I wish I'd had a VPN at university

Before the first lecture, there's some small print. Your university account came with an acceptable-use policy, and it usually covers the campus network and often halls as well. Some permit personal VPNs, some restrict them, and plenty say nothing at all. Read the part about networks, and ask the IT service if it's unclear.

If the answer is no, keep WrapVPN off the university's network. Your phone's mobile data is a separate connection under your own operator's terms, so use it there instead, with Wi-Fi switched off: a connected tunnel carries on when your phone moves onto Wi-Fi. Leave Auto-Connect off too, so the app doesn't start on campus Wi-Fi by itself.

Some campus networks simply block VPN connections. If WrapVPN connects on mobile data but not on campus Wi-Fi, the network's policy is the likely reason, and the answer is the same: mobile data, or a word with IT.

Two more rules are easy to forget. If an online exam or a university system asks you to switch off any VPN, switch WrapVPN off for that task. And if you use the university's own VPN from home, phones run one VPN at a time, so connecting one disconnects the other.

Now an ordinary Monday, at a university that allows it. You open your laptop in the library and it joins the campus Wi-Fi, often eduroam, with your university username and password rather than a code on a card by the door.

That login matters. The network ties every session to your account: which device joined, when, and how much data it moved. That's true whether a VPN is running or not.

What a VPN changes is everything after the login. Without one, the campus network can see the names of the sites your laptop looks up and where it connects. With WrapVPN on, those travel inside an encrypted tunnel to our exit server, and the campus sees one connection to one address.

That view doesn't disappear, it moves. Our exit server forwards your traffic, and we keep connection records and hourly usage summaries, including the addresses and domain names reached, which can be linked to your account. The privacy policy sets out the details.

The library has one catch of its own. Some journal databases let you in because you're on the campus network, and with WrapVPN on they see our exit server instead and may treat you as off campus. Pause WrapVPN while you use them; it resumes by itself.

Evenings change the network but not the principle. A halls network is shared with everyone in the building and run by the university or a company it hires. Your neighbours can't read your banking app, which is protected by HTTPS, but the operator is in a position to see which sites every room looks up.

A shared flat is more personal. The broadband is in one flatmate's name, whoever set up the router can usually see every device on it, and the password has been given to roughly everyone who has ever come round for dinner. With WrapVPN connected, the router and the broadband provider see an encrypted connection to our exit server rather than the sites you visit.

In both places, remember that WrapVPN protects the device it runs on. Your phone being connected does nothing for your laptop, so install it on both and sign in with the same account. No plan has a device limit, so the tablet you take notes on can join too.

The weekend trip home is where networks pile up. The station has Wi-Fi, the train has Wi-Fi, and both usually start with a page asking you to accept their terms.

The routine is the same everywhere: join, complete the sign-in page, then connect WrapVPN. A VPN can't get through until that page has been accepted, which is why connecting first just makes the Wi-Fi look broken.

Train Wi-Fi also comes and goes between stations. On your phone that's less trouble than it sounds: moving between Wi-Fi and mobile data doesn't stop the tunnel, so you don't have to reconnect every time the train loses signal.

If most of the journey is on mobile data, turn on Clean Web. It stops your phone looking up the addresses of known advertising and tracking domains, so those connections never start and never use your data. It's on by default on Android; on an iPhone, switch it on yourself.

The free plan costs nothing: three one-hour sessions a week per account, with every server location and no device limit. Each hour runs from the moment it starts, even if you disconnect, and the allowance resets every Monday at 00:00 UTC. That covers an hour of the train home and a couple of café visits, but not a week of lectures on campus Wi-Fi.

For daily use, the weekly plan is $1.99 and the monthly plan is $3.99. Once you need more than two weeks in a month, monthly is cheaper: three weeks at $1.99 come to $5.97. The monthly plan may include a seven-day free trial for eligible new subscribers; the store decides who qualifies, and the app shows the offer before you confirm.

Both plans renew until you cancel in the App Store or Google Play, and access continues to the end of the period you've paid for, so you can cancel in the last week of term without losing the days that are left. There's no annual plan to be tied into.

One tip that will matter in three years: sign in with your personal Apple or Google account, not one the university gave you. University accounts are often closed after graduation, and you'd lose the way into a WrapVPN account created with one.

Check what your university allows, then install WrapVPN on your phone and laptop with the same personal account. Start with the free hours for the train and the café, and move to a plan only when you find yourself reaching for it every day.