In the event that happens, make sure your VPN provider has a kill switch that cuts off internet traffic when the VPN connection fails. A VPN kill switch ensures no internet traffic can leave your device without encryption and is a necessary feature of any decent VPN.

For those looking for the whole package, check that your VPN has split tunneling.

Split tunneling lets you “split” your device traffic, sending some of it through the VPN and letting the rest access your local network. By using a VPN with split tunneling, you can secure all your internet traffic while retaining access to local network devices like your network printer.

Everything You need to know about iPhone 7 Plus

People get excited and they constantly check updates on the internet, whenever it is an Apple event. People know that Apple reveals new details on its upcoming products and also launches cutting-edge devices and gadgets in its events. Such an event has taken place on September 7th, 2016 in which Apple has launched its futuristic iPhone 7 Plus. People were waiting for this device and finally now it is launched. Yes, it is true that Apple has lost people's attention in the last few years, but people are very excited about what new they will get in iPhone 7 Plus. So, let us reveal some important facts regarding the iPhone 7 Plus.

General Specifications:

The latest iPhone 7 Plus offers you 5.50-inch touchscreen display with 1080x1920 pixels resolution. Quad-core A10 fusion processor is installed in this device with amazing 3GB RAM. Unfortunately, there is no slot for an external SD card, but we think 32GB internal memory would be enough for every iPhone user. Apple has tried to gain back users’ attention by launching a product that can meet all their requirements. Of course, it is a secure device with some incredible features. The developers have tried to improve the performance of the phone by adding some innovative features.

Camera:

The smartphone users of this age want high-quality cameras in their smartphones. They can compromise with the processor, memory, but they don't want to buy a phone with poor camera quality. Apple knew that and that's why it is offering 12MP rear camera and 7MP front camera to click high-quality selfies. This cutting edge Apple Smartphone operates on an iOS-10 operating system and it offers 2700mAh non removable battery. It is a perfect treat for those, who want a Smartphone with all-inclusive features.

Connectivity and Sensors:

iPhone 7 Plus offers some impressive connectivity features. It features 802.11 a/ b/ g/ n/ ac Wi-Fi connectivity along with GPS and Bluetooth v 4.20. You can operate internet via Wi-Fi, whether you are close to the Wi-Fi router or in another room of your house or office. There is no NFC, Infrared, USB OTG and FM. In fact, there is no port for connecting the headphones because you can connect wireless earpieces directly via the Bluetooth. It is a single SIM phone in which you can use a GSM micro-SIM. Yes, it supports 3G, 4G and also 4G/LTE service. iPhone 7 Plus is good in terms of connectivity.

There is no temperature sensor in iPhone 7 Plus, but it provides a wide range of sensors like Magnetometer, Proximity Sensor, Barometer, Accelerometer, Ambient light sensor and Gyroscope. All the features of this amazing device depict that Apple has tried to lure buyers by introducing a few new features in this device. Many Smartphone experts and iPhone users have reviewed iPhone7 Plus and the maximum of them have offered it 5-star rating.

We have also found it an impressive device and now it is available in many countries of the world. It will be available for the Indian buyers from October 7th, 2016 and the price details will be available soon with the launch of this revolutionary iPhone.

This post was written by Surya kumar. So Surya Kumar currently works at LatestOne.com as Digital Marketing Analyst. He is a Freelance Blogger & Content Writer and like's to write about Gadgets. Show him some love over at his Facebook, Twitter, and G+ accounts.

Corrupted Hard Disk Recovery Tips

Whether mounted on a system or attached externally, the hard disk can get corrupt partially or completely due to a number of reasons. Such a scenario does not occur frequently; and, if it does, it restricts you from accessing the data you stored on it. As data is an important asset for both businesses and individuals, its inaccessibility results in a grim situation.

To curb this, you can go for a hard disk recovery, whereby you can either repair the hard disk so that it can be put to use again for accessing data, or simply retrieve all data on a new storage device (flash drive or hard disk). The tips for recovery of data from hard disk depends on the type of corruption incurred in it. Majorly, they are of two types: physical and logical corruption/damage.

Types of corruption

Corruption in your hard disk can take place all of a sudden without prior warning or after sending warning messages for quite a number of days. Know more about the types of corruption that can affect your hard disk here in the section below:

1. Physical damage – It is the mechanical damage caused to the hard disk. It occurs because of physically broken hard drive, or if there is some kind of inconsistency in its component called platter.

2. Logical damage - It is the non-physical damage caused to the hard disk. It occurs due to the discrepancy in the file structure wherein the BIOS of the system can see the hard drive, but cannot access the data on it. Moreover, it may not be able to mount the partition and Windows may simply report that no drive is present.

With both types of corruption issues, data loss is a common problem.

Hard Disk failure: Early signs

Let’s identify the early signs of failure!

• Irregular snapping on, scratching, smashing noises, etc. [The sound is from the drive heads, which can be scraping the platters. The more the disk heads harms the platters, the more is the chance of data loss on hard disk corruption.]
• Blue screen of death (BSoD) error

Measures to avoid Hard Drive failure

If you observe any or both these signs of hard disk corruption/failure, you should stop using it immediately to prevent damage to the disk. The reason being, these indicate your hard disk to be probably suffering from problem that may result in huge data loss in the future if you do not discontinue to use it.

Understanding the early signs of failure is essential for you to be prepared for the hard disk crash. It does not mean these symptoms will automatically and quickly lead to ‘crash’ and a requirement for hard disk data recovery, but it will definitely help you to combat data loss situations.

Note - Ignoring these signs of hard disk failure that appear in the initial stages of corruption can land you into a serious problem of your system hard disk not responding at all, or responding abnormally. By failing to take preventive steps, your hard disk crashes and you lose access to your data resulting in need of hard drive recovery tips.

The hard disk recovery tips

Here, you will get to know all that can be done for hard disk recovery. Most importantly, you will know when to opt for what type of recovery option. Hard disk recovery is retrieving all the stored information from the physically or logically corrupted hard disk.

• If your hard disk suffers logical corruption, you can recover all its data by running third party hard disk recovery software applications. 
• If your hard disk suffers physical corruption you should go for hard disk recovery services by experienced professionals. Recovering data from physically corrupt hard disk is beyond the capacity of external data recovery utilities as the hard disk cannot be accessed.

Conclusion

You can try hard disk repair and recovery services available at Stellar Data Recovery centres as the technicians over there ensure 100% data recovery. In most of the cases, they can even repair the dead hard disk and retrieve all data out of it.

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