What is a VPN and why should I get one?

With the government’s new metadata scheme coming into effect, TV and movie studios forcing ISPs to provide customer information for lists of IP addresses, and content being locked down by region, you may have heard more talk about VPNs lately. But what are they, what do they do, and why do we need them? Here’s a quick and simple explanation.

What is a VPN?

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. It’s a private network, and users logged into a VPN can send data securely over the internet between computers that are connected to the VPN. These encrypted communications are useful when on a public network (such as public wi-fi) where any information being accessed or sent could easily be ‘overheard’.

VPNs are also used by many corporations to allow access to network data even when employees aren’t in the office, but for the purposes of this article, we’ll be talking about the former use.

Okay, but why should I care?

Think about all the sensitive data you access online. Emails. Online banking. Cloud storage, such as Dropbox or OneDrive. VPNs ensure all the data going to and from your computer is encrypted, which is especially important if you’re using public or shared wi-fi.

In addition, VPNs hide your actual IP address. It’s possible to track a person’s general location (down to a city level) from their IP address, as well as find out who their internet provider is. And your internet provider will know who is using which IP address at any given time. If you’ve heard of family or friends who received a warning letter from their internet provider after downloading a TV show or movie (which we at Leaders in Heels don’t endorse, of course!), this is how they were tracked down.

Same with region-locked content – the sites use your IP to determine where you are and whether you can stream a particular TV show or subscribe to a streaming service (eg. Hulu, BBC, HBO Go, etc.). A VPN gives you a different IP address, and makes you look as though you’re coming from America, or the UK, or whatever country they have their servers on. By using a VPN, you can look as though you’re coming from a different country and access locked content.

How does a VPN change my IP address?

Once you’ve signed up with a VPN provider, and have their software installed on your PC, you can connect to the VPN. On a very basic level, what happens is that all your outgoing data (eg. sending a request to a website) is encrypted and directed to the VPN server you’ve connected to. This means that all anyone can see of your activity is that you accessed a server in another country. It’s perfectly legal – you connect to a server every time you access a website!

Your request is then forwarded by the server to the website. To the website, the request looks like it’s coming from the country that the server sits in, as the IP address is now different. So anyone looking to locate you by IP address will simply find themselves looking at the location of the server, and not you. Any data the website sends back to your computer also goes through the server, so you’re never communicating directly with them.

Think of it as being a go-between for communicating with a stranger.

But won’t the VPN company see all my data?

First of all, your data is encrypted, so they can’t simply pluck your data from their servers. And good VPN companies will advertise the fact that they don’t keep logs. Your data passes through their servers to be forwarded, but nothing is logged. There’s no way to link your actual IP with the one they use to send on to the websites. So even if the government were to come to the company and demand to see information on all the people using their servers, there would be no information to give them!

Is there any way I can be tracked even when using a VPN?

In the end, nothing is 100% foolproof. But if you pick a VPN provider carefully, then no, you shouldn’t be traceable. There is, however, one thing to note: a recent security issue came to light where your actual IP address can still be leaked through a protocol called WebRTC. There are browser extensions that can block this from happening, though they may affect video calls, among other things.

But you can always check if your actual IP address is visible through sites such as IPLeak. Even without a VPN, if you click the link, you can see just how much information can be found on your location just with an IP address!

Anything else I should look out for?

As mentioned above, ensure that the VPN provider you go with doesn’t keep logs. There’s no point in routing your data through another server if all the information on who you actually and and where you’re going is being recorded anyway. You may also want to check how many devices you can connect to the VPN at one time. Each computer in your household counts as one device, as do your smartphones and tablets.

You should also check the locations where the provider has servers. These will be the locations where you can appear to come from. For example, if you did want to use a VPN to access region-locked content, make sure the provider has servers in the locations whose content you want to access!

Sounding good. Where do I start?

There are a number of reputable VPN providers around. Private Internet Access, TorGuard, IpVanish, VyprVPN, just to name a few. Do your research, look into what they offer and the price, and decide what works best for you.

Good luck!

Do you currently use a VPN, or do you have any other questions? Let us know in the comments!

Veronica Auld of LinkedIn on what inspires her

We have one more bonus interview with the Red Heel Day Sydney speakers! With a diverse background (including TV presenting, Public Relations, coaching SMB owners on digital strategies) Veronica Auld is passionate about all things digital, SaaS, social media and digital marketing.

veronica auldOriginally from Melbourne, Veronica has now found her home in Sydney and a place where all of her passions can thrive – LinkedIn. Veronica works with small to medium businesses to position them as an employer of choice on the LinkedIn network and educates business leaders how to network most effectively in the digital space.

And if you haven’t yet, check out our previous interviews with Anne-Marie Elias, Alexandra Mills, Kirsten Galliott, Jules Sebastian and the founder of Leaders in Heels, Kasia Gospos.

What does your typical week look like?

I’m an early riser mid week and like to get into the office to plan for my day. My days are busy and I am speaking to clients about transformative tech solutions – and I love it! I try and work out 4 times a week and then you can usually find me at a local restaurant in Bondi (I rarely cook with so many yummy restaurants at the end of my street). Weekends are filled with friends, food, beach and family.

What inspires you to get out of bed every day?

So many things! Each day is a new opportunity to create the life you want. My career at LinkedIn inspires me and drives me every day and I am lucky enough to work for an company that has the most incredibly driven people, that are as passionate about networking through technology as I am! LinkedIn is like one great big start-up and it feels like that too!

My biggest motivations are my Mum and my sister. These two very special ladies are the strongest, kindest, caring, supportive and most beautiful women who have taught me my values and always remind me to be the best I can be.

Which key characteristics do you see a female leader having?

I think any leader should be a great communicator – with the ability to both speak and listen. Leaders should be honest and ethical and always act with integrity. Negative energy feeds from the top – so a positive attitude is critical. Clear delegation is important. I think true leaders should recognise strengths in people and use those to achieve objectives. Kindness is key.

What is the greatest learning you have had?

Success is something that we control each and every day and passion drives success. My time in public relations made me realise I was passionate about the digital space – I didn’t even know it until then! The minute I was exposed to digital media, content marketing and the power of social media, I became completely addicted and fell in love with this totally disruptive and new way of thinking! Then it was a matter of further educating myself and becoming an expert in what I now loved. Discovering that I found pleasure in educating others on my learning was a big turning point.

Why are you excited about Red Heel Day?

Being a member of W@LI (Women at LinkedIn) I am extremely passionate about empowering women through leadership, development and opportunity – so I feel really connected to this #RedHeelsDay event. I looooooove networking and am so excited to share insight into how to become thoughtful in your approach to digital networking and position yourself as a leader on LinkedIn. I can’t wait!

Oh, and I have some killer red heels that I’m pretty excited to rock as well ;)

 

If you enjoyed reading Veronica’s interview, why not come hear her speak in person at our Red Heel Day Sydney event? Last-minute tickets are still available here!

Women who code: Nicky Ringland of Grok Learning

With more attention being focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths) in schools, it is important to see that girls in these areas have role models. So at Leaders in Heels, we’re having chats with female coders in Australia.

In this interview, we sat down with Nicky Ringland from Grok Learning, “a team of educators and software engineers who want to make coding fun for everyone”. Grok Learning is being used across schools in Australia and they have coding competitions starting on November 2nd. There are also support materials for teachers in the classroom, especially those who haven’t necessarily had a background in coding.

Why do you love coding?

I love coding because I love creating things with code. I love being able to solve problems, answer questions and generally make cool things!

What do you dream of programming one day?

I’m really excited about building a personalised learning environment that adapts to how each student learns. Traditional methods of education haven’t substantially changed in hundreds of years: a teacher lectures at the front of a classroom, students learn and are assessed on a subject, and then the class moves on to the next topic.

Whether a student scores 100% or 50% on a test, they still move to the next topic. I want to use technology to make sure students can master a topic before moving on.

My start-up, Grok Learning, teaches thousands of students to code in an online environment. Students can work through materials at their own pace, and those who find a particular concept easy can work quickly and move on to the next.

Real personalisation would involve developing specific profiles for different types of students. These profiles would adapt to how quickly they learn a particular topic, what questions they like, etc. Overall, it would make learning in general more successful, and certainly a lot more fun!

What are some of the biggest challenges you have faced in the industry?

The biggest challenge for me was deciding which industry to be in! I’m just finishing my PhD. I do research in the field of Computational Linguistics – making computers better understand language. When I started my PhD, I considered becoming an academic, since I enjoy teaching and research. Academia is quite tough, though. The prospect of getting Post-doc positions (which last only a few years) in far off places is exciting, but it is particularly hard when you factor family (e.g. partner’s job) into the equation. Thankfully, I found a way I can combine my love of teaching and computer science into a career that I thoroughly enjoy.

How have you overcome these challenges?

As I mentioned, forging ahead and making my own path, in this case, founding a start-up, let me continue to pursue my passions.

What would be one piece of advice you would give to girls/women wanting to code as a career path?

Get involved, ask questions, start small and think big. Computer science is the most versatile career around. From solving climate change, going to Mars, or curing cancer, coding is a critical skill as well as being a lot of fun!

What it means to look like an engineer

Perhaps you’ve seen a hashtag going around called #ILookLikeAnEngineer. Perhaps you know the story behind it. Isis Anchalee Wenger, a full-stack software engineer, was one of the employees featured in a recruitment ad for her company. What followed were many comments saying that the girl in the ad had to be a model, and she couldn’t possibly be an actual engineer in the company. Because as we all know, being pretty precludes females from that particular field of work.

But the brilliant part is what Isis did with the attention. She started the #ILookLikeAnEngineer hashtag, encouraging other engineers to take part and show the world their diversity. These days, most engineers in all fields don’t fall into the nerd-image stereotypes we’re so used to imagining, and a decent number definitely don’t fall under the category of male!

We talk a lot about getting more girls and women into STEM subjects, but it’s going to remain talk for as long as these stereotypes are perpetuated. There seems to be an impression that if you like fashion, or are artistically inclined, or are ‘cool’ in some way, then you’re not the type to do STEM subjects. We need to examine our unconscious biases, culturally conditioned thoughts such as:

  • How women working in tech-heavy roles are ‘rare’, or ‘incredible’, or considered unique above men in some way. Don’t get me wrong – yes, it’s wonderful having women in such roles. But how can we convince our daughters or granddaughters that they are as capable as men in those fields when it’s ‘special’ women who do those jobs?
  • How art and STEM are at opposite ends of the spectrum, and you can only be good at one or the other. This is one I hear commonly, and it’s completely untrue. Just because you may be artistically inclined doesn’t mean you can’t process the logic required for mathematical proof or a piece of code, or conduct scientific experiments around a central hypothesis. One of my civil engineer friends I know is currently working on her own fashion line!
  • How careers in STEM mean stepping into a ‘men’s world’. Yes, there are still a disproportionate amount of men in those fields compared to females, and there are many workplaces where being female is a disadvantage. The problem is, the term sets the expectation that as females, we need to accept certain behaviours or comments as ‘the cost of being in a men’s world’, and that is already starting on the wrong foot. STEM careers are usually harder for females, but the world is just as much theirs! I wonder how many young girls have been discouraged from STEM subjects for this reason?

Looking like an engineer doesn’t mean that you need to be a special kind of female, or a creature of logic, or ‘one of the boys’. It doesn’t mean that you should be geeky, or pretty, or cool, or any of those other labels we place on people.

Looking like an engineer simply means you have a curiosity about how things work, whether it be the chemistry behind a reaction, the 1’s and 0’s that make things appear on your screen, the structures that make buildings stay upright, or even the numbers that make the world move, among other things.

If we want to encourage more of our daughters and sisters and nieces and granddaughters and goddaughters to get interested STEM subjects, then we need to tell them in both the words we say and the words we don’t say that engineering, or STEM in general, is just like any other career they may pursue – and that it doesn’t matter what they look like. Being a Leader in Heels is just as possible in the lab or in the field as it is in an office!

To finish, let me give you some of my story. I graduated as a Mechatronic engineer – think robotics. I work with code in my day job, and have done so for a large chunk of my career. Oh, and I also write novels (one will be published next year!), and have a large wardrobe bursting at the seams with clothes. Yes, #ILookLikeAnEngineer.

Do you look like an engineer, or know someone who does? Tell us about them in the comments!

Here are some of the other people proudly declaring that they too look like engineers – beginning with Isis, who started it all!

 

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Streamline your workflow across devices – a quick guide to Pushbullet

I can’t count the number of times I’ve searched up addresses and phone numbers for restaurants on my computer, then had to retype it into my phone before leaving the house. Or the number of times I’ve put my phone on silent at work and missed important calls or notifications as a result.

But lately, that’s changed. I’ve been using an app called Pushbullet. It has apps for iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, and most major browsers.

Here are the three main ways that Pushbullet has streamlined my workflow.

1. Don’t miss important calls or SMSes

My phone is always set to silent when I’m at work. Office etiquette. But this usually means that I end up missing phone calls or SMSes that come through because I’m so focused on the work at hand. My caller and I then get to play phone tag with each other for the rest of the day, which is never any fun. Also, there are some phone calls (such as being informed a family member is in the hospital) that I really don’t want to miss.

With Pushbullet installed on both my phone and my computer, a notification pops up each time a phone call comes through. I can also choose to have applications send notifications to my computer – though the default is for all applications, I can select only certain applications so I don’t get bombarded (and so I don’t get anything inappropriate coming up on my work computer!

2. Reply to messages from desktop

I used to check my phone occasionally throughout the day for messages from friends, especially if we were meeting that night and still didn’t have anything planned. (I know I can’t be the only one who does this!)

Now I’m notified on my desktop, I can simply keep working until a notification pops up, then reply then and there. It doesn’t seem like much, but the time I no longer have to spend jumping onto my phone adds up after a while. Pushbullet lets you reply to Whatsapp, Line, Facebook Messenger and general SMSes (and other applications besides) right in the notification box.

While it’s true I could just open most of these apps in my browser, it’s far more convenient to simply reply as a message comes up. Not to mention, the SMS reply-from-desktop functionality alone automatically makes this a winner in my books.

And if you’ve got an meeting where you’re sharing your screen? You can temporarily turn off notifications from your phone. If you have the browser extension, clicking on options will let you snooze notifications for an hour.

3. Send files between devices

Usually, getting files from my phone to my computer – or vice versa – involves the use of email, Dropbox, or the good old standby of a USB cable. With Pushbullet, I can now drop a file onto my desktop client or share a file from my mobile, and it will send to all selected devices. Getting files from home to work, my work mobile to my home computer, or my personal phone to my work phone is fast and simple.

I’ve even sent files to some friends who also use Pushbullet, and it’s also a great way to flick a full-sized photo through from a mobile.

 

Although Pushbullet only streamlines my workflow in simple ways, these small time savings (and attention savings!) really start to add up. It’s allowed me to centre my workflow on my desktop, as well as coordinate the flow of information between my devices. Give it a try, and see how you can streamline your workflow as well!

How to automate your personal life

The first question many people have is: why automate? The truth of the matter is, we can waste a lot of time using technology, whether it’s checking our social media, viewing YouTube or Vimeo files, or just general internet surfing. Setting up an automated system can save you a lot of time and effort, not to mention you won’t have to do all those boring, repetitive tasks!

But there are also good reasons not to automate. Setting up a system is like setting up a new habit. If the system doesn’t match your personality or way of doing things, you won’t stick to it, no matter how much someone else tells you that you will!

There are some things you should look out for if you choose to automate your personal life:

1. Devices will fail you. Your smartphone might run out of battery, you might lose your tablet, or your laptop could break down. If you rely on them to manage your life, you will find yourself at a loss while you scramble to find a replacement.

2. Data won’t always sync perfectly. There is nothing worse than trying to go to an appointment, only to find that not all the details are in your calendar – or in the worst case scenario, none of the details are in your calendar.

3. You rely on automation too much. I’ve found that sometimes, if an even isn’t in my digital calendar, then it doesn’t exist. This causes issues when you are expected to be somewhere (and forgot to reply to the invitation or didn’t the data!).

There is no shame in finding alternate ways to manage your data. Many people have gone back to using physical diaries, and making notes on paper instead of on their phone, because technology has failed them before.

But if you decide to automate your personal life anyway – because, let’s be honest, it does save a lot of time – here are two simple suggestions to get you started.

Personal finance

In this past year, our family has been trialing the use of personal finance apps. One of these apps is Pocketbook. This is an Australian app which helps you to manage your personal finances and check where your spending is occurring.

Simply download the app from the App Store (iOS only) and then create a new account via your desktop. It’s much easier to set up Pocketbook on your computer, and create the set categories to manage your finances. For me, the most valuable personal benefit is seeing where spending is going each month. I can also check how much money is in our personal bank account (and yes, I know there are the separate bank apps, but this ties everything together).

The other benefit is that Pocketbook detects bills, especially if they are on a recurring basis. It will even inform you whether you have enough money to cover them!

Calendar events

Another main area of automation is for calendar events. I use an app called IFTTT (IF This, Then That) to automate these tasks. IFTTT is a web and app service that lets you create what they call recipes, based on a trigger (something that happens) and a resulting action. I’ve mentioned it in previous automation articles as well.

Here are three of my favourite recipes for Google Calendar:

  • For those individuals who need to log their work hours, use this recipe in conjunction with Google Calendar.
  • This is a ‘DO’ recipe. It allows you to quickly create an event in Google Calendar simply by entering the information in a natural sentence such as “Meeting with Sam at 7pm”.
  • If you use Reminders on your iOS device, then this recipe automatically syncs them with Google Calendar so you get reminders on all your devices!

Thanks for reading the series on automation. We’ve also previously covered home automation and work automation. What do you use to help streamline your personal, home and work life? Let us know in the comments!

Check out Get Your Life Back ebook by Kasia Gospos, founder of Leaders in Heels, on how you can streamline and automate your business and life so that you have more time for what you really love.

photo credit: iPod Touch add events