My Experience Using a Free PQC VPN During Everyday Development Work

As someone who spends the majority of their working hours online, I've become increasingly conscious of my online presence. My work routine consists of testing websites, accessing dev environments, reviewing documents, collaborating with Git, and deploying to cloud services. As such, I find myself working outside the office more often than not.

A few months back, I've noticed that I've begun relying on public wifi more frequently than before. In addition to the obvious coffee shops and co-working spaces, I've found myself working in university and hotel networks regularly. As such, I've become more conscious of the importance of online privacy and secure connections. However, I didn't look for a feature-rich solution that would require me to constantly configure proxies and pay a considerable sum for a subscription. All I needed was something that would reliably serve me in my day to day development without asking too many questions.

Upon research, I stumbled upon this website, https://ollavpn.com, which caught my attention with mentions of Post Quantum Cryptography, which I'll get to in a bit. While I knew about quantum theory and computation from afar, I've never really delved into the topic. Being a developer by profession, I took a closer look at the technical specifics and brushed up on my knowledge about Post-Quantum Cryptography to better understand why the proposed approach was beneficial over traditional alternatives.

Reading about PQC and its implications was enough for me to want to try the software for free.

Simple Setup

I didn't have to configure anything special to get the software running. Within a few minutes, I had the application up and running, using a secure connection.

As a developer, I value my time and anything that makes my life easier without asking for much in return. That was the impression I got on my first visit to the website.

Getting Back To Work

For the most part, my working hours aren't particularly thrilling from a networking point of view. I review documentation, write code, test websites, check the logs, attend video conferences, research solutions to technical issues, and so on. Once I've turned on the application, I can continue working without interruption.

Testing my sites, reviewing documentation, working with Git, and managing cloud solutions continued as usual. Apart from being able to work remotely more securely, I didn't have to make significant changes to my routine.

That ability to just work without having to bend over backwards to use a certain tool is what I value most about this particular VPN. Extraordinary functionality is great and all, but I look for tools that offer reliability first and let me grow into more complex features later.

Learning Something New

Something I've enjoyed about this particular experience was learning about Post-Quantum Cryptography.

Prior to this, I wouldn't have been able to explain what PQC was in any detail. I think that's the most important takeaway from this exercise. By learning about the fundamentals of encryption and the ongoing arms race between encryption methods and computational power, I've gained a new perspective on how security-centric software development works. While the quantum threat might be a while away, I think it's important for developers to understand the trajectory of cryptography and how it will inevitably change the way we build software in the coming decade.

What I Liked About It

After spending some time with the free version of this particular tool, I found myself liking a few things about it.

First and foremost, the setup was simple enough that I barely had to think about it. Second, I had the option to keep working and leave the application alone in the background. Third, I didn't feel overwhelmed by the interface and the option to access more technical settings when needed. Finally, I didn't feel bad about not upgrading to the paid plan right away. There's no pressure to subscribe immediately after installing the software, which is a nice touch. In general, my usage of the application has been very positive, with very few annoyances.

What Can Be Improved

With that said, there's always room for improvement. Some things I've missed while using the application include more detailed connection details and a few more diagnostic tools. Personally, I like having full visibility into my connections and having the ability to troubleshoot them if something goes wrong. More connection details and a few more tools for working with networks would help me get more out of the tool.

Overall, there's not much to complain about, really. The application has served its purpose of giving me a reliable tool for everyday use.

Closing Thoughts

One thing I've found out about myself through this little experiment was that online security is all about healthy habits. Sometimes, the best thing one can do for their online security is streamline their working environment as much as possible. In this regard, using a reliable VPN has become something of a necessity for me, similar to two-factor authentication, keeping my dev environment up to date, and other routine tasks.

Furthermore, I don't think there's a single best tool for the job. What works for me, might not work for you, and that's okay. Developers need to work in different conditions and have different requirements based on their working environment and professional needs.

With that said, I hope you've found this piece of writing helpful. This isn't meant to be a promotional piece for one particular tool over another. It's more of a personal piece about how one developer uses a particular tool on a daily basis. As such, I find it hard to recommend this specific tool to anyone else as there are plenty of other great options for securing your online presence. The PQC-free version of this particular tool has been sufficient for my daily development needs, and it allowed me to educate myself on a topic I've never really considered before. I encourage you to do the same research about online security and choose the tools that complement your day to day use-case as a developer. For me, this has been one of those applications that seamlessly integrates into my daily workflow while letting me focus on the task at hand.