There are a wide variety of smartphones, and the fact that each phone is set up differently means that there are a variety of solutions for your smartphone VPN. In addition to smartphones being made by different companies and having different models, there are a number of different reasons to use a VPN, so be sure to read thoroughly to get the smartphone VPN that will best suit your needs.

Smartphone models

Unfortunately, not all smartphones support VPNs, and some that do are so complicated, that it's almost not worth going through the whole process. Basically, if you're not on an Android, iOS, or Nokia phone, you're out of luck. If you have a tech-oriented mind, and enjoy tinkering with this kind of stuff, you may be able to figure something out by browsing the forums and tech blogs, and making a couple calls to support lines. However, many VPN services simply don't offer VPN support for these models. This would include Blackberry, Windows phone 7, and Bada based phones.

That being said for iPhone and Android users, it's a cakewalk. Nokia users with Symbian OS will have to jump through a few hoops, but it's possible.

VPN Options

There are basically two options for smartphones, PPTP and L2TP. Though reviews and analyzing may vary, the story is this:

• PPTP is build for speed
• L2TP is build for privacy

This doesn't mean that PPTP doesn't provide you with privacy features, or that L2TP won't allow you to stream video on your phone, but they're just rules of thumb to keep in mind. iOS and Android phones both come with VPN clients for these protocols, so setup should be fast. L2TP does require a bit more work, but instructions will be provided upon download.

For Nokia users, you'll have to download either SymVPN or mVPN, both of which are VPN clients. SymVPN will cost you 30 Euros, and mVPN is free. SymVPN will allow you to use PPTP VPN, which most VPN providers have, but mVPN will require that you use IKEv2, which only select companies have. It just depends on which service you decide to use.

The smartphone VPN service you choose will also give you other options like the location of the VPN servers, the amount of bandwidth you need per month, the length of subscription, and various support features. Prices will range from about $5 to $20 depending on the options I just mentioned. Many services now are offering full access VPN packages, which means you get access to all servers, both PPTP and L2TP, unlimited bandwidth, and free server switching.