Most people install a VPN, tap connect, and never open the settings menu again. For a long time that was me too, until a dropped connection on a train left my laptop briefly exposed on the open network without me noticing for a good ten minutes. Nothing came of it that time, but it was enough to make me actually go through every setting my VPN app offers rather than trusting whatever ships as default. Here's what I actually changed, and why each one mattered enough to bother with. For a side-by-side way of weighing providers up, see my guide on choosing the right VPN service.
Why I Stopped Trusting Default Settings Out of the Box
VPN apps are built to get you connected in one tap, which means the defaults are tuned for ease of use rather than maximum protection. That's a reasonable trade-off for the company to make, since most users would abandon an app that demanded a settings review before it worked at all. But it means the responsible thing is to assume the out-of-the-box configuration is the minimum viable setup, not the best one, and to go through the menu once properly rather than assuming someone already optimised it on your behalf. It took me about twenty minutes the first time, working through every tab in the settings menu and reading what each toggle actually did rather than guessing from the label alone. Most of them turned out not to matter much either way, but the handful that did were worth that twenty minutes many times over.
The Kill Switch Setting I Turn On Before Anything Else
A kill switch cuts your internet entirely the moment your VPN connection drops, rather than quietly falling back to your normal, unprotected connection while you carry on browsing none the wiser. On the app I use it isn't switched on by default, it's a toggle buried under an "advanced" section, which is exactly backwards given how much it matters. That train journey I mentioned is precisely the scenario a kill switch exists for: a connection that drops without warning while you're on a network you don't control. It's the first thing I check on any new install now, before I even log in properly.
Split Tunneling: The One Feature I Actually Use Daily
Split tunneling lets you choose which apps route through the VPN and which use your normal connection directly, and it's the setting I actually interact with most often day to day. I route my browser and email client through the VPN always, but I let my banking app and a couple of UK-only streaming services bypass it, since routing through a VPN server abroad breaks them or triggers extra security checks. Without split tunneling I'd be constantly switching the whole VPN on and off depending on what I'm doing, which is exactly the kind of friction that makes people give up on using one consistently at all.
Why I Switched My Protocol From OpenVPN to WireGuard
Most VPN apps let you choose which underlying protocol handles the actual encrypted tunnel, and the default is often an older one for compatibility reasons rather than performance. I switched mine from OpenVPN to WireGuard once I understood the difference: WireGuard uses a smaller, more modern codebase that's easier to audit for vulnerabilities, and it's noticeably faster on both mobile data and Wi-Fi. It's not a setting most people know exists, let alone that it's worth changing, but it took me under a minute to switch once I found it in the menu. The difference showed up almost immediately on video calls, which used to occasionally stutter over the VPN and now don't, and that alone would have been worth the change even without the security argument for a newer protocol.
The Auto-Connect Rule I Set for Untrusted Networks
I've written before about the public Wi-Fi habit that took me too long to break, and the setting that actually fixed the underlying problem was auto-connect rules based on network trust. My VPN app lets me mark home and work Wi-Fi as trusted, and automatically fires up the VPN the instant I join anything else, including mobile hotspots I don't recognise. That removes the human error entirely: I no longer have to remember to switch it on in a coffee shop or hotel lobby, because the decision is already made before I've even opened a browser tab.
The One Setting I Deliberately Leave Turned Off
Not every extra toggle is worth switching on. My app offers a setting that automatically connects to the "fastest available" server rather than a specific location I choose, and I leave that off deliberately, because I'd rather pick a server myself based on what I'm actually trying to do, whether that's reaching a specific country's content or just staying on a server I've already confirmed performs well for me. I've also left the ad and tracker blocking feature switched off, not because it doesn't work, but because I already handle that through my browser and didn't want two separate systems quietly fighting over the same job and occasionally breaking a site in the process. More settings enabled isn't automatically better protection, and it's worth working out which ones genuinely change your risk and which just add complexity for no real benefit. I use NordVPN for the settings described here, which is part of why I run a VPN on every device I own rather than just my main laptop. If you want a second opinion on VPN security more broadly, NCSC has clear, current guidance on this, and my free Safety Toolkit walks through the basics I'd want anyone starting from zero to get right first.
What to do if your VPN keeps dropping or breaking things
Most of the VPN questions I get aren't about which provider to pick. They're about what to do when the VPN gets in the way, and the usual reaction is to switch it off and forget about it. Here's what I try first instead.
Check your VPN kill switch after every big app update
I re-check my kill switch setting after every major app update. It takes ten seconds, and it's the one setting I'd least like to find switched off without noticing. If your app has a separate kill switch for each app and one for the whole device, I'd use the whole device version on a laptop.
Fix a broken app or site with split tunnelling, not by turning the VPN off
If your banking app or a streaming service refuses to work over the VPN, add that one app to your split tunnelling list rather than disconnecting everything. That way the rest of your traffic stays protected and you're not relying on remembering to switch it back on later.
If the VPN connection keeps dropping
Try a server closer to where you actually are, then try switching protocol. Sometimes a connection that keeps falling over on one protocol is steadier on another. If it still drops on public Wi-Fi, that's exactly when the kill switch earns its place, because it stops you carrying on unprotected without realising.
VPN settings questions people ask me
Should I leave my VPN on all the time?
On any network I don't control, yes, and the auto-connect rule I described above does that for me. At home on my own broadband I'm more relaxed, because the risks a VPN protects against are mostly about networks you don't trust. I've gone through what a VPN actually protects you from in more detail if you want the full picture.
Does a VPN stop phishing and scams?
No, and this is the myth I'd most like to bin. A VPN protects the connection between your device and the server. It does nothing to stop you typing your password into a fake login page or replying to a scam text. For that you need the habits in my guide on how I spot a phishing email before I click anything.
Are free VPN apps worth using to save money?
I don't recommend them, and I've written up why I stopped recommending free VPNs to anyone.
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Keep reading
This guide is part of Kells Security Solutions, where I explain online safety in plain English. Next, have a look at the difference between phishing and other scams or how to build a password worth trusting. If something has already gone wrong, here is where to report a scam in the UK.
