Opera – a free VPN Browser

Opera Browser (free) now includes a free VPN. Apart from the security benefits, this can also be handy when it comes to testing your own website from another location, especially when doing web development.

Read more about the VPN security features in this post discussing the release of Opera Browser 40: www.opera.com/blogs/desktop/2016/09/free-vpn-in-opera-browser-40/

How does this work?

A VPN routes all your traffic via the VPN server. Opera Browser allows you to choose the location of the VPN server. For example, you could choose a USA located server and test your own website from the USA. Currently VPN server options are: Netherlands, Germany, USA, Singapore, Canada.

There is also an ‘optimal location’ choice which in my case, uses a VPN server in Australia (closest to me).

Opera Browser is not a new player in the Web Browser space and while it’s not as well known or popular as Google Chrome for example, it is a solid product with an excellent mobile app on many platforms.

How could you use this?

You may wish to use this to browse the internet anonymously, or avoid the security policies your workplace/office or ISP has in place. As I see it, a more ‘useful’ option is to use this to test your website from various locations around the world.

You might want to do this just after updating your DNS, or after updating something on your website to check how it’s being seen by everyone else. Often time, your own ISP’s DNS server (which you probably use by default) may take up to 24hrs to update when changing your websites DNS or nameservers. Using Opera Browser might be handy for you in a situation like that.

Why not download and give it a test today. It’s a free download of course. Grab it here: www.opera.com/download