NordVPN Review

NordVPN covers the following cities in the US: Atlanta, Buffalo, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Virginia, New Jersey, Miami, New York, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, St. Louis.

If you live in another country, visit the NordVPN server page for specific cities covered in your country.

Panama is located outside of the 14 Eye alliance and upholds no log retention laws. Panama does not bulk collect internet activity, which makes it a perfect fit for a VPN company. NordVPN has a strict no-logging policy. This means that no identifiable connection data (such as your IPv4/IPv6 address) is stored. There have been no logging violations from NordVPN to date. While NordVPN does log usage statistics to improve its service, no identifiable information is logged and you are kept safe.

NordVPN passes DNS leak tests with flying colors. All DNS requests are routed via NordVPN servers and no ISP DNS servers are leaked.

From the tests conducted, no public IPv4 or IPv6 addresses were leaked.

WebRTC is a browser feature that provides peer to peer connections. This is a huge vulnerability as any website could utilize the WebRTC API to extract your real public IP address, despite having a VPN connection. While testing, it looks like NordVPN is preventing IP leaks via WebRTC. For extra layer of security, simply disable WebRTC in your browser.

NordVPN provides double protection for all connections. This means that you are connected to a VPN server which bounces your request to another server, which then routes it to your destination. This provides extra security to ensure all of your identifiable information is lost.

NordVPN desktop application is very simple to use. When you open the desktop app, this is the greeting screen (refer to the image). The interface is very simple and intuitive. You can select a country from the left hand side of the window, with a convenient search bar. Alternatively, you can simply press the Quick Connect button and allow NordVPN to automatically select your country.

Once connected, you will see a green “Protected” notification, along with the location and IP address of your connection. You are provided the option to disconnect, or disconnect for a limited amount of time.

The general settings show the current NordVPN version and the option to update NordVPN. You can optionally start NordVPN when Windows boots, and optionally, do so without NordVPN popping up on boot. If you would like to be notified by Windows about what your NordVPN app is doing, enable “Show VPN connection status notifications”.

NordVPN brings another great anti-mal-ware, ad-blocking feature called CyberSec. This is useful on devices where ad blockers are not readily available. However, the ad blocking feature is not available on Android devices which download NordVPN from the Google play store. NordVPN had to make a deal with the devil and removed ad blockers from its Android application in order to stay in the Google play store. However, they still block malware sites and protect you per usual.

NordVPN provides a great way to ensure your device is always connected. Enabling “Always when the app launches” will automatically start NordVPN when you boot up your computer. Auto-connect on Wi-Fi allows you to select which networks to auto-enable VPN services on. You can allow NordVPN to choose the closest server automatically, or you can manually select a country of your choice. The Trusted Wi-Fi networks option allows you to whitelist network connections which should not use VPN services.

The Kill Switch feature is important to prevent your privacy from being leaked. Sometimes, the VPN service might lose connection, and to prevent the use of an unprotected connection, the kill switch will instead turn your internet off until the VPN connection is restored. You can either set up a global kill switch, or application-specific kill switch. I suggest using the Internet Kill Switch to maximize your protection.

The split tunneling feature allows you to enable VPN for specific apps only, or disable VPN for specific apps only. You can choose applications of your choice from the list. If you are using applications which you trust, or simply need higher latency, add the application to the list to bypass the VPN connection.

The advanced settings tab provides access to features which you’ll most likely never use. However, if you have your own DNS server you want to use, you can set it in the Custom DNS field.

The Invisibility on LAN is a neat feature which lets you hide yourself from the local network. This prevents others connected to your router (public or private) from finding your computer. If you are connected to a public network connection, this is a great feature to enable.

The NordVPN mobile app is simple and intuitive, and very similar to the desktop app. It’s very easy to get started. You simply tap the “Quick Connect” button and you’re ready to go.

Once connected, the top of your phone will turn green indicating that you are secured. You will be able to view the VPN IP address along with the country of your connection. You can click the blue refresh button to re-connect to another server.

All the options and features of the desktop app are available in the mobile app as well. You simply tap the settings icon in the top right corner to bring up all the options you can set.

The tablet app can be download on the Apple App Store on all versions of iPads, or the Google Play store on all Android tablets.

If you’re familiar with the desktop or mobile app, you will be familiar with the tablet app too. They are similar in design and once you learn one, you learn them all. The tablet app will also turn green once you are connected to NordVPN. You are also shown your new IP address, which is not the IP address that is hidden, but instead, the new IP address that NordVPN provides for you. The tablet app also displays the total connection time on the top right hand side.

NordVPN offers browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox. To install the browser addon, click the appropriate link:

Install NordVPN on Firefox

Install NordVPN on Chrome

The browser extension will secure only your web traffic. If you want to secure all of your device’s traffic, simply install the desktop app instead. If you install the desktop app, you do not need to install the NordVPN browser extension. The desktop app already protects all of your web traffic.

The browser extensions are quite limited to the number of options they provide. You can enable CyberSec, block WebRTC, and disable the proxy on specific sites. Aside from that, your options are limited, which is why I personally use the app instead of the extensions.

NordVPN does not have any bandwidth or speed caps. This means you can download as much as you want without having to worry. Keep in mind that your ISP cap still applies.

I tested NordVPN on a 100Mbps connection, which is fairly typical nowadays. The results I got were fairly consistent, and here are the results. Getting 80% of my ISP connection speed is comforting sight, and if you have concerns about VPNs being too slow to be practical for you – don’t. Unless you’re into gigabit style file sharing, you do not need to worry about NordVPN not being able to provide sufficient bandwidth. If you do happen to stumble upon a congested server, you can simply disconnect and reconnect again to be placed on a different server.

NordVPN supports Peer-to-Peer (P2P) file sharing on certain servers. You can also connect to your favorite onion browser. If you connect to a standard server and use P2P applications, NordVPN will route that P2P traffic via their P2P servers, so you are better off connecting to the designated P2P or Onion servers directly.

CyberSec is NordVPN’s tool that blocks unwanted ads and websites as you browse.

NordVPN unblocks all the major streaming services with a breeze.