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Title: NordVPN review 2025: Innovative features, a few missteps

Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2025 13:01:27 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/no...

When we say that NordVPN is a good VPN that's not quite great, it's important
to put that in perspective. Building a good VPN is hard, as evidenced by all
the shovelware VPNs flooding the market. NordVPN may not be perfect, but it's
easily top-five caliber and excels in certain use cases.

First, the bad: NordVPN's apps could all stand to undergo a little more
quality control, with elements distracting from other elements and
inconsistent designs from platform to platform. At least one of its FAQ pages
directly contradicts itself. And while all the server locations could unblock
Netflix, the one in Nigeria still showed U.S. content, indicating that our
real location might have leaked.

However, there's a lot of good to balance that out. Speeds are fantastic and
we saw no other hint of any kind of leak. Its server network is expansive and
not overly reliant on virtual locations. The vast majority of servers are
ideal for unblocking foreign websites. The real draw, though, is the extra
features, including the innovative and flexible Meshnet, plus a malware
blocker that acts more like a full antivirus and forward-looking quantum
resistant encryption.

Editors' note: We're in the process of revamping our VPN coverage to provide
more in-depth, actionable information and buying guides. Our recommendations,
and all the info on this page, are subject to change as the update continues.
To see the new direction, check out our revamped ExpressVPN review and Proton
VPN review, or learn more about how we test VPNs.

Table of contents

Findings at a glance

Installing, configuring and using NordVPN

NordVPN speed test

NordVPN security test

How much does NordVPN cost?

NordVPN side apps and bundles

Close-reading NordVPN's privacy policy

Can NordVPN change your virtual location?

Investigating NordVPN's server network

Extra features of NordVPN

NordVPN customer support options

NordVPN background check

Final verdict

Findings at a glance

Check out a summary of our NordVPN review in the table below.

Category

Notes

Installation and UI

Connections happen quickly and features are easy to use on all platforms

UI sometimes gets in the way; map screens can be clunky and apps come with
unnecessary notifications

Surprisingly, the best UI may be in the browser extension

Speed

Extremely fast download speeds with only a 6.4-percent average drop

Good latencies on nearby servers, but farther ones have some lag

Fast upload speeds, but losses spiked in a few locations

Security

Uses acceptable protocols with uncracked encryption

NordWhisper obfuscated protocol recently implemented on Windows, Android and
Linux

No DNS, WebRTC or IPv6 leaks on five test servers

Pricing

Best plan is the 2-year Basic for $81.36, or $3.39 per month

Basic gives you the complete VPN

If you get a multi-year plan, be sure to manually renew in order to keep the
promotional rates

Bundles

Plus tier adds advanced malware protection and NordPass password manager

Complete plan adds NordLocker cloud storage

Prime tier adds ID theft protection and insurance features

Privacy policy

NordVPN does not log user activity on the VPN, a policy backed up by several
third-party audits

However, it does log potentially identifiable device information unless you
opt out in settings

Some concerning liberties taken in the overall Nord policy, but no documented
malfeasance

Virtual location change

Four out of five test servers unblocked Netflix three times running,
including virtual India location

Location in Nigeria got into Netflix, but didn't change available titles

Server network

153 server locations in 117 countries and territories

Server network is about 40 percent virtual, including all locations in Africa

Features

Extra servers grant additional privacy (double VPN, Onion over VPN,
obfuscation) or specific optimizations (P2P, dedicated IP)

Meshnet directly connects two devices without a NordVPN server mediating

Threat Protection blocks dangerous domains and the Pro upgrade has some
antivirus capability

Dark Web Monitor reports to you when any sensitive information has appeared
on clandestine leak sites

Presets let you activate several settings with one clickPost-quantum
encryption is nice, but not necessary yet

Kill switch is a useful safety feature on all appsSplit tunneling by app on
Windows and Android, and by URL on browser extensions

Customer support

Written FAQs, live chat and email support

Live chat connected to an expert human within a minute

FAQs are poorly organized and contain some conflicts, but well-written on
average

Background check

NordVPN is headquartered in Panama, while its parent company Nord Security is
based in the Netherlands

2018 theft of public keys was a mistake, but NordVPN did almost everything
right in response

Claims of law enforcement collaboration are overblown ΓÇö NordVPN will comply
with requests, but that doesn't mean they'll have information to provide

Installing, configuring and using NordVPN

NordVPN's biggest strengths are its speeds and the range of options it puts
at your fingertips. User experience is important, but it's not quite as front-
and-center as it is with ExpressVPN and Proton VPN. Here's how the apps run
on all the major platforms.

Windows

The Windows app is the first instance of NordVPN's UI being not bad enough to
complain about, but not good enough to be considered excellent. The initial
connection process is a little slow, and it's far easier to connect than it
is to disconnect (click the power button while connected to shut the VPN
off). The map takes up space that would have been better allocated to the
server list.

Sam Chapman for Engadget

The minor problems continue in the settings list, which makes the mistake of
not keeping all its tabs visible in the window ΓÇö if you open one, you have
to click back to the main menu to reach another page. The pages themselves
are easy to use; it's just a bit clunkier than it could have been.

Mac

Setup is swift and easy on Mac, but the full NordVPN interface is a little
awkward. The vast majority of the main window is taken up by a large map,
which is mostly useless. There's no way to zoom out to see the whole world,
and you can't choose between servers in each country unless you zoom way in.
The server list on the left-hand side is almost always more useful.

Sam Chapman for Engadget

The preferences panel is better. All the tabs come with clear explanations of
their function, and are laid out so the menu is always visible, unlike the
Windows app. The gear icon at the bottom includes its own set of tabs that
encompass most of the common functions, including changing your VPN protocol,
activating the kill switch and setting the VPN to automatically connect on
untrusted networks.

Android

NordVPN on mobile can be described in much the same way as its desktop apps:
generally great, occasionally getting in its own way. On Android, the map
screen is much more helpful. It's expandable to the entire world and allows
you to choose between servers within a country. On the other hand, the
important settings are buried in the Profile tab, and the app notifies you
about your "security score" to pressure you into activating certain settings.

Sam Chapman for Engadget

To find the general settings page on Android, tap the bottom-right Profile
tab and scroll down. Except for Threat Protection, which has its own tab on
the main window, every feature is located here. It's probably necessary to
keep the main app from getting cluttered, but still mildly frustrating.

iOS

The NordVPN iOS app resembles a compressed version of the macOS client, for
better or worse. As with Android, most of its features are in the bottom-
right Profile tab. It works well most of the time, but often feels slightly
cumbersome. There's a bit too much on the screen, and a bit too much of the
stuff has nothing to do with the VPN's core function.

Sam Chapman for Engadget

As an example, you can't log into your account within the app ΓÇö you have to
load your Nord account page in a web browser. Forced app switching is a
design choice that truly needs to die. That said, VPN connections happen
quickly. If you tend to simply leave your VPN active, you probably won't
notice any of this stuff.

Browser extensions

Most VPN browser extensions consist of the same features on a smaller scale,
and NordVPN's ΓÇö on Chrome, Firefox and Edge ΓÇö are no exception. They are
important for one reason, though: they're the only way to split tunnels by
URL and the only split tunneling at all on macOS and iOS. Despite being more
compact, they're also easy to use, making for an excellent quick-start VPN
solution.

Sam Chapman for Engadget NordVPN speed test

All VPNs slow down your average browsing speeds by adding extra steps into
the connection process. When we test speed, we're looking for the VPN to drag
as little as possible on your unprotected speeds. Download speed will be the
most important stat for most users, since that determines how fast web pages
load and how quickly videos can buffer.

Latency is important for live connections like video chats, games and live
streaming. Latency increases with distance ΓÇö in the test below, data
packets were sent to the remote server, then back to our home network. Upload
speeds likewise influence your live two-way communications and are also vital
for torrenting. Let's see how NordVPN performs on all three metrics.

Server location Latency (ms) Increase factor Download speed (Mbps) Percentage
drop Upload speed (Mbps) Percentage drop Unprotected (Portland, OR, USA) 22 --
 59.20 -- 5.86 -- Seattle, WA, USA (Fastest) 44 2x 57.21 3.4 5.62 4.1 New
York, NY, USA 177 8x 56.90 3.9 5.60 4.4 Stockholm, Sweden 371 16.9x 55.94 5.5
5.63 3.9 Istanbul, Turkey 411 18.7x 53.02 10.4 5.78 5.9 Hong Kong 350 15.9x
56.18 5.1 5.72 2.4 Johannesburg, South Africa 602 27.4x 53.26 10.0 5.67 3.3
Average 326 14.8x 55.42 6.4 5.54 4.0

To summarize: NordVPN's download speeds are the fastest we've seen and its
upload speeds and latency tie with the best. Downloads only dropped by an
average of 6.4 percent across the globe and readings were mostly consistent
ΓÇö the servers in question performed much the same in each test. We even
threw in Turkey and South Africa, two locations that commonly cause problems,
but NordVPN still kept the drop to 10 percent.

Sam Chapman for Engadget

Latency is more a product of physical distance than VPN infrastructure, but
you can still see differences between services. When tested on a similar
range of locations, ExpressVPN and Proton VPN both kept average latencies
under 300 ms. NordVPN's average came out to 326 milliseconds, though we
should note that its latency increased less than Proton's on the closest
server.

Upload speeds declined an average of four percent, but there were a few
anomalously high readings in Istanbul that skewed those numbers up. Without
that location, NordVPN's upload rates would also have been the industry's
current best.

NordVPN security test

No matter how well-built a VPN looks from the outside, there are several ways
its security can fail. The most common problems are outdated protocols with
weak encryption, failing to block IPv6 traffic or inadvertent leaks from
sending DNS requests outside the encrypted tunnel. We'll start by looking for
those common leak sources, then check whether NordVPN's encryption might be
failing in less traceable ways.

VPN protocols

A VPN protocol is a set of rules used to get data quickly and safely from
your device to a VPN server and back, even while that data is encrypted.
Different protocols are connected with different encryption algorithms and
can impact the speed, security and stability of your connection.

When testing VPN security, the first step is to see if it's using any
protocols like PPTP that are outdated and crackable, or homebrewed protocols
with unclear security. NordVPN users have four options for protocols:
OpenVPN, IKEv2 (not available on Mac or iOS), NordLynx and NordWhisper
(available on Windows, Android and Linux only).

Sam Chapman for Engadget

OpenVPN and IKEv2 are both standard protocols you'll find on most VPN
providers. Both use various strengths of the Advanced Encryption Standard
(AES), with OpenVPN defaulting to AES-256 and IKEv2 to AES-128. OpenVPN can
be set to UDP (faster but less stable) or TCP (more reliable but slower). So
far, so secure.

NordLynx is unique to NordVPN, but it's not that far off the beaten track ΓÇö
it's just WireGuard with extra security. WireGuard normally works by saving a
stable IP address for each connection, which raises the very slight risk of
exposing a user. NordLynx adds a second layer of abstraction that means those
stable addresses are never revealed. Since NordVPN strongly recommends it for
most situations, we used it for all our tests in this review.

Finally, there's NordWhisper, a new protocol introduced in early 2025 that
disguises your VPN traffic as normal web traffic to evade blanket web blocks.
It's likely to be slower than the other protocols, so don't use it unless
everything else has been blocked. We also don't recommend counting on it too
much in general ΓÇö large-scale censorship technology, like the Great
Firewall of China, tends to rely on blocklists of known VPN servers, whose
identity NordWhisper can't disguise.

Leak test

Our first order of business was to check five test servers to see if they
leaked our real IP address ΓÇö staying away from the ones in the speed test
in order to get as comprehensive a picture of NordVPN's security as possible.
With help from ipleak.net, we found all five to be free of the three major
types of leaks.

DNS leaks occur when a VPN sends DNS requests (in short, how your browser
knows which websites to show you) outside its encrypted tunnel. By default,
NordVPN uses its own private DNS servers, which our tests showed to
effectively prevent leaks.

WebRTC leaks are caused by real-time communication protocols sending
information outside the VPN, which may reveal your real IP address. NordVPN
is consistently successful at keeping WebRTC inside the tunnel, but you can
have your browser block it if you're still worried.

IPv6 leaks happen when a VPN only blocks IPv4 traffic and lets v6 through.
NordVPN automatically blocks IPv6 traffic while it's active, so an IPv6 leak
is all but impossible.

Sam Chapman for Engadget

Although that's all great news, it is still possible for leaks to occur
without a clear explanation, so we ran one final test on NordVPN.

Encryption test

Wireshark is a program that captures detailed images of information sent over
a device's internet connection. Even though our tests showed NordVPN to be
free of leaks, we wanted to inspect it at the most granular level. Using
WireShark, we recorded the traffic sent to an unencrypted HTTP site, before
and after connecting to each NordVPN test server.

Every server showed the same pattern: readable plaintext before, encrypted
ciphertext after. If there is a security flaw remaining in NordVPN, it's
unlikely to be relevant to the overwhelming majority of users.

How much does NordVPN cost?

NordVPN's pricing structure looks convoluted at first, but it's much simpler
than it appears. A Basic subscription gets you full VPN functionality, and
all the other tiers just add more features. If all you need is a VPN, you
only need to concern yourself with the left side of the table below.

The best deal for a Basic NordVPN subscription, which lets you connect to
NordVPN with up to 10 devices at once, costs $81.36 for two years when you
pay upfront ($3.39 per month). One year of the same plan costs $59.88 in
advance ($4.99 per month) or $12.99 for one month at a time. The table below
shows the complete cost; for more information on plans above Basic, see "side
apps and bundles" in the next section.

Plan 1-month cost 1-year cost 2-year cost Basic $12.99 $59.88 ($4.99/month)
$81.36 ($3.39/month) Plus $13.99 $71.88 ($5.99/month) $105.36 ($4.39/month)
Complete $14.99 $83.88 ($6.99/month) $129.36 ($5.39/month) Prime $17.99
$107.88 ($8.99/month) $177.36 ($7.39/month)

The longer plans save money, but be careful: if you let them expire, you'll
automatically renew at the more expensive one-year plan. Enough customers
claim to have been auto-renewed at the higher rate that they've launched a
class-action lawsuit against NordVPN, accusing the company of deceptive
pricing practices and making renewals too difficult to cancel. A NordVPN PR
rep said they could not comment on ongoing legal action, "other than to state
that we are and always have been very clear about the recurring nature of our
services." No court date has been set so far.

That said, there's a fairly straightforward workaround in the meantime: To
prevent the auto renewal, log out of your NordVPN account, then sign up for a
discounted plan again using the same email. As long as you do this before
your subscription expires, your new account should link to your old one,
keeping you subscribed at the introductory rate.

Free trials and refunds

Every NordVPN plan comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you cancel
and request a refund before 30 days are up, you'll get the full cost back.
The only way to try it for free without paying is to get the app on Android,
where there's a seven-day trial through the Google Play Store.

NordVPN side apps and bundles

NordVPN is part of a larger family of Nord Security products, which you can
save money on if you need more than one. We won't review all of them here,
but for reference, here's everything you'll get from the higher subscription
tiers.

Basic: VPN on 10 devices, specialty servers, DNS ad-blocking, Meshnet

Plus: All Basic features, plus malware scanning, extra scam blocking, tracker
blocking, NordPass password manager, data breach scanner

Complete: All Plus features, along with 1TB of NordLocker encrypted cloud
storage

Prime: All Complete features, plus NordProtect features like dark web
monitoring, credit monitoring, ID theft insurance and extortion insurance

Another tier called Ultra includes a subscription to Incogni, a data removal
service run by Nord's partner Surfshark. The Ultra bundle is only available
in certain countries, since NordVPN is still testing it; users outside the
test countries can still add Incogni service at checkout. There also used to
be a NordVPN family plan, but it seems to have been eliminated after Nord
expanded the devices per subscription to 10.

You can get a dedicated IP address on NordVPN to ensure you have the same IP
every time you connect. This lets you configure remote firewalls to let you
through while you're connected to the VPN. A dedicated IP costs $8.99 per
month, $70.68 for a year ($5.89 per month) or $100.56 for two years ($4.19
per month).

The NordVPN pricing page lists access to a Saily eSIM plan as a perk, though
mysteriously, none of the existing plans seem to include it yet. A lot of
VPNs are expanding into the eSIM space, so this may change soon.

Close-reading NordVPN's privacy policy

A VPN privacy policy isn't just empty words ΓÇö it's a contract between the
provider and its users. If a service openly defied its own policy, it could
be sued for false advertising. VPNs tend to sneak loopholes into their
privacy policies instead of flouting them outright; these loopholes can shed
light on how the provider actually views your privacy.

We combed through NordVPN's privacy policy to see whether it tries to take
any such liberties. The policy has two parts: the general Nord Security
policy and an addendum specific to NordVPN.

General Nord privacy policy

This policy applies to all Nord Security apps. It's impossible to create an
account without a valid email address, but you can use a separate email
masking service to make that anonymous. The policy also explicitly says that
your email address will be added to a marketing mailing list, though you can
opt out. Irritating, but not a privacy risk in itself.

We're more concerned about the later statement that it may process data
without the user's consent "under the legal basis of our or third parties'
legitimate interest." This clause covers some cases we'd agree are
legitimate, such as identifying people who launch cyberattacks from NordVPN
servers. But Nord also considers it "legitimate interest" to process your
personal data "to improve or maintain our services and provide new products
and features."

Reached for comment, a NordVPN representative said that using personal data
in this way "generally involves aggregated, depersonalized or technical
information." That's somewhat reassuring, but the "generally" leaves a bit
too much wiggle room. Ideally, we'd prefer that personal data exist wholly in
the "consent only" section.

The section on sharing your data with third parties only lists "some of" the
service providers who may receive your information. Among these are Google
Analytics, which is known to store personal data on U.S. servers ΓÇö all of
which are potential security risks in the age of DOGE. Other unnamed "third
parties" are involved in targeting ads at users of Nord websites.

The NordVPN representative said that "since some partners, such as payment
processors, can vary by region or specific service and may change over time
depending on our operational needs, we do not publish a fixed list." They
added that all third parties are "contractually required to handle personal
data in accordance with applicable laws and industry standards."

We aren't using this to condemn Nord; many of these practices are fairly
standard in the VPN industry. But it's important to know about all the
potential leakage points before trusting your deepest secrets to any company.

NordVPN specific policies

The NordVPN privacy policy doesn't add much atop the general Nord notice. It
does track session activity connected to your username to make sure you're
staying within the 10-device limit, but it automatically deletes these logs
15 minutes after you disconnect. The logs also don't include your IP address
or the addresses of VPN servers you used.

Sam Chapman for Engadget

The only real problem we found is that NordVPN apps collect information about
your activity on the app by default. This doesn't include information about
your browsing habits, but it does include unique traits that could
conceivably be used for "device fingerprinting" ΓÇö in which a third party
can deduce a user's identity through clues about their device. You can turn
this off in the General settings.

A NordVPN spokesperson told us that the data collected is "not personally
identifiable," and that the company takes "deliberate steps to strip out
anything that could be linked back to a specific person." This presumably
means the data is aggregated so it only shows general trends, not any one
device's activity. That's a lot less risky, but we still recommend switching
the setting off.

Third-party privacy audits

NordVPN has passed five independent audits of its privacy policy so far, most
recently from Deloitte in late 2024. Annoyingly, you can only read the entire
report by logging into a Nord account, but it at least doesn't have to be a
paid account.

The audit found that NordVPN was following its own no-logs policy.
Specifically, the Deloitte Lithuania investigators concluded that "the
configuration of IT systems and management of the supporting IT operations is
properly prepared, in all material respects in accordance with the NordVPN's
description set out in the Appendix I." (Appendix I of the report is
identical to NordVPN's privacy policy.)

Can NordVPN change your virtual location?

You'll be most interested in this section if you mainly use a VPN to change
their location for streaming. To see if NordVPN could unlock new streaming
libraries, we picked a new batch of five test servers, then logged onto
Netflix. Since Netflix tries to block all VPN servers to prevent copyright
issues, our first question was whether we'd get through at all.

Our second question: would connecting to a NordVPN server actually change
what Netflix library we saw? It should, given that NordVPN seems leak-proof,
but thoroughness demands we check anyway. Here's what we found.

Server location Netflix unblocked? Content changed? Canada Yes Yes Argentina
Yes Yes Germany Yes Yes India Yes Yes Nigeria Yes No

Four out of five locations worked perfectly. On a Canadian server, we were
able to stream Star Trek: The Next Generation, which left American Netflix
years ago. The Argentine server gave us access to something called Pasion de
Gavilanes, which we'd never heard of but sounds great.

Sam Chapman for Engadget

The only problem was Nigeria. We tested it several times, connected to
multiple different Nigerian locations, but saw our American Netflix library
every time. We then ran a leak test on Nigeria, which wasn't one of our
security test locations, and found it to be working normally. It's hard to
say what happened, especially since the Nigeria server doesn't appear to be
virtual, but we can confirm that it wasn't working.

Investigating NordVPN's server network

NordVPN has servers in 153 cities in 117 countries. Out of all total options,
62 are virtual locations (about 40 percent), where the server is really
located somewhere else. This makes it possible to get servers into more
places, but depending on your actual location relative to the server, it may
perform differently than you expect.

Sam Chapman for Engadget

Virtual locations have allowed NordVPN's server network to grow quite
extensive, with lots more locations in South America, Africa and Asia than
the industry standard. Check out the distribution in the table.

Region Countries and territories with servers Total server locations Total
virtual server locations North America 15 36 12 South America 10 10 6 Europe
48 57 11 Africa 10 10 10 Middle East 7 7 4 Asia 24 26 18 Oceania 3 7 1 Total
117 153 62 (40.5 percent)

The relatively low proportion of virtual locations (nearly identical to that
of ExpressVPN) is a good sign, as it means NordVPN has been growing its
server network thoughtfully. Some VPNs ΓÇö looking at you, HMA ΓÇö inflate
their server lists as a marketing point without seriously considering what it
takes to maintain such a large network. That thankfully doesn't seem to be
the case here.

Extra features of NordVPN

Here's everything you get with a NordVPN app other than the VPN itself.
There's a lot going on here, so we'll limit ourselves to a sketch of each
feature.

Specialty servers

As soon as you load NordVPN, you'll see a list of special servers near the
top of the right-hand column. We'll go over each of them in order.

Dedicated IP: As discussed in the bundles section, a dedicated IP address
costs extra. With this, you'll always connect with the same IP, which is
private to you alone. It may be worth the price if you find yourself getting
asked for CAPTCHAs a lot more while connected to NordVPN ΓÇö though for what
it's worth, that didn't happen to us.

Double VPN: This sends your connection through a second VPN server before it
reaches your ISP. The second server is your apparent location. There are 10
endpoints to choose from. As you might imagine, your internet will run slower
with two VPN servers in the mix, so only use this if you seriously need
security.

Obfuscated servers: These are only available on OpenVPN. Obfuscation can help
you get around firewalls that seek out and block VPN traffic. If you can't
get online with NordVPN when you're on a certain network, obfuscated servers
might work.

Onion Over VPN: After encrypting your data as normal, these servers send it
through several nodes of the Tor network, granting you the total anonymity of
onion routing while keeping you safe from malicious relays. It's available in
two locations, Netherlands and Switzerland, and ΓÇö like double VPN ΓÇö is
best used only when you need the utmost privacy.

P2P: NordVPN only allows torrenting on its peer-to-peer servers, but
fortunately, it's got P2P servers in 114 countries ΓÇö only three fewer than
it has in total. NordVPN keeps your download and upload speeds very fast on
average, so you shouldn't have trouble torrenting from any location.

Meshnet

Meshnet is NordVPN's most unique and exciting feature by a long shot. By
logging into the same NordVPN account on multiple devices, you can connect
those devices directly through a NordLynx tunnel without needing a NordVPN
server in between.

Sam Chapman for Engadget

Essentially, you're using your own devices as VPN servers ΓÇö obviously not
great for privacy, but amazing for accessing web services in other countries.
While two devices are connected, you can transfer files between them through
the NordLynx tunnel. You can even invite friends and use their devices.

Threat Protection

NordVPN has two levels of antivirus: Threat Protection and Threat Protection
Pro. The former is a simple DNS filter that stops your browsing from loading
unsafe web pages while NordVPN is active. It's the highest level available on
Android, iOS and Linux, or on any Basic subscription.

Sam Chapman for Engadget

Threat Protection Pro, which Plus subscribers or higher can set up on Windows
and Mac, can work even when you aren't connected to a NordVPN server. It acts
more like a standalone antivirus by scanning downloaded files for malware,
and can even block trackers. Basic Threat Protection (without Pro) can block
some trackers by filtering out domains known to use them, but doesn't block
the trackers directly.

Dark Web Monitor

While active, Dark Web Monitor continually searches known data breach dump
sites on the dark web and notifies you if it ever finds your account email
address. If you get that notification, change any passwords associated with
the address. With a Prime subscription, you can also have it search for your
phone number, social security number or other financial information.

Presets

Presets let you set up one-click VPN connections with a desired group of
settings, a lot like Proton VPN's Profiles. NordVPN comes pre-loaded with
presets that optimize for "Downloads," "Speed" and "Browsing," which sounds
to us like the same thing three times.

More usefully, you can create presets for particular countries, then add
website shortcuts that will appear once you've connected. You could, for
example, set one that connects to a specific location, then add a shortcut to
a streaming site available in that location.

Post-Quantum encryption

Experts widely believe that quantum computers will eventually make our
current encryption algorithms obsolete, but there's almost no consensus on
when that will actually happen ΓÇö except that it hasn't happened yet.
Knowing that, NordVPN's "post-quantum encryption" feature comes across as a
bit premature, but it's reassuring that someone is thinking about it.

Having said that, we don't recommend using post-quantum encryption yet. It
works by layering one of the known quantum-proof encryption standards on top
of a standard NordLynx session, which makes your VPN connection slower and
more erratic. Until we can verify a real quantum cyberattack, post-quantum
encryption is a needless precaution.

Kill switch

A kill switch cuts off your internet the instant you lose your connection to
a NordVPN server. This protects you in case a server unexpectedly fails, and
as a side benefit, prevents you from connecting to any fake VPN servers. You
should keep the kill switch on at all times.

Split tunneling

Split tunneling is available on NordVPN's Windows and Android apps (and
Android TV by extension), along with its browser extensions. On Windows and
Android, it splits by app: you can determine which apps get online through
the VPN and which go unprotected. The browser extensions let you split by
URL, so the VPN only protects certain sites.

NordVPN customer support options

NordVPN's apps link directly to its online help center. As always, we went in
with a specific question in mind: whether the basic level of Threat
Protection could block trackers, and if so, what kind. We found the
categories on the written support page difficult to parse, especially the
troubleshooting section ΓÇö would the average user appreciate the difference
between "app issues," "connection issues" and "errors"?

We correctly guessed that our question would be under "Using NordVPN ->
Features," but the introductory article on Threat Protection and Threat
Protection Pro was buried at the bottom of the list. Unfortunately, that made
things more confusing, as this article says that Threat Protection (not Pro)
both does and doesn't block trackers. In NordVPN's favor, however, using the
search bar brought us instantly back to that article without any confusion.

The live support experience

Using NordVPN's live chat was a smooth and reassuring experience. From the
time we decided to ask directly, it took us less than a minute to connect
with a real person, who quickly cleared up the confusion and promised to
update the confusing support page (we'll check back to see if they actually
do).

Sam Chapman for Engadget

One other option is an email support form, which can be found both on the
website and in the help sections of NordVPN apps. This is best for complex
problems that require screenshots to explain, and promises a response within
24 hours.

NordVPN background check

NordVPN was founded in 2012. Launching with its desktop apps, it moved to iOS
and Android in 2016, then added apps for browser extensions and smart TVs.
Its developer, Nord Security, has no parent company, and its history is
relatively uncontroversial. We've documented two notable incidents below,
plus more about Nord Security's operations.

Headquarters and ownership

Nord Security was founded in Lithuania, and maintains offices there. Although
Nord Security is registered in Amsterdam, NordVPN operates under a separate
license in Panama, which makes any data requests subject to Panama's courts.

Finland server breach

The first serious incident in NordVPN's history began in March 2018, when
unidentified hackers managed to steal three private keys from one of Nord's
data centers in Finland. Researchers didn't notice the leak until October
2019, well after the stolen keys had expired, but NordVPN's encryption was
still technically vulnerable for several months.

We say "technically," because it was really only the outer layer of
encryption ΓÇö and even if they'd broken through it all, the hackers would
only have seen browsing activity, not usernames, passwords or anything else
sensitive. If anything, NordVPN's response actually makes us trust it more.
It ended its relationship with the contractor who ran the Finnish data center
and revamped its policies to eliminate the kind of negligence that led to the
breach.

Arguably, its only real error was not immediately disclosing the breach.
NordVPN learned about the leak and started addressing it in May 2018, but the
news didn't break until more than a year later. That timing probably made it
look more suspicious than any actual mishandling did.

Law enforcement compliance

Another minor controversy erupted in 2022, when PCMag and other outlets
reported that NordVPN had edited its website to say that it would comply with
data requests from law enforcement. NordVPN responded with a new post that
said nothing had changed: their policy was always to comply with lawful
requests, which ΓÇö provided the requests were lawfully submitted through a
Panamanian court ΓÇö is literally their only option.

We're inclined to agree. VPNs are legal companies. They wouldn't last long if
they openly declared their intent to break the law. The key is that when law
enforcement comes calling, there shouldn't be anything to show them, as with
the Turkish seizure of ExpressVPN. That's why verifiable no-logging policies
are so important.

Final verdict

NordVPN is a great service on its own merits. It only suffers from having to
be compared with the likes of ExpressVPN and Proton VPN. For example, its P2P
servers are good for torrenting, but not as useful without Proton's port
forwarding. It's fast, but speed tests fluctuated just a little more than
Express.

NordVPN's extra features are the best reason to pick it over its rivals. With
Meshnet, you can theoretically set up a VPN connection anywhere in the world,
and no other VPN has anything close to Meshnet's file transfer powers. Threat
Protection Pro is also great if you can get it, adding file scanning to
bolster the typical approach of just blocking suspicious DNS addresses.
Specialty servers round out the offering, with double VPN maintaining good
speeds with extra safety and Onion over VPN being among the safest ways to
use Tor.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/vpn/no...
features-a-few-missteps-163000578.html?src=rss

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