Took 4 years to realize I was using my VPN completely backwards

Honestly I thought the whole point was to have it on 24/7, so I left it connected even when I was just streaming on Netflix from my couch in Austin. Then last week a buddy looked at my laptop and asked why my IP was showing a server in Germany while I was trying to order pizza. That's when it hit me, I'd been routing all my normal traffic through another country for no reason, slowing everything down. Tbh now I only flip it on for public wifi or sketchy downloads, but how common is it for people to just leave it running forever? Anyone else have a facepalm moment like that with their own setup?

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daniel_walker24d ago

Ha! Okay that pizza part got me. Imagine trying to order a Domino's from Berlin and wondering why the delivery time says 3 days. I had a buddy who ran his whole gaming setup through a VPN in Japan for like a year, thought his ping was just bad luck. He was literally fighting ghosts in every match. I feel like most of us either leave it on forever or forget it exists until some site blocks us. There's no middle ground, it's all facepalms.