What happens when the VPN is disabled on a computer or phone?

 

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is an ideal choice for those wishing to maintain the privacy of their data while browsing the web and using the Internet safely, especially when connecting to the Internet through public Wi-Fi networks. It encrypts user data, including its actual geographical location, activity history on the Internet, and transactions Search and others, and prevents its access to parties that may misuse it, such as electronic attackers, hackers, and some annoying advertisers.

 

But sometimes the connection to the VPN may be subject to a sudden interruption due to a malfunction, or you disabled the connection by mistake or intentionally because you need to browse the Internet faster, so what happens when you do that? And will you lose all the previous security and privacy benefits? Let the following lines answer all these questions.

 

What might cause the VPN connection to fail?

 

Unstable internet connection

 

The use of a VPN requires a stable connection to the Internet, as it acts as an intermediary that sends user data to servers specially established for this purpose located in remote geographical locations in order for these servers to encrypt the data and forward it to the Internet service provider after blocking the Internet Protocol or IP address Address of the user. If there is a problem with this connection, or the user's network bandwidth is not enough for his data to reach the VPN servers, this can easily cause a sudden disconnection of the VPN connection, perhaps without the user noticing it.

 

Use of inappropriate protocol

 

One of the factors that may cause instability of the Internet connection as well and thus may cause a sudden outage of the connection to the VPN service is the use of an inappropriate protocol for transferring data over the Internet, for example; TCP networks suffer from signal instability unlike UDP networks, in which case changing the protocol used to transfer data over the Internet will be sufficient to solve the problem and restore VPN connectivity good.

 

Router settings and security software

 

Router protection settings may cause a sudden disconnect from the VPN at times, and the same thing may happen due to antivirus and malware programs installed on the device, so it is important that when the VPN service is suddenly disabled, check the router settings and disable the security and antivirus programs before trying again Contacting VPN servers to make sure that these programs are the cause of the connection failure or not, and if the connection to the service is restored well after disabling the protection programs, we will need to control the settings of the protection programs so that it allows the service to perform its work without the intervention of the program after reactivating it.

 

An intentional shutdown of the service

 

In other cases, the user may intentionally turn off the VPN network, motivated by his need to increase the speed of the Internet, as slowing the speed of the Internet connection and excessive consumption of data are among the most important disadvantages of using VPN networks due to the constant need for the network to process a lot of data before encrypting and forwarding it, so resort to Some users turn off the VPN for a while when they want to download an urgent file or watch a movie through the site directly without tedious cutting and without wasting time storing it on the device’s memory, believing that this temporary suspension of the service will not have a noticeable effect as long as they will return to run it after a short time. Unfortunately, this belief is completely wrong.

 

What happens when I disable VPN connections?

 

Once a user disconnects from the VPN while using the Internet, data such as their IP address, their activity history that shows all their searches on search engines, and all the websites they browse over the Internet will be fully visible to their Internet Service Provider (ISP). His data immediately loses its privacy even if he has been keen to protect it by using VPNs for many years before that moment of disconnection, and therefore; His data will become vulnerable to theft and misuse of snoopers and cyber attackers succeed in accessing it, especially if the user is browsing unsafe websites.

 

Solutions available to protect data when the VPN connection drops

 

Stick to sites that provide a secure internet connection

 

Many legitimate websites use the HTTPS protocol, which is a protocol that encrypts the data that allows the user to connect to the website, which guarantees the users of these sites the privacy of their data, so browsing websites that use the HTTPS protocol will not constitute A significant risk to data security and privacy if the VPN is turned off.

 

It is easy to know whether a website is using HTTPSTP or not just by looking at the website address bar or what is known as the URL address. And if the website address does not begin with this section, we should worry about the privacy of our data and avoid using that website except by connecting to the Internet via an active VPN.

 

Automatically disconnects from the Internet when the VPN is down

 

One of the proposed solutions to maintain data privacy is to activate one of the features provided by some VPN service providers such as ExpressVPN, NordVPN, SurfShark, or ProtonVPN to prevent unprotected access to the Internet, which is the Kill Switch feature, which we have previously explained the importance of its presence in VPN programs and applications.

 

Simply activating this feature automatically disconnects the user from the Internet immediately after the VPN is turned off or fails to connect to it, so that the user's IP address remains protected and other data is safe thanks to the activation of this feature even after it becomes unencrypted due to the downtime of the VPN service, especially since this stop may sometimes occur suddenly while browsing the Internet and without the user noticing it.

 

The feature to prevent unprotected access to the Internet is usually already activated within the settings of the VPN application when it is installed depending on the type of device, and if it is not activated, it is easy to activate it from the application settings menu in a few steps that may differ depending on the application of the VPN service provider that you use, but in most cases, It won't take much time.

 

Sometimes the process of activating this feature requires making some changes in the settings of the application, but you can always find the steps to enable the feature correctly by searching on the Internet according to the application of the VPN service provider that you use. It should also be noted that the kill switch feature may be present in the settings of some VPNs with different names, as in the Express VPN application, for example, where it can be activated by enabling the “Block All Non-VPN Traffic” option in the application settings.

 

 

 Abstract | Using a VPN helps users protect their data while browsing various sites on the Internet because its servers encrypt connection data and block the user's IP address from any third parties, but there are many reasons that may lead to a sudden disconnection of the VPN and thus data loss For its privacy, such as the lack of a stable connection to the Internet, or that the router settings and security programs impede the connection to the VPN network, or that the user has intentionally disabled the service in order to increase the speed of the Internet connection.

 

Whatever the reasons for stopping the VPN service, once this happens, the data will immediately lose its privacy and become visible to the Internet Service Provider, thus increasing the possibility of being stolen and abused by cyber-attackers. Therefore, the best way to preserve data privacy in the event of a VPN outage or disablement is to activate the Kill Switch feature supported by some VPN applications to cut off the entire Internet connection immediately after the service is stopped, or to stick to browsing sites that use the HTTPS protocol only when using the Internet is necessary. It helps protect data and gives it a degree of privacy.