Do You Need a VPN in Nepal? A Plain Guide

A VPN is one of those things people install when someone tells them to, without quite knowing what it does. Here is the plain version.

What a VPN does

When you connect to a VPN, your internet traffic travels through an encrypted tunnel to a server run by the VPN company, and goes out to the internet from there. Two things follow:

• The network you are on, a cafe's Wi-Fi, your hostel's, your office's, cannot see what you are doing.
• Websites see the VPN server's location instead of yours.

That is it. It does not make you anonymous, and it does not make anything legal that is not.

When it is worth having in Nepal

• Public Wi-Fi. Cafes, colleges, hostels and airports. Open networks are easy to snoop on, and a VPN closes that gap.
• Privacy from your network. Your internet provider and whoever runs the Wi-Fi see much less.
• Reaching a service as if you were elsewhere, within that service's rules.
• Games. Sometimes a route through a nearby server gives steadier ping than your provider's default path. Sometimes it does not; it is worth trying.

Is using a VPN legal in Nepal?

Using a VPN for privacy and security is common in Nepal. What you do over it still has to follow the law and the terms of the services you use.

Why free VPNs are a bad deal

Running servers costs money. A free VPN pays for itself somehow: ads, slow speeds, data caps, and too often by collecting and selling what it sees, which is the opposite of why you wanted a VPN.

Setting up Surfshark in two minutes

1. Install Surfshark from the Play Store, App Store or surfshark.com.
2. Sign in with the login we email you.
3. Tap Quick-connect. For everyday use, a nearby server such as India or Singapore is usually fastest.
4. In settings, choose the WireGuard protocol and switch on CleanWeb.

One account covers every phone, laptop and TV in the house. Surfshark is Rs 299 for three months or Rs 1,299 for a year, paid with eSewa or Khalti.