Fifty-one weeks ago, I wrote an essay about signing up for a VPN. I had to do it so I could change my virtual location for a job, but I also discovered a lot of side benefits.

Now, that post devolved into a tirade against WSAZ and their habit of pre-empting network programming at the drop of a hat. My feelings toward them have not diminished over the last year. The bastards.

But I also promised to do an update, and in that update, reveal the slightly-hidden identity of the company where I signed up for my VPN.

The update is, having had a VPN for a year, I can’t imagine ever going without one.

And the company I chose, who have been absolutely perfect, is Nord VPN. I don’t have paid sponsors here in PopCult, but if I did, they’d be the first people I’d ask. In a little more than a year with them I have had no technical issues, outages, failures or anything else. The fact that they are dirt cheap is a bonus. I endorse them whole-heartedly.

And I have to give a side-shout-out to Fightful, the wrestling news website, who do have a paid sponsorship deal with Nord, because they put these guys on my radar. Thanks, guys.

The Best of WWE

Aside from the work thing, Nord has changed the way I stream my entertainment. I watch and enjoy WWE programming (I’ll be writing about that tomorrow), and with Nord, my virtual location is in the UK, so I get RAW, NXT, Smackdown and all their premium live events via Netflix, commerical-free. For the cost of a couple of cables, I have my laptop hooked up to my TV and stereo system, and can watch all my WWE shows in one place. One minor drawback is that Nord does not play well with my Roku devices. That’s likely a problem with my wifi, rather than with Nord.

I have a bit of an unusual hook-up. When I first got wifi years ago, my then-internet provider gave you a modem, but you had to buy your own wifi router.  Several years later they upgraded their equipment and gave me a modem/router with wifi built in. But…I didn’t want to have to change my passwords on every device, so I just plugged my old router into the new one, and my house now has two wifi signals.

When I got Nord, I installed it on my older router because the one Optimum gave me was openly hostile to the idea of having Nord installed on it.  So I have one wifi signal with Nord VPN, and one without. The Rokus work fine with the Optimum router, but not so much with the diluted signal of my VPN router.

And that’s fine, since some of my Roku channels are only available for US customers anyway.  It’s sort of the best of both worlds.

Peacock lost the rights to most of their WWE programming, plus they kept raising their price, so I got rid of that streaming service, which cost more than three times as much as Nord does. I get ESPN Unlimited for free now, as part of DirecTV, but while I’ve installed it, I’ve never actually watched anything on it. I mean…real sports…ick.

Aside from getting the UK version of Netflix, I also have access to the BBC, and thanks to some friends, a few UK-only streaming services. That’s how I was able to watch the new Amadeus series last year, even though it doesn’t debut on Starz over here until tomorrow. I’ve also been enjoying Saturday Night Live UK, which is much, much funnier than its US counterpart.  I also get to see Later with Jools Holland as it’s being transmitted to the UK, if I want to stay up that late.

There are a few drawbacks. I have to shut off the VPN in order to pay a few utility bills and shop at a few US-based retailers, but it’s not a major hardship.

So, long story short: If you try using a VPN, and I recommend Nord, you may well find it to be an indispensible part of your online experience.