How to Use a VPN: A Step-by-Step Guide for Every Device

Using a VPN is not difficult, but the order matters: set the protective settings before your first connection, not after it. Proton VPN describes its native apps this way: download and install the app, log in, and click or tap the Quick Connect button. The US Federal Trade Commission adds the caution that should frame the whole process: when you use a VPN app, you are giving the app permission to intercept all of your internet traffic. If the tunnel itself is new to you, start with our explainer on what a VPN does and does not do.

Step 1: Choose a provider and create your account

Start on the provider’s own website, not through an advertisement or download portal. Create the account there, with a strong, unique password — this account controls a tool that can see your traffic. Before paying, work through our checklist for choosing a VPN; the FTC advises researching the app and its developer first, not taking its description at face value.

Step 2: Install the app on each device

Download the app for each device from the provider’s website or the official store for that platform — Google Play on Android, the App Store on iPhone and iPad, the provider’s download page for Windows and macOS. Avoid third-party download sites. Approve the system’s VPN-configuration prompt only for the app you deliberately installed, and review its other permissions: the FTC advises asking whether a sensitive permission makes sense for a VPN.

Step 3: Sign in, then set the essentials before connecting

Open the app and sign in. Before you press Connect, open Settings and set four things.

Kill switch: on. Proton VPN’s support documentation defines it plainly: the kill switch blocks all internet traffic on your device if your VPN connection drops, protecting your IP address and DNS activity until you reconnect.

Protocol: WireGuard for most people. If the app offers a choice, select WireGuard unless you have a specific reason not to. If it is blocked on a network you must use, OpenVPN is the established alternative — see our guide to VPN protocols. Without a kill switch, a dropped tunnel can quietly revert to your ordinary connection and expose your real address. The WireGuard project describes itself as an extremely simple yet fast and modern VPN that uses state-of-the-art cryptography, designed with a minimal attack surface and a small codebase that is easier to audit.

Auto-connect on untrusted Wi-Fi. Enable the auto-connect or always-on setting for networks you do not control. Proton describes its always-on feature as automatically reconnecting your device if the connection is disrupted.

Step 4: Connect, then verify it actually works

Now connect — a “fastest” or “quick connect” option is the right default; choose a specific country only when your reason depends on location. Then verify, because a connected-looking icon is not proof:

1. With the VPN off, open an IP-check site and note the IP address and location it reports.
2. Turn the VPN on and reload the page. The address should be different, and the location should match the server you selected.
3. Load a couple of ordinary websites, then disconnect and confirm your original address returns.

Per-device notes

The steps are identical in outline on iOS, Android, Windows and macOS; only the menus move. Proton’s platform page lists native apps for iPhone, Android, Mac, Windows and Linux, among others, and the same account signs in across them — though Proton states its free plan connects one device and its paid Plus plan up to ten. On Android, Proton’s kill-switch guide uses the system settings: enable Always-on VPN and “Block connections without VPN.”

A router-level VPN is the advanced option. You configure the VPN on your home router instead of on every device, and Proton explains that this automatically secures the traffic of all devices connected to your Wi-Fi at once, including devices that cannot run a VPN app themselves. The trade-off is control: changing server becomes a router-admin task, so treat it as a second project.

Split tunnelling, briefly

Split tunnelling lets you route some connections through the VPN while others go directly. Proton’s support page defines it as a way to route some connections through the VPN tunnel while excluding others, in either direction: an exclude mode, where everything uses the VPN except listed apps, or an include mode, where only listed apps use it. Excluded traffic gets no VPN protection, and Proton warns that on most platforms split tunnelling is not compatible with the kill switch — Windows is its exception, where the two can be combined.

When the VPN drops, or a site blocks you

If pages stop loading, check whether the kill switch is doing its job — it blocks traffic while the tunnel is down. Reconnect; if one server repeatedly fails, switch servers or try the alternative protocol your app offers. If a website blocks you while the VPN is on, that is a known pattern, not a fault: the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes that content providers, especially streaming platforms, increasingly block connections that appear to be using a VPN.

Not set-and-forget

Keep the app and your operating system updated: the EFF notes that VPN software not updated for security issues may fail at the protection it exists to provide. Re-run the verification check after major updates or on a new device, and if the address does not change after connecting, reconnect or switch servers rather than browsing on an assumption. A correctly configured VPN changes who can see your traffic; it does not vet the sites you visit.

What this means

For most US readers, the real lesson of setting up a VPN is that the protection lives in the configuration, not in the installation. Two people can run the same reputable app and get very different results. One has a kill switch ready to catch a dropped tunnel, auto-connect waiting for the hotel Wi-Fi, a protocol chosen deliberately, and a server they have personally verified is carrying their traffic. The other tapped through the defaults in a hurry, never checked whether the address changed, and has been browsing unprotected since the first unnoticed disconnect — while believing the opposite. The ten minutes in Step 3 and Step 4 are the difference between buying a safeguard and buying an icon. If you do nothing else from this guide, do those: kill switch on, WireGuard selected, and an IP check performed with your own eyes on every new device you set up.

It also means accepting an ongoing cost, which is attention rather than money. Apps update and change their menus, operating systems move the settings you rely on, plans limit how many devices can connect at once, and a service that happily accepted your server’s traffic last month may block that server next month. A VPN fits into a routine — updates accepted promptly, the connection verified occasionally, split tunnelling used as a scalpel for specific apps rather than left wide open — or it quietly decays into a false sense of security. Finally, it means keeping the tool in its proper place in your wider setup. The FTC’s checks before installing, the habit of reviewing permissions instead of tapping through them, strong and unique passwords for the account itself, and a fully updated phone and computer all protect you in situations where no tunnel can. Set the VPN up properly, by all means — then let it be the layer it is, not the only one you have.

Bottom line

The protection lives in the configuration, not the installation. Set the kill switch, auto-connect and protocol before your first connection, and verify the address changed — ten careful minutes beat a year of browsing on defaults.

Read Next

• VPNs Explained: What a VPN Does, What It Does Not, and When You Need One
• Free VPN vs Paid VPN: What You Actually Give Up

Sources

• Proton VPN, “Multi-platform support for all your devices” — https://protonvpn.com/features/multi-platform-support (accessed 7 November 2026)
• Proton VPN Support, “How to use kill switch” — https://protonvpn.com/support/what-is-kill-switch (accessed 7 November 2026)
• Federal Trade Commission, “In the market for a VPN app?” — https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2018/02/market-vpn-app (accessed 7 November 2026)
• WireGuard project, homepage — https://www.wireguard.com/ (accessed 7 November 2026)