ExpressVPN is my top choice for anyone who needs a VPN while they’re traveling. It’s a well-established provider that offers city-level access to servers throughout the entire U.S. Plus, some of its plans come bundled with useful bonus tools — including an eSIM with several days’ worth of unlimited data.

ExpressVPN launched a separate free VPN service called EventVPN in September 2025. I haven’t tested the free version yet, but it seems promising: Users get access to servers in over 35 countries with zero data limits. (Proton Free restricts you to servers in 10 randomly selected countries, while TunnelBear’s free tier caps you at 2GB of data per month.) The only catch is that EventVPN makes you watch ads before every session. I’ll update this guide with my thoughts once I’ve tried it.

Read Mashable’s full review of ExpressVPN.

ProtonVPN may have the bigger global server network, but ExpressVPN has a few advantages over its competitor when it comes to travel. For one thing, it’s the rare VPN provider with servers in all 50 U.S. states. (ProtonVPN and other premium VPNs stick to major U.S. cities.) Anyone working or living abroad won’t have trouble accessing content back home. Additionally, ExpressVPN Pro and Advanced subscribers get access to a holiday.com eSim with a couple of days of unlimited data, among other extra privacy features that make its plans a decent value. An eSim will let your phone connect to a cellular network outside of your home country without a physical SIM card.

ExpressVPN’s heavy U.S. presence also makes it great for unblocking local content — say, regional sports games or adult sites. (For legal reasons, I’m not telling anyone to break laws or violate streaming services’ terms of use.) VPN servers that are close to your actual, physical location will be faster and more reliable than those further away.

Going broader, ExpressVPN has over 3,000 servers in 105 countries worldwide. That’s a pretty small network overall, but there’s still a good amount of global geographic diversity. ProtonVPN’s network is bigger and more spread out, while TunnelBear has more servers but a vastly less extensive reach.

ExpressVPN’s privacy and transparency practices are top-notch. Its privacy policy is thorough and clear on the kind of data it does and doesn’t collect. Most importantly, it never logs users’ browsing history and other sensitive data. This policy has been vetted in independent audits along with ExpressVPN’s apps, server technology, browser extension, and more. (The company started doing these audits in 2018, and since 2022, it’s undergone nearly 20 of them.) It’s only been issuing biannual transparency reports since 2024, but its no-logs claim held up in court way before then. Like ProtonVPN, it offers a bug bounty program.

In my testing, browsing while connected to ExpressVPN servers felt no different than browsing unprotected. It didn’t have a noticeable impact on my connection speed. It was also able to unblock streaming services in the UK, no problem. You get 10 to 14 simultaneous connections, depending on your subscription tier. All plans are backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee and include 24/7 live chat support.

The ExpressVPN app has a clean Corporate Memphis look, and it’s super easy to navigate. As far as features go, you can turn on a kill switch and a split tunneling tool that lets you choose which apps and websites get sent through your VPN tunnel. ExpressVPN lacks common advanced VPN tools like multi-hop and Tor over VPN, which offer extra layers of protection. However, there is a neat built-in “ShuffleIP” feature that swaps your IP address every time you visit a new website, making you tough to track.

As a final note, I think it’s important to mention that ExpressVPN’s parent company doesn’t have the best reputation in the cybersecurity space. My take is that the severity of its issues hinges on your use case. Privacy sticklers and users with critical VPN needs will probably use them as reasons to rule out ExpressVPN entirely, but more casual users might be inclined to brush them off. For more details, read my ExpressVPN review in full.

TL;DR: Live stream Wales vs. France in the 2026 Six Nations for free on BBC iPlayer. Access this free live stream from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The Six Nations started with a number of huge performances from the usual candidates. The best performance from the opening round? It’s difficult to look past France. They dismantled Ireland in front of a passionate Stade de France, making a big statement of intent as the tournament kicked off.

Next France face Wales at the Millennium Stadium. Wales suffered a defeat to England in the opening round, and will be hoping to see improvements over the next few weeks. Fans will expect France to win this one comfortably, but you can never truly count out Wales.

If you want to watch Wales vs. France in the 2026 Six Nations for free from anywhere in the world, we have all the information you need.

When is Wales vs. France?

Wales vs. France in the 2026 Six Nations starts at 3:10 p.m. GMT on Feb. 15. This fixture takes place at the Millennium Stadium.

How to watch Wales vs. France for free

Wales vs. France in the 2026 Six Nations is available to live stream for free on BBC iPlayer.

BBC iPlayer is geo-restricted to the UK, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These handy tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in the UK, meaning you can unblock BBC iPlayer from anywhere in the world.

Live stream Wales vs. France from anywhere in the world by following these simple steps:

1. Subscribe to a streaming-friendly VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in the UK

4. Visit BBC iPlayer

5. Live stream Wales vs. France for free from anywhere in the world

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but most do offer free-trials or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can watch Wales vs. France without committing with your cash. This isn’t a long-term solution, but it does give you enough time to stream most of the 2026 Six Nations before recovering your investment.

If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming services to watch the Winter Olympics, the T20 World Cup, and more from anywhere in the world, you’ll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for streaming live sport is on sale for a limited time.

What is the best VPN for the 2026 Six Nations?

ExpressVPN is the best choice for bypassing geo-restrictions to stream live sport, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including the UK

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is secure

• Fast connection speeds free from throttling

• Up to 10 simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $68.40 and includes an extra four months for free — 81% off for a limited time. This plan includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a generous 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.99 (with money-back guarantee).

Live stream Wales vs. France in the 2026 Six Nations for free with ExpressVPN.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 39 seconds ago

If we’re being honest, there have been plenty of problems with NuTrek since it premiered in 2017, but one of the more persistent problems has been figuring out what stakes a story should have. Discovery and Picard exhausted fans by having huge stakes, whereas early episodes of Starfleet Academy annoyed the fandom with hilariously low stakes. In the latest SFA episode “Come, Let’s Away,” however, NuTrek has finally found a storytelling sweet spot, delivering the kind of medium stakes that typified the Golden Age of Star Trek.

For better or for worse, Star Trek: Discovery was always a show swinging for the fences with high-stakes storytelling. Season 1 involved saving the Federation from Klingons who were intent on destroying the Earth, and Season 2 involved saving the entire galaxy from evil AI. Season 3 involved saving the Federation yet again (this time, in the far future), while Season 4 was all about stopping a threat that destroyed entire planets. The final season wrapped things up with a plot about keeping reality-rewriting technology from ending up in the hands of the scariest aliens the galaxy has ever known.

Star Trek Fans Experience Disaster Fatigue

Star Trek: Picard continued this tradition: Season 1 turned Picard’s quest to help Data’s daughter into an adventure involving an ancient Romulan conspiracy, android rebellion, and all-powerful machine gods from outside the galaxy. Season 2 had Picard and his buddies fighting to keep their entire future from becoming a freaky fascist dystopia. Oh, and Season 3 wrapped things up by having our heroes prevent the Borg from taking over and rewriting the entire galaxy into their cybernetic image.

Understandably, audiences grew tired of what amounted to disaster fatigue; as with superhero movies, the simple truth is that it’s just exhausting when the stakes are always impossibly high. It’s hard to care that the entire galaxy is in danger when this is happening in literally every season. Strange New Worlds tried to fix this problem with simpler, episodic adventures, but some fans thought the adventures were too low-stakes, and it was hard to care about stories with plots like “will everyone stop singing?” and “will Spock fulfill his naughty nurse fantasy?”

Star Trek’s Drama Loses Its Shirt

When Starfleet Academy began, it arguably replicated the problem of Star Trek’s low-stakes stories. It’s a show modeled after Young Adult franchises like Harry Potter, so the episodes mostly revolve around the young cadets discovering the power and value that has been hidden inside of them all along. That makes for some interesting coming-of-age stories, but some fans found story hooks like “will Starfleet Academy win the prank war?” and “will SAM stop arguing with her holographic parents?” so low-stakes that they couldn’t really care about these episodes.

That’s part of why I was so impressed by “Come, Let’s Away:” the most recent Starfleet Academy episode effectively found a narrative sweet spot by giving us an adventure where our cadets were in mortal peril. After a training mission goes sideways, several cadets are kidnapped by killer cannibals, forcing Starfleet to ask space pirate Nus Braka for help. While the cadets are ultimately saved, Braka doublecrosses our heroes, destroying a starship and ransacking a starbase while leaving a trail of bodies in the cold vacuum of space.

How Star Trek Got Its Groove Back

I personally loved this episode for many reasons, including the fact that it ditched the show’s signature bad humor to deliver a tense thriller reminiscent of the Golden Age of Trek. Seeing the characters cut the jokes and pool their different skills to overcome an impossible situation reminded me of why I fell in love with shows like The Next Generation. Eventually, I realized the other big reason this episode reminded me of TNG: it finally found the sweet spot between insanely high stakes and laughably low stakes.

The cadets being in mortal peril is certainly higher-stakes than, say, stories focusing entirely on Caleb’s love life or prank battles with the War College. But it’s not like Discovery or Picard, where the crew regularly had to save the entire galaxy from some insane threat or another. Instead, Starfleet Academy finally found that sweet spot by giving us the ultimate Trek trope of a story: a simple mission goes wrong, and everyone must put their training to the test to overcome impossible odds.

Only time will tell if Starfleet Academy can maintain this sweet spot for future episodes or if we will go back to low-stakes adventures punctuated by cringeworthy potty humor. But as I mentioned in my review of “Come, Let’s Away,” my fingers are crossed that this represents a turning point for this controversial show and that it is becoming the kind of series older franchise fans have been begging for. With any luck, the writers realize they are dealing with their own high-stakes story about whether Star Trek survives another 60 years or gets a Dr. McCoy-like assessment from a bored fandom: “it’s dead, Jim!”