What Is a VPN Kill Switch?
A VPN kill switch is a feature that can disable your device’s connection to the internet when your VPN fails. This feature is essential for anyone who is downloading torrents, stuck behind a censorship block like China’s Great Firewall, or otherwise doing something that can land them in trouble when discovered.
If you’re using a VPN to spoof your IP address and access the internet anonymously, then you may be at risk if your VPN doesn’t have a kill switch engaged. If this happens, your VPN will default back to your regular internet connection, which could show who you are on the internet without the protection of a VPN. This is not too big of a deal if you’re just spoofing an IP address to access a different Netflix library, but it is to anyone using the internet for less-than-legal purposes.
How Does a VPN Work?
A VPN works by encrypting your traffic and sending it through a third party. This third party then decrypts the traffic and sends it to your device. The kill switch is a feature of VPNs that allows you to stop all traffic from going through the VPN if something goes wrong. If your device gets infected with a virus, for example, then all your traffic will be stopped and you’ll have to re-connect to the VPN in order to continue using it.
When you connect to the internet without a VPN, you’re connecting to a server owned by your ISP. While connected, the site you’re on can see your IP address and some other information about you.
When you use a VPN, the connection goes to your ISP and then to a server owned by the VPN service before going to the site you want. Doing this switches out your IP address with that of the VPN’s server. This effectively hides your location while also setting your location to wherever the VPN provider has servers.
If you use a VPN while downloading torrents, this means that copyright watchdogs can’t find you and send you notices (however, you shouldn’t download pirated content).
Hiding your IP address is a way to protect yourself from being spied on by repressive governments like China, Iran or Belarus, which don’t allow their citizens to visit news sites not approved by the government.
How Does a VPN Kill Switch Work?
A VPN connection can fail for a variety of reasons, including a power outage, network congestion, or an incorrect password. If this happens, your computer will stay connected to the internet and you will be safe from any tracking or spying. A good VPN also has a kill switch to keep you disconnected if the internet connection fails for any reason.
Different Kinds of VPN Kill Switch
Windscribe has a firewall. AirVPN and ExpressVPN have network lock.
ExpressVPN offers a kill switch that you can tweak to include or exclude local devices. If you’re working in a public office, it’s probably best to leave this kill switch off, but if you’re at home it can be turned on.
NordVPN Kill Switch
NordVPN offers two types of kill switches: the first works like most others and kills the entire connection when it’s triggered. The second is what NordVPN calls the “app kill switch.” This one lets you decide which apps get shut down when the VPN fails, while letting all others keep doing what they’re doing. ..
While somebody in China may want to keep the full kill switch on, a torrenter might be better served by just putting their torrent client (like Transmission) on the kill list and leaving everything else to run normally, VPN or not. Nevertheless, it’s a nice little tweak that we’re surprised more services don’t offer.
Kill Switches and You
A kill switch is one of the most important safety features a VPN can have. If your VPN doesn’t have a kill switch, you should steer well clear of any service that does. Thankfully, only a few fly-by-night outfits don’t have them, so as long as you stick with tried-and-true VPNs, you should be fine. Just never switch it off unless you’re sure you know what you’re doing. ..
