When we use the Internet we like our connection to be secure, and if possible, as anonymous as possible. The easiest way to achieve that anonymity is to use a VPN. In the event that we are also on a public Wi-Fi network, its use is also essential. However, sometimes we have to create a Wi-Fi hotspot with our mobile in order to use our Windows laptop. The problem is that most mobile rates offer a certain GB of mobile data and then slow us down a lot when they run out. In this article, we are going to see if we can control the mobile data expense of my VPN on a Windows computer.
Issues when using mobile data from my VPN
One thing you should keep in mind is that, by using a VPN, we are going to lose speed compared to if we were not using it. When we use a VPN, what happens is that our data will go through an encrypted tunnel in which our information will remain safe from prying eyes and cybercriminals. We achieve this protection thanks to the encryption it has, for example, with the WireGuard VPN protocol, which is one of the safest and fastest that we can currently use.
In our house with a fiber optic or ADSL connection, connecting with a VPN will not be a problem because our broadband connection is unlimited. But if we connect by mobile data, what will happen? What happens is that this VPN service needs to connect to a server and maintain an active connection regardless of whether we are using it at the time or not. For this reason, according to tests carried out on the Internet, the use of a VPN can increase mobile data consumption by between 10 and 15% . For example, if we talk about 1GB we would have to add between 100 and 150MB more.
However, it can still compensate us to use mobile data with a VPN because it offers us that extra security, greater anonymity on the network. You may be interested in knowing why the antivirus blocks the VPN and how to solve it. A very important aspect is that the protocol that uses the least data is WireGuard, due to the internal design of the protocol, which is oriented towards mobile devices and fast roaming between networks.
How to limit the mobile data expense of my VPN
One of the options that is widely used is to create a personal access point with our smartphone and thus we can share our mobile data with other devices. Currently both smartphones with Android and iOS operating systems allow us to limit mobile data. In this case we are going to use an Android mobile and the names will be very similar to those we discussed, although there may be some variation depending on the manufacturer in question. So to do that we would go to Settings , SIM card and mobile data , Data usage and there we could limit the mobile data of my VPN or of whatever device you are using. In this case it would be in the Mobile data limit section.
On a Windows computer we could also limit the mobile data of my VPN so that later we don’t have a scare and run out of data. What we have to do is create a metered use network that serves to control consumption by assigning a data limit. We would do this depending on the data rate that we had contracted. Here you have an example in which we can see that we can use metered networks in the VPN because the corresponding option is active.
Here you have explained all the steps to configure the VPN through metered networks. It should also be noted that this can be applied to both Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections. Finally, once this is done, we can rest assured that the mobile data of my VPN will be limited.
