- Windscribe adds IP pinning and IP rotation for easier IP control
- Users can lock onto a preferred IP address or switch to a new one
- They will reduce connection issues, CAPTCHAs and streaming errors
About two weeks after Winscribe launched the next-generation server stack, FreshScribe, the company is delivering on its promise of VPN innovation.
Right on cue, Windscribe launched IP pinning and IP rotation. These two innovative features, the provider explains in a blog post, are designed to give you more freedom and control over how you use your VPN IP address, allowing you to lock your connection to a particular IP address or get a new one without having to disconnect the VPN.
Together, they aim to significantly reduce the disruption – think site and streaming bans, CAPTCHAs, IP blocks and frustrating security questions – that you face when browsing online.
In addition to convenience, Windscribe has ensured that both features meet the company’s commitment to privacy. That’s why they’re designed to always run on a zero-knowledge API, which in simple terms means that even Windscribe doesn’t keep track of the IP addresses you use, so your browsing remains private.
What is IP pinning
Although all the best VPNs, including Windscribe, have thousands of IP addresses in their list, they are not all equal. Depending on server load, ISP routing, and whether an IP address is already reported by certain services, some work better than others.
With IP pinning, you can now “pin” an IP address that you think is working perfectly from your location. This will prove useful for sites that expect consistency and don’t like you logging in from a new location every time, such as banking apps and remote work portals.
To pin your IP, click the three dots next to your connected IP and tap the heart icon. It’s important to remember that you are actually “pinning” the IP address, not “reserving” it, since these addresses are part of a shared pool and are not exclusively assigned to you.
You can think of IP Pinning as a lite version of owning a dedicated IP address, which gives you a permanently reserved IP address just for you.
Additionally, this feature works best, meaning Windscribe will keep it pinned for you for as long as the IP address is available – although you can always pin another one.
What is IP rotation
IP rotation is essentially the opposite of IP pinning. It allows you to switch to a new IP address without disconnecting from the VPN.
This is useful if your current IP address is causing problems – for example, if a website keeps throwing CAPTCHA challenges or if that particular IP address has been banned.
This is also useful in situations where you don’t want to (or can’t) change your VPN’s location, such as when you’re trying to unlock a foreign Netflix catalog and changing your location would prevent you from watching it.
Rotating your IP in Windscribe is also just a two-step process: simply click the three dots next to your connected IP and tap the circular arrow.
While Windscribe’s IP pinning is a truly unique feature that we haven’t seen offered by other leading private VPNs, competitors like ExpressVPN and Surfshark also offer some forms of IP rotation.
ExpressVPN’s ShuffleIP and Surfshark’s Multi IP give you a new, random IP address for each website, app, service, or web server you access in the same session, without changing your VPN’s location. These features are designed to break the link between destinations and significantly enhance privacy.
Windscribe’s IP rotation, on the other hand, simplifies things. Instead of automatically assigning a different IP address to each site, it allows you to manually rotate your IP address throughout the session on every website you visit.
So while ExpressVPN and Surfshark focus on maximum anonymity with rolling IP address changes per site, Windscribe’s method is more rooted in convenience: a quick, two-click way to get a new IP address without reconnecting or changing servers.
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