Despite how important it is to be able to browse the web securely, and despite modern standards like HTTPS, DoH, and more, our data still travels insecurely across the web. Hackers are always on the lookout, waiting for the slightest opportunity to attack us and take our information as soon as we commit the least carelessness. Therefore, any additional protection measure that we can find in Windows is always welcome. And the latest news that we are going to receive very soon is none other than a free VPN within the Microsoft browser, Edge.
When we connect to the Internet, our data travels directly from our computer to the server to which we want to connect. And, in the process, the data makes some stops, such as intermediate servers, proxies and our Internet provider’s own equipment. And at all of those points, it is possible for this data to be compromised. When we use a VPN, things change. The data, instead of traveling from our PC to the destination server, is encrypted on our PC and goes around the VPN server before being sent to the destination. Since they travel encrypted from our PC to the VPN server, it is impossible for this data to be decrypted at an intermediate point of the connection.
In the market we can find a multitude of VPN services, both free and paid. And, soon, all Windows users will be able to enjoy a new one, and it will come directly from Microsoft.
This is the new Edge VPN
It is not the first time we have heard of this service. Microsoft has been working on it for about a year now. However, what we can say is that now it is closer than ever. And it is that, this week, this service has begun to reach some users of the browser in the stable branch, without using the Canary or Beta branches and without activating additional functions.
At the moment we don’t know much about this new service beyond that the name of the function will be “Edge Secure Networkยป and that it will use Cloudflare’s network to protect user data. Although it is not a professional VPN, its operation is very similar: when we activate this function, all our traffic (including unencrypted HTTP) will be sent securely through Microsoft servers to the destination through a tunnel sure. Nothing and no one can be done with the data, neither when we send it, nor how much we receive it.
Of course, Microsoft insists on the importance of Edge Secure Network is not a substitute for a professional VPN. And it is that this has certain limitations that we must take into account before using it.
Your limitations
Of course, we must bear in mind that, although the service is free, we are going to find some limitations. The most important is that we will not be able to choose the country of departure, so we cannot use it, for example, to access a website or service, as if we were in another country. And some features, like streaming, won’t work properly. However, it is perfect for enter censored websites in our country, and download pages that have been blocked by the operators.
Also, based on the leaked images, it appears that we are only going to have 15 GB free to navigate safely per month. It is likely that we will be able to buy more gigabytes when the service reaches all users, and even Microsoft 365 users will have extra traffic to spend on this safe browsing.
To find out all this, we will still have to wait a little longer, although not much.
