Instead of being a way of accessing company assets, the VPN is now a method of browsing with a level of privacy you cannot get otherwise. What a VPN does is mask your identity and encrypt your internet traffic. Essentially, a VPN makes it far more difficult for bad actors to access the data you transmit or discover where that traffic is coming from. Enable a VPN and your browser will appear to come from a different region or country. This works by hiding your IP address and then redirecting everything through a specifically configured remote host, effectively making the remote server the source of your traffic. Also: The best VPN: Holiday guide Another benefit is that some VPNs can make regionally specific web content available to you. For example, there might be something in one country that’s not available to the region where you live. Enable the VPN and select the proper country, and you should have access to that content. (Opera’s VPN doesn’t have this feature.) The one caveat to using a VPN is that you’ll probably notice that websites tend to load more slowly. That’s usually a worthwhile trade-off, especially if privacy and security are your biggest concerns (which they should be). The Opera web browser includes its own no-log VPN built right into the browser. There’s no need to download or install any additional applications or services and no need to subscribe to a paid plan. The Opera VPN is free and just works out of the box. So, anyone looking to up their security game within their web browser would do well to make use of the feature. Also: How and why to use the Opera browser VPN The problem some people run into when using a VPN with a web browser is that some sites refuse to work properly. When that happens, what do you do? If you’re using the Opera browser, you can easily create bypass rules so those sites always work as expected. Let me show you how.
Requirements
The only thing you’ll need is an updated version of the Opera web browser. I’ll demonstrate with version 93.0.4585.37, running on Pop!_OS Linux but the operating system you use doesn’t matter. You can use the Opera VPN on the desktop or mobile versions of the browser.
Enabling the OperaVPN
One thing to remember is that unless you set Opera to always enable the VPN at start, you’ll have to manually enable it every time the same way you did above. Other than that, you now have a functioning VPN in the Opera web browser and have created the necessary bypass rules to ensure the content you need can be served up as expected. Also: You’re definitely not making the most of your password manager Also: The fastest VPNs offer security with more speed Remember, you will find the speed at which websites load will be slightly reduced. If that’s a problem for you, you will have to either disable the VPN or add bypass rules for the sites that are the slowest. Another thing to consider is that Opera’s VPN does not allow you to select the country to be used for the VPN. That means you can’t use it to view region-specific content. But for anyone looking to add an extra layer of privacy and security to the web browser, this is a great way to go.
