Best VPNs for Blacksburg

Blacksburg, Virginia is a town of approximately 43k. It is located west of Roanoke, on the eastern edge of the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Va Tech) dominates the city demographically and economically, and it thrives because of the school. If you are going to visit VA Tech and the rest of Blacksburg, you will want to use a VPN when using public WiFi. We’ll share why it is important shortly. However, first have a look at our list of the best VPNs for Blacksburg.

The history of Blacksburg dates back to 1671. Abraham Wood, commander of Fort Henry, organized several expeditions to explore further west from the Colony of Virginia. When the explorers Batts and Fallam finally found passage over the ridge, they reached the area now known as the city of Blacksburg. The state legislature officially created the town on January 13, 1798. However, they did not incorporate the town until 1871. The school was established in 1872.

Despite the long college history, the town did not really come alive until the second half of the 20th century. The population grew from 9k to 30k during the 70s. Today, you can visit theatres, museums, historical sites, and more. If you are in town to visit, you will find a few things to keep you occupied.

No matter why you are visiting the city, you may need to or want to use public WiFi. As we mentioned earlier, you want to make sure to use a VPN. That is in part to protect your privacy. Just because Blacksburg is still a small town, that does not mean that you can let your guard down. It is definitely possible that someone could try to steal your personal data. By creating a secure and private connection to the server of your choice, you make it much more difficult for anyone to grab your sensitive information.

The second reason to use a VPN is to help you get around network and geo-restrictions. More specifically, network restrictions deal with firewalls you might run into. If you have ever been to a school, organization, or business and have it block you from seeing something you want to see, that is a firewall. In much the same way, a geo-restriction stops you from seeing something online, possibly because you are not in the right area for it. By using a VPN in this case, you can fool the software into believing you are somewhere else. That way, you can see what you want to see.

Those are the best reasons to use a VPN if you are visiting Blacksburg. Though, you may find more if you start exploring. No matter what provider you sign up for, you will probably get many different protocol choices. The two best ones to use are IKEv2 and OpenVPN. Not all providers offer the first option, but both will work just fine. When selecting OpenVPN, providers may give you a choice between the TCP and UDP versions. If so, UDP is faster while TCP is a great choice. Now, we’ll take a closer look at the providers.

1. Best VPN for Blacksburg: IPVanish

For IPVanish, we’ll use servers in Atlanta (since it is the best option for Blacksburg). We can tell you from experience the servers there are fast and dependable. You will also find that IPVanish has more server locations in the United States that just about any other VPN service. This makes them one of our go-to VPNs to use on a daily basis in Blacksburg.

Along with a large footprint in the USA, IPVanish hosts servers in every continent other than Antarctica. The network has consistently been the fastest VPN in North America and Europe in our speed tests. You will find multiple server locations in countries like the US and UK. You can select a location or an individual server.

IPVanish hosts 48 servers in Atlanta and you can choose to connect to any of them. We suggest selecting one that starts with “a” in the server name. For example atl.a01.ipvanish.com. In most cases, you will find the “a” servers to be the fastest. We tested an IPVanish server in Atlanta, atl-a46, and found the speed to be 64.00 Mbps.

When it comes to value IPVanish is hard to beat. They offer unlimited access to their VPN network and custom software for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Amazon Firestick and more for $7.50 a month or $58.49 a year. That works out to just $4.87 a month on the annual plan. A 7-day money back guarantee covers all new members.

2. Best VPN for Blacksburg: ExpressVPN

When you use ExpressVPN’s fast access and the MediaStreamer feature together, they act as a Smart DNS service to unblock access to geo-restricted content. That will help encrypt your connection and unblock live sporting events. You can even find a list of the latest live entertainment and sporting events on their website.

As you can see in the table above, ExpressVPN manages a very large VPN network. Beyond the USA, the ExpressVPN network boasts hundreds of servers in key locations to help protect their user’s privacy. You can use their network to protect your privacy, unblock censorship, and watch your favorite teams from anywhere.

The ExpressVPN app allows you to select a server location down to the city but you can not choose a specific server. Instead, the client will select a server in your chosen location. You also need to know that some cities are not shown on the recommended tab inside the client. This is true for Atlanta (since it is the best location). You will want to select the “All” tab, open Americas, and then open United States. At this point, you can select the USA – Atlanta server location. As you can see we tested a server in Atlanta and the speed was 57.79 Mbps.

While ExpressVPN is sold at a higher price point than the other services in our list, the value is high given the size of their network and service features. You can connect a computer, handheld device, router, and game console (SmartDNS) with a single VPN account for just $6.67 a month with an annual subscription.

3. Best VPN for Blacksburg: NordVPN

NordVPN is based in Panama which some users prefer to using a VPN company that’s actually headquartered in the United States. You will find that NordVPN has a strong presence in the US with servers located throughout the country. Members have full access to their network in the USA and beyond for a very good price.

You will find that NordVPN has perhaps the best mix of services for the price if you subscribe to a longer term for your account. All users have full access to their network and custom software. You can connect using the VPN client for Windows or Mac. They also have an easy-to-use mobile app for both Android and iOS (iPhone, iPad) devices.

NordVPN hosts 39 servers in Atlanta. Unfortunately, the NordVPN client does not show the city of the server. However, they have kindly provided us with the server numbers for Atlanta. You will want to connect to one of the following servers: 369-372, 561-568, 665-676, 681-684, 940-955. The easiest way to select a specific server number is to select the “Servers” tab in the app and then sort the results in alphabetical order. You can then scroll down and select any of the server numbers we have listed above. You can see the load time percentage and the distance to each server. We tested a server in Atlanta and the download speed was 57.49 Mbps.

Want to access streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or BBC iPlayer from anywhere in the world? If so NordVPN is a great choice. They are one of the only VPN services that can still unblock Netflix. You can sign up for unlimited VPN and SmartDNS service from just $3.99 a month with a 2-year membership.

For some of the other options, you can take a look at the top 10 VPN services list. We do not think you will need to, though. Our decisions were made based on speed, reliability, price, security, and locations. Since the servers we chose are fast and are in the same general region as Blacksburg, you will get the best speeds possible. That is very important if you want to stream content. All of our options have great networks, so all the options are good. By using our guide, you can find the best option for your needs.