It’s no secret that a VPN is now the more reliable way for protecting yourself online, along with many other perks. In fact, almost 91% of users have used a VPN at some point in time. Most users are often beginners, and with that said, how can they determine whether their VPN works? A software like a VPN needs time and patience, and a whole lot of testing. It’s the only way to know for certain that your VPN works.

How can we tell if our VPN works?

Do you have a VPN? Does it sometimes stop working? Here’s the thing, when a VPN stops working, there are a number of factors that surround it. Sometimes, it’s either because the VPN is weak, and sometimes it has nothing to do with the VPN as a whole. The best thing you could do is use a premium VPN’s free trial and run some tests.

 So, with that said, here are a few tips you could use to determine whether your VPN is working or not.

Tips on how to check if your VPN is working

1. Firstly, you need to test your VPN for leaks. When you connect to a VPN through any one of its servers, you need to make sure that the IP address does not match your physical IP address. To test it, first connect to any one of the VPN servers. Head over to an IP, DNS and webRTC leak checker. Once you run the test, the IP should not match your actual one. If that happens, it means your VPN is leaking and one of the reasons why your VPN is not working.
2. Run a speed test. The speeds of a VPN won’t drastically become faster; however, it does help bypass ISP speed and bandwidth throttling. Check the speeds with and without the VPN, and take note of the differences. If your speeds are still drastically low, it can mean two things. Either your VPN isn’t working, or you’ve connected to a server that is located far away from your physical location.
3. Connect to any server of the streaming service or website that you’re trying to unblock. If it works, your VPN works.

These are just a few ways for you to check whether your VPN is working. There are chances that sometimes certain servers might stop working, and this could be due to a blacklisted IP address on a particular platform. Connect to a different server and try again.

Is using a VPN necessary?

When your VPN stops working, and you’re already in the middle of a paid subscription, you’re probably going to want to give up midway. The next thing you think about is a free VPN because “if this paid VPN doesn’t work, then why should other VPNs work?” or “maybe using a VPN is not necessary at all?” That’s not true.

There are different reasons as to why your VPN is not working, and using the guide above should help you address it. However, using a VPN is not a hard or fast rule. It does help improving overall online security and privacy, but that solely depends on what you need. However, using a VPN might be necessary if you’re trying to access your Netflix or local bank accounts while traveling abroad.

Wrapping up

And that’s a wrap, you now know how to test if your VPN is working. We’ve mentioned a few tips above that will help you choose a VPN wisely according to how it works.