- Windscribe adds IP Pinning and IP Rotation for easier IP control
- Users can lock to a preferred IP or switch to a fresh one
- They will reduce login issues, CAPTCHAs, and streaming errors
About two weeks after Winscribe launched the next-generation server stack, FreshScribe, the company is delivering on the promises of further VPN innovation.
Right on cue, Windscribe has launched IP Pinning and IP Rotation. These two innovative features, the provider explains in a blog post, are set to give you more freedom and control over how you use your VPN IP address, letting you lock your connection to one particular IP or get a shiny new one without needing to disconnect the VPN.
Together, they aim to drastically reduce the disruptions – think site and streaming bans, CAPTCHAs, IP blocks, and frustrating security questions – you face while browsing online.
In addition to convenience, Windscribe has ensured both features uphold the company’s commitment to privacy. That’s why they’re designed to always work over a zero-knowledge API, which, in simple terms, means that not even Windscribe keeps any record of the IP addresses you use, so your browsing remains private.
What is IP Pinning
Although all the best VPNs, Windscribe included, have thousands of IP addresses in their roster, not all of them are equal. Depending on server load, ISP routing, and whether an IP is already flagged by certain services, some work better than others.
With IP Pinning, you can now “pin” an IP that you’ve found works perfectly from your location. It will come in handy for sites that expect consistency and don’t appreciate 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 press the Heart icon. It’s important to remember that you do indeed “pin” the IP, not “reserve” it, since these addresses remain part of a shared pool and aren’t exclusively assigned to you.
You can think of IP Pinning as a lighter version of owning a dedicated IP, which gives you a permanently reserved IP address just for you.
Also, this feature works on a best-effort basis, meaning Windscribe will keep it pinned for you as long as the IP is available – though you can always pin another one.
What is IP Rotation
IP Rotation is essentially the opposite of IP Pinning. It lets you switch to a new IP address without disconnecting from the VPN.
This is useful if your current IP is causing issues – for example, if a website keeps throwing CAPTCHA challenges or if that particular IP has been banned.
It also helps in situations where you don’t want to (or can’t) change your VPN location, like when you’re trying to unlock a foreign Netflix catalog and switching locations would block you from watching it.
Rotating your IP in Windscribe is also just a two-step process: just click the three dots next to your connected IP and press the circular arrow.
While Windscribe’s IP Pinning is a genuinely unique feature we haven’t seen offered by other top private VPNs, rivals like ExpressVPN and Surfshark also offer some forms of IP rotation.
Both ExpressVPN’s ShuffleIP and Surfshark’s Multi IP give you a new random IP address for every website, app, service, or web server you access within the same session, without changing your VPN location. These features are designed to break linkability across destinations and significantly strengthen privacy.
Windscribe’s IP Rotation, on the other hand, keeps things simpler. Instead of automatically assigning a different IP for each site, it lets you manually rotate your IP for the entire session across all websites you visit.
So, while ExpressVPN and Surfshark focus on maximum anonymity with continuous per-site IP changes, Windscribe’s method is more rooted in convenience – a quick two-click way to get a fresh IP without reconnecting or switching servers.
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