smart technology for smarter small businesses
Like a lot of computer and Internet-related environments, VPNs suffer from a tech-speak jargon. To the uninitiated, these can be confusing and the shutters come down and the brain turns off (like a kill switch!) but they are really very simple to understand.
Below we explain some of the more common terms.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN), is becoming the first line in cybersecurity defence for anyone who goes online. Put simply, a VPN such as Surfshark consists of a tunnel that your encrypted data travels down, keeping you more secure and anonymous when online. It protects you from identity theft, phishing, malware and a host of other nasties that are evolving all the time.
However, there are side benefits apart from protecting your online activity, here is a shortlist of surprise advantages you can enjoy while using a VPN.
VPNs use a variety of different protocols to deal with your Internet traffic. Some have just one built-in and there is no choice but others, Like Surfshark, allow you to choose from multiple options.
Don’t let this put you off as the difference between them is easily explained to allow you to make an informed choice as to what protocol to use.
It looks like coronavirus is here for the long haul and despite lockdowns being lifted – and reintroduced – the bean counters in companies are looking at the advantages of ditching large, corporate headquarters and allowing employees to work from home. Total breaking up of the workforce is not always possible, but one London company is actively looking at ditching its expensive West End office, working out where geographically its employees live and creating regional hubs for presence meetings between the team and the clients.
Many years ago, I handled the public relations for a London-based virtual office company and then took on the marketing communications for is international counterpart The Global Office Network. Whether or not these virtual offices can handle a surge in business I have no idea, but I can predict the big property landlords are going to catch a cold. The proliferation of services such as Zoom, Webex and Google Meet means that working from home does not equate to working alone, but there is a fair bit of groundwork to be done before video meetings can operate satisfactorily.
A few weeks ago I published a post criticising Google Meet. I owe Google an apology and expose myself as a total moron for failing to work through the obvious steps to getting it to work. When I first started to play with Meet I could not get it to work at all on Chrome.
Five weeks on I started trying it in Firefox and it worked. Once I gave the browser permission to use the camera and microphone in my webcam, it worked perfectly. I tried the same in the new Microsoft Edge browser and it bombed. This is where I made the important discovery and realised I had failed to go through the first, basic steps if something isn’t working in a browser.