If you are new to virtual private networks, you may be wondering where to connect your new VPN. After all, when you can connect anywhere in the world, the choice can be overwhelming. Here are some rules for finding the best country and server for you.

Which VPN Server Should I Choose?

There are many reasons to use a VPN, but the most important two are security and the ability to change your digital location – think about avoiding censorship or accessing another country’s Netflix library. There are a few uses that do not fall into any of these categories, such as torrenting, but we will find out later.

The country you want to connect to will be determined by the priority you give to one of these categories. If you live in a country where the Internet is not censored and security is your only concern, you should choose the nearest server. This is because the farther away a server is, the worse your speed will be.

By connecting nearby, you will get the best possible speed and benefit from the protection of the VPN tunnel, which means that you can browse the internet without having to worry about anyone spying on your connection. If for some reason you’re getting bad speed, even on the nearest server, check out our tips for improving VPN speed.

VPN Alternatives: What can you use other than a VPN?

Connect with other countries

Of course, many people get a VPN primarily, so they can cheat their location, and security is a secondary concern. In this case, you must log in to the country where you want to appear. Europeans may want to connect to Netflix in the United States, for example, vacation Americans may want to use a US server to access their online banking account.

However, your first choice should always be a nearby server. If you are connecting from Europe to the US, for example, try choosing an East Coast server, people in Asia or Australia should probably choose West Coast servers. If you are in the United States, connect to Ireland or France instead of the Polish server. If you need an EU IP address, you will see the gender.

This also applies to people who want to avoid Internet censorship: If you are in China, try to connect to servers in Taiwan, Japan, or Singapore for better speed. This is exactly what the people of eastern Russia are trying to do with government barriers, yet the people of Moscow may want to connect to European servers.

Problems with Netflix

If you use a VPN to connect to Netflix or another streaming service, you may not be able to go through it as most of those services are anti-VPN. When this happens, keep testing new servers until you find one that works. This means you will need to use a slower server, but at least you can see what you need.

Countries you should not connect to

Of course, there are some countries you should not connect to, usually because you are at risk of any kind of tracing. On paper your VPN should be able to protect you from this, and under some authoritarian regimes you may find yourself capturing your data when a server crashes, for example.

In other countries this risk is higher because in some cases VPNs will cooperate with law enforcement, but in regulated areas it is much higher. Note that India will be able to join the club later this year.

In short, VPN users should be barred from any kind of country where others want to tunnel. Think of other countries where places like China, Iran, and Russia are illegal or strictly controlled by VPNs. Usually, finding servers in these locations is difficult because few VPN providers are willing to invest in these locations – we’re not blaming them – but if you see one, do not connect unnecessarily.

Find the best torrent servers

As we mentioned earlier, torrenting is a little different because you need good security and good location selection. Fortunately, torrent sites have already done some work for you. For example, although access to Pirate Bay is not possible in the EU, there are dozens of proxy sites that you can access.

When they are received by copyright agencies, they are quickly shut down, but they reappear under a different IP address. Thanks to this digital killing game, you do not have to worry about accessing torrent sites from anywhere. As long as you are connected via a VPN, you’re fine. Failure to do so may result in heavy fines for downloading copyrighted material without permission. (Of course, we do not recommend piracy, we advise you to abide by the existing copyright laws in your country).

We’re not sure if you should use specialized torrent servers such as those provided by NordVPN or ProtonVPN. As a general rule, we recommend using dedicated servers, if available. But if your VPN service only uses public servers, you do not have to worry about using them for torrenting. As long as the VPN tunnel does its job, you need to be safe.

Where do I connect my VPN?

In short, when it comes to VPN servers, proximity is the best. Whatever VPN you use, make sure you are using the nearest server. Hope you can connect to the internet without too many problems or loading times.