The one I use is SurfShark. NordVPN is also a very good option. Both are very highly rated, secure, and log-free. I went with SurfShark because of a better deal on the pricing.
I'm not sure about NordVPN, but Surfshark does offer ad blocking as an added feature; I don't use it because I have a Firefox extension that does that for me. The thing about ad blocking is that some sites can detect that you're using a blocker and will refuse to load unless you whitelist them, so keep that in mind.
As for using a VPN to view content that is blocked in your area, that does work most of the time. Let's say you use a streaming service like Hulu or YouTube TV that offers local channels. Your favorite football team is in NY and you live in an area that is out-of-market, so you can't watch the games locally. With a VPN, you just switch to a NY server; now you have a NY-area IP address so the service thinks you're in NY and it serves up the local NY channels. If you know that you can't access some content because you don't live in a certain geographic area, a VPN can make it look like you're actually in that geographic area. It's not foolproof - you need or have to find a service that works in that geographic area and can access that content - but it does work. I have a friend who lives in Maryland and watches soccer games sometimes using a VPN server in the UK. |