The phone connected to Wi-Fi at the airport. On the website, a banner covers half the screen, followed by a “allow notifications” window, and in the evening, an SMS supposedly from a delivery service arrives with a link to pay a few shekels. On another day, a familiar foreign service suddenly decides that logging in from Israel is suspicious. All this is often lumped together under the term “internet security” and one piece of advice is given: install a VPN.
The advice is too simple. VPN, ad blocker, and DNS filtering work with different parts of the internet connection. Sometimes a person needs one of these tools, sometimes two, sometimes none. And certainly neither VPN nor ad blocker negates the need to check where exactly the link from the SMS leads.
Therefore, it’s better to understand not which program promises “complete protection,” but what specific problem needs to be solved. For an Israeli user, this is especially a practical question: the same phone can work at home, in the office, in a cafe, at the airport, and already in another country within a week.
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VPN: not “protection from everything,” but a specific tool
VPN creates a connection between the user’s device and the VPN server. The internet resource then sees the server’s IP through which the connection is made, not the user’s regular external IP.
In practice, this can be useful without any spy stories. A person works through hotel Wi-Fi, sits with a laptop at the airport, is outside Israel, or wants to use another internet exit point. VPN here performs a clear job — changes the connection route and adds an encrypted section between the device and the VPN server.
One option for such a task is AdGuard VPN. But buying it just because the word VPN is everywhere now makes no sense. First, you need to understand if this function is needed.
VPN will not fix the mistake of a person who opened a phishing site and entered a password there. It will not remove already installed malicious applications. It will not turn a dubious online store into a real one and will not check the phone number from which they call you.
These are different levels of problems.
Why ads didn’t disappear after turning on VPN
Here begins another confusion. A person buys a VPN, opens a site — and the banners are still there. It seems that the service “doesn’t work well.”
In fact, it is not obliged to solve this task at all.
For ads, pop-ups, and some tracking elements, blockers are used. In the case of AdGuard, this is a separate product — AdGuard Ad Blocker.
AdGuard uses filters — sets of rules that determine advertising, tracking, and other elements. The official documentation separately describes basic, mobile, regional filters, tracking protection, removal of tracking parameters from URLs, and other mechanisms.
So the situation “I want to change IP” and the situation “I want to remove banners” are two different tasks.
If the main complaint about the internet is that pages are filled with ads, VPN may not be the tool to start with at all.
And vice versa: an ad blocker does not become a VPN just because it also relates to privacy. It is not intended to give the user another external IP.
As in other practical materials NAnovosti — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency, it is more useful here not to put all the words about security in one box. Otherwise, a person first buys a product, and the next day finds out that they expected a completely different function from it.
DNS: the third layer that the average user almost doesn’t think about
There is also DNS. It sounds technical, although we use it constantly.
When a person enters a website name, the device needs to determine which network address to contact. To simplify, DNS works like one of the internet’s address services.
And filtering can already be done at this level.
AdGuard DNS allows using blocklists for advertising and tracking domains, as well as lists designed to protect against phishing and fraudulent resources.
This approach has its application. Especially at home, where more than one computer has long been connected to the internet: phones, tablets, TVs, consoles, sometimes even equipment where a regular browser extension cannot be installed.
But again, DNS filtering should not be turned into a magic net that catches all the bad. It works with domains and rules. A new fraudulent resource may not yet be in the used lists, and a legitimate site may behave in such a way that too aggressive filtering breaks part of its functions.
Task map: what to use in which situation
Imagine a person who often flies from Israel, works with a laptop on the road, and connects to networks they do not manage themselves. Their first task is connection, traffic route, external IP. Here it makes sense to look at VPN.
Another person has no problems with IP. They are simply tired of banners, pop-ups, ad inserts, and some trackers. For them, it makes more sense to first deal with an ad blocker.
The third wants to set up filtering immediately for the home network and several devices. Here DNS already appears.
And there is a fourth case: a person does not need any new paid service at all. They sit at home, do not change the connection country, are not particularly bothered by ads, do not want to set up DNS. Buying three subscriptions “just in case” is unnecessary here.
Such an answer is also normal.
Israel: where VPN sometimes helps, and where it creates an extra problem
In Israel, there is its own everyday specificity. Many people have accounts and services distributed across several countries. An Israeli bank and kupat holim are next to a Ukrainian service, an old account from another country, a foreign subscription, and applications that a person uses during trips.
VPN in such a construction sometimes solves the problem with the connection location, and sometimes becomes the reason for additional verification.
If after turning on the VPN, the banking application or sensitive service starts behaving strangely, you should not immediately reinstall the phone. First, check through which country the connection is currently going. Sometimes the service simply does not like that five minutes ago the user was in Israel, and now their IP suddenly ended up in another state.
On a trip, the situation is the opposite. A public network in a hotel or airport is just the scenario where VPN has a clear practical purpose.
For a NAnovosti reader who lives in Israel but continues to use Ukrainian services or regularly travels between countries, this is not exotic. There is no one constant mode of “VPN always on” or “VPN never needed.” The network and task change — so does the setup.
NAnovosti has already analyzed the situation when users from Israel faced access problems to Russian resources and certificates. There, VPN could help with one part of the problem, but did not fix everything automatically. More details — in the material about the Russian “Cheburnet” and access problems.
We also have another material on how such restrictions are felt outside Russia: Russian “Cheburnet” continues to affect users abroad.
But with SMS from the “bank,” VPN almost doesn’t help
A separate story is phishing.
A message arrives: the package is delayed, the card is blocked, you need to urgently pay 6.90 ₪, confirm Bit, update banking details. A person opens the page, it looks like the real one, enters the card number and code.
At this moment, you can use the most expensive VPN on the market. If the fake resource was not stopped by other mechanisms and the user themselves provided the data, VPN does not solve the main problem here.
DNS filtering or protective lists can filter out some already known phishing domains. But even this mechanism is built on rules and known addresses, not on the ability to read the user’s mind.
Therefore, digital security still remains a combination: system updates, two-factor authentication, checking the site address, caution with messages, and only then additional tools.
NAnovosti also talked about schemes where Israeli residents were processed through specially organized call centers. There the problem was not at all in the absence of VPN. More details — in our material about the operation of the Ukrainian and Israeli police.
And free options?
A free VPN is not necessarily bad, a paid one does not automatically become good either. The same story with blockers.
You need to look at real limitations: is there a traffic limit, which servers are available, what happens with speed, how the service is funded, what data is collected, how many devices can be connected, and what functions are actually included in the free option.
If VPN is needed a couple of times a year, a person may well be satisfied with a free solution. If work traffic goes through it daily from several devices — the requirements are already different.
And with DNS, a similar picture. Simple DNS filtering and full device management, statistics, and custom rules are not the same.
Explanation for Israeli readers
VPN — Virtual Private Network. A secure connection is created between the device and the VPN server, and the visited sites see the VPN server’s IP.
IP address — network connection address. Among other things, an internet service can approximately determine the user’s country by it.
DNS — a system that helps the device determine the network address of a site by its name. DNS filtering allows blocking requests to certain domains.
Tracker — a site or application element used to collect information about user behavior. This can include visited pages, clicks, device parameters, and other data.
Phishing — an attempt to trick a person into voluntarily disclosing a password, banking details, confirmation code, or other information. A fake page is often specifically made to look like a familiar service’s site.
And one more detail for multilingual Israel: filtering systems have regional rules for different language segments of the internet. Therefore, working with Russian-, Ukrainian-, English-, and Hebrew-language sites may differ.
What to choose in the end
If the problem is primarily with ads, pop-ups, and tracking elements, the first candidate will be AdGuard Ad Blocker. It works specifically with filtering ads and other unwanted content; VPN is not necessary to buy for this task alone.
If the task is connecting through public networks, working on trips, changing external IP, and additional connection privacy, then it makes sense to look at AdGuard VPN. But it does not replace an ad blocker, antivirus, and the habit of checking suspicious links.
If you need to manage filtering at the DNS level and for multiple devices or a home network, a separate option is AdGuard DNS. Here the focus is not on changing IP, but on which domain requests are allowed or blocked.
You can use one product or several — depending on the task. Buying everything as a package just because the names are next to each other is not necessary.
AdGuard: all three options in one place
For those who have reached the end and want not to read about terminology, but to choose a specific tool, let’s repeat without technical fog.
AdGuard VPN — open the service should be considered by those who need a different external IP, VPN for trips, public networks, and additional connection privacy. This option is specifically about VPN, not about universal “internet protection.”
AdGuard Ad Blocker — view versions for devices is intended primarily for blocking ads, banners, pop-up elements, and some tracking mechanisms.
AdGuard DNS — open settings and rates is needed for another level: DNS filtering, blocklists, and managing requests from connected devices. This can be more convenient where a single browser extension installation does not solve the task.
NAnovosti has also requested a separate promo code from AdGuard for readers. After its approval, we will update this material and add the code along with the current discount conditions.
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