Hi Friends! Hope you’re well. I welcome you on board. In this post today, I’ll discuss What is VPN & How Does it Work?
A VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. It is used to hide your online activities from your ISP (internet service provider) and other third parties. This means you can surf online, share your credentials and send and receive data online with confidence. No one can sneak into your personal data and browsing history. Plus, it gives access to prohibited websites that you cannot see with your regular internet connection. A VPN hides your IP address and replaces it with another string of numbers from another location, which means no one can identify your actual location and IP address. Most companies and individuals use VPN to keep their personal data from the eyes of potential hackers and cyber threats. We will try to cover everything about VPN buy you can learn more about VPN here.
I suggest you read this post all the way through as I’ll be covering What is VPN & and How Does it Work.
Let’s jump right in.
A VPN is a virtual network that keeps your online activities secure and private. It blocks your actual IP address and your identity, which means no outsider can break into what you’re doing online. A VPN keeps location and browsing history private, making it difficult for third parties to trace your online activities.
A VPN encrypts your data you send or receive online. That means when you connect to the VPN, your internet connection will redirect to the server of the VPN service provider instead of your ISP that masks your IP address – thereby protecting your online identity.
Encryption means creating a tunnel between your device and the internet where your data is transferred into a code which only you and your VPN host can decipher. Even if someone wants to interpret your data, it becomes useless when it reaches the final destination.
Without VPN your data is not encrypted, which means anyone can track your IP address, exposing your online identity and figuring out what sites you browse and the data you send or receive online.
Know that, a VPN only takes care of protecting your online identity and the data you send or receive online. That means it only secures the transmission of your data. The data on your device is still vulnerable to potential hackers and phishing scams for which you require anti-virus software.
A good VPN comes with many benefits. From securing your IP address and online identity to accessing prohibited content and secure data transfer, it covers all. You need a VPN connection if you want your online activities to remain untraced, i.e. the websites you visit, data you send or receive online and the time you spend on each website.
Your online identity remains hidden when you connect to the server of the VPN host. Your actual location remains unidentified and you appear from the location you set on the VPN server. Additionally, most VPN don’t store your browsing history and logs of your online activity. Even if they store it for personal record, they don’t reveal it to any third party.
Besides securing your online identity, a VPN is also used to unlock prohibited content.
In some countries, governments don’t allow their citizens to access a certain content. The content may include adult media or different political and religious views. What VPN does is make you appear as you’re watching the content from another location. It hides your IP address and online identity, giving you access to the prohibited content.
For instance, some exclusive content you watch in US may not watch in UK. There are some UK Netflix series that you cannot watch if you’re located in US. With VPN, you can unlock the exclusive content only by picking the location of that country on the VPN server.
Not to mention, remote work has gone mainstream after Covid-19 hit the world with its wrath. More often, remote workers need access to the company’s servers for important files and documents. Even though most companies take care of their internet connection and personal data, they are not sure if your connection is secure and safe against potential hackers. In that case, companies provide access to the private files with a VPN that acts as a secure bridge between the company and the worker, so no third party can sneak into their personal data.
You’ll find many businesses offering you free Wi-Fi and apps to download when you visit their outlet. Be careful when you connect to their Wi-Fi, because they offer you free internet in exchange of collecting your data. To secure your personal data and remain hidden from the eyes of those retailers, it’s better to use VPN. This way they cannot identify your online activities and you can surf securely as you like better.
There are places where you cannot use 3G or 4G of your mobile network, but you still want some online work done at that moment. You may want to read the news on your cell phone, check important emails from your boss or scroll through your social accounts. Either way, you’re tempted to use public Wi-Fi.
Most public Wi-Fi connections are free to use for anyone, as they are not password protected. But they do come with a risk of potential hacker getting into the details of your personal data as you connect your device with the Wi-Fi. However, if you connect the VPN before performing online activities, no one can identify your location and online presence, giving your data an extra layer of security and peace of mind where you can use the internet anonymously without fear of getting hacked by the hacker.
There are four main types of VPN services.
VPNs are used to develop private and secure connections with the open internet. Mostly personal VPNs are used, however, most businesses and organizations leverage remote access VPNs to allow their member access private files and share and receive data securely over the internet.
Let’s discuss each VPN one by one.
A personal VPN – also known as commercial VPN or consumer VPN – is mostly used by individuals. It connects your device with a VPN server and acts as a bridge between your device and the online activity you want to perform. The personal VPN hides your identify and location by encrypting your data.
There are many reasons you’ll prefer personal VPN. For instance, you can get access to media unavailable to your geographic location. In some authoritarian states like UAE and China, they have developed a national firewalls which block a certain content and make it unavailable to the general public. What VPN does is give access to that content by hiding your web traffic from their monitoring systems.
Simply install the app on your device provided by a VPN service provider. The personal VPNs come with a plenty of servers network to pick from. If your privacy is the primary concern, connect with the local server for the fast speed. However, if you want access to the prohibited content, choose the server where that content is accessible. Connect with the personal VPN and browse the internet like a regular user.
A remote access VPN, also known as client-based VPN, connects your device to the private network as opposed to personal VPN that doesn’t give access to the private network instead it gives access to the public internet by developing extra layer of security with encrypted connection.
Most business owners use remote access VPN to develop a connection between the company’s network and the public Wi-Fi. This way they can leverage all the private files and documents as they would have connected with the office Wi-Fi. The remote VPN keeps the exploring, sending and receiving those files secure and private from the outsider.
Install the client software on your device. Initially, the VPN server checks whether the user is identified and is allowed to use the network. This might involve doing biometric such as using a thumb or entering a password for the identification. Once the authentication process is done, an encrypted tunnel is established between the user’s device and the server, allowing the user to perform online activities like a regular user by protecting the traffic going over the VPN server.
Site to Site VPN is slightly different from the remote access VPN. The remote access VPN allows the user to get access to the private network and use its resources, while Site to Site VPN, on the other hand, combines two networks together located on different sites. For instance, if your company has two offices established on entirely different locations, a Site to Site VPN can be applied to join them in a single network.
Technologies used to implement site to site VPN include: L3VPN, Dynamic multipoint VPN and IPsec tunnel.
IPsec joins two router together to join different networks. However, this process doesn’t suit well for the companies with thousands of sites. In that case Dynamic multipoint VPN is used that joins thousands of sites together using dynamic IP addresses.
Both IPsec and multipoint VPN don’t guarantee consistent performance as they remain on the top of the internet. For global connectivity and good quality, L3VPN is used.
Mobile VPNs are similar to remote access VPNs which means you can access them from anywhere except if you continuously change your location. For instance, when you use remote access VPNs, they give you access to the network, assuming you are located at one location. When you leave that location and get no signal from the public Wi-Fi, your connection with the remote VPN gets lost. In contrast, with mobile VPN that you use on your smartphone devices, your connection with the network remains intact no matter your location is.
Process is similar to the remote access VPN. You require authentication before establishing mobile VPN which require password or biometric process. Once the authentication is done, a virtual tunnel is developed between the VPN server and mobile device. Know that in mobile VPN the connection persists even if your device switches between different network such as public Wi-Fi or cellular network. When the network changes, the IP address will change but the IP address allocated to the VPN tunnel remains the same no matter network you use.
Still reading? Perfect.
It shows you’re really curious to know the key considerations before picking the right VPN for you.
Here are a few things to consider:
Check if the VPN is free. Know that free doesn’t mean it’s totally free. Companies who offer free VPNs cover their cost by running ads and sharing users’ data to third parties.
Do your due diligence to check the security experience of your provider. You should demand online security and privacy and make sure they comply with the rules and regulations they have mentioned in their terms of service and privacy policy.
Even though some reviews are genuine but not all reviews are independent and unbiased. Some VPN companies pay for other websites to publish an excellent review about them. So be critical while picking the right VPN Company for you.
The VPN companies rent servers worldwide. Don’t just pick the service provider with the largest number of networks. Because more networks means the company has less control over them.
That’s all for today. Hope you’re enjoyed reading this article. If you have any question, please ask in the section below. I’d love to help you the best way I can. Thank you for reading the article.
VPN is pronounced as Virtual Private Network. As its name suggests, VPN is a private network connection that serves the purpose of data sharing, privately, among several connected devices. All the computers, mobiles, laptops and other devices connected through this virtual private network can share the data with secured encryption that cannot be observed by anyone else. That's why it is called a private network. It serves the purpose of security.
A typical VPN performs data encryption up to 256 bytes. Data encryption means that your original data is being transmitted into a different complex language that needs to be decrypted for understanding. That's why, when you surf the internet via VPN, all your data log is encrypted and no internet service provider can see the actual data. They just see a connection between a random IP and the VPN server. The encrypted data seems garbage to them. Here's a list of a few best online VPN services:
VPN was introduced in 1996 just for the sake of sharing the team data, remotely, via a private network. It made the team eligible to connect the company's device via a secured connection. Later, many military and government sectors shared their resources and their devices via virtual private networks so that any core member of the department could access the data anywhere online.
These private networks made sure the data encryption as well. No other internet user or service provider could actually see their transaction details. That's how the VPN appeared as a handful yet secured network.
With the passage of time, a corporate sector adopted this private network method as they could not afford to reveal their specific business models and strategies online with anyone; therefore, they made their own virtual private networks to deal with their international staff via a private network.
A virtual private network means private network access to a public network connection virtually. There are different protocols used in building a secured VPN. Whenever a person is connected through a VPN, his browsing history and login details won't be accessible via a public network. It does not matter if he is using public Wifi or not, his all browsing history is encrypted with several protocols.
The very first and foremost usage of the VPN is building a secured line of data transmission which cannot be traced, manipulated or hacked by any service provider.
All the data which is transmitted by a VPN is encrypted in several layers and the service provider can just see a connection between them, not the actual data which is being transferred.
That's why most of the banking sectors and e-commerce stakeholders have their own VPNs. Otherwise, all the private credentials can be hacked or manipulated with some medium level hacking.
As you have known that VPN is a private network, so it works as a dedicated server between both ends. We may receive lag in our public network connections due to a burden of overload traffic but the VPN works as a sole private network that is dedicatedly available to you. Regardless of a normal public connection speed, VPN always offers you a better speed than a public network.
That's why many streamers and professional gamers now have to have a premium VPN service for the best speed.
We are living in a highly diplomatic and highly competitive era. Many international countries and brands have to restrict their services due to their diplomatic policies like China and Saudia won't allow you to use Facebook and Google etc. In the same way, some countries won't support the PayPal and Netflix streaming services. If you are traveling or staying there for a while, you still can access your PayPal and Netflix subscription there with the help of a VPN.
If you still want to use any international service without any local restrictions, you need to have a VPN service.
One of the most fascinating things about VPN is about connecting to the internet from any country's local network. You can select your favorite county's network to connect with and then all your data surfing and browsing would be done with that particular network.
Most of the time, any internet geek or E-commerce geek chooses VPN to collect data and statistics for an international forum. For example, whenever you type a certain keyword in your browser, you will see some top suggested queries by your browser. Those top suggestions are based on the most common search queries from your nearest areas. Hence, you can connect to another country's network via VPN and collect a different data set by searching the same query in your browser. It would give you top search results from that particular location.
Any SEO guru can do this to master the keyword-finding technique. Probably most of the keywords finding tools perform the same algorithm to gather the top ranking keywords in different parts of the world.
If you ever feel rejected, restricted by the national censorship laws and some international forums and you just can't share any bold content or speech of your desire. You can achieve that freedom of speech after getting connected with any VPN service. You can then easily share your ideas and content from a different location.
In a normal routine, you are easily traceable and trackable of your all activities via your internet devices. All your banking details and your bank transaction can be hacked with ease on a public network. You can even be traced with some medium to advance hacking tools. Hence, you are nothing but a caged person in this miserable public network connection. So, you may get an untraceable IP each time after getting connected with the VPNs. Each time you get connected to the VPN, you get a new IP address that cannot be traced back to your device.
As you have already understood much about VPN, you should be aware of the fact that you can change your log-in location with the help of a VPN. Now here comes an exciting part. Many companies and brands present special deals and discounted offers for specific countries or regions at some specific local festivals. If you have a VPN service, you can easily redeem the discounted price after getting logged in from that particular location.
In another case, you can even purchase online from different locations to have a fair deal. For example, AliExpress provides a different rate for Chinese than Europeans.
Have you ever wondered about the internet ads process? How do they belong to you every single time? How can they appear at the right place at the right time? How is it possible for those advertisers to know your personal interests and your personal needs?
Well, it is an alarming yet awakening fact that every single free social media service provider keeps logging and storing your personal data from your device. Whenever you download the free apps, they ask permission to access your microphone and camera. There you fall into a trap. They can know every single thing about themselves through your device. They sell that particular data to those third-party apps, so they can lure you with the most relevant necessities. That's how the whole online advertising model works. That's how all these free apps are still able to provide you so-called free services because you are not paying for their products but you are yourself a product. It is what it is.
Despite all the pros of VPN, there are some cons of VPN as well. The most common disadvantages of VPN are:
To have a secured and premium service of a VPN may cost any particular regular charges which you have to bear as an extra for surfing the same browsers along with the VPN.
It won't cost much to any individual but on a larger scale, VPN costs the corporate companies and banking sectors a handsome monthly amount.
We know that we are living in the high-tech era. Every single good soul is using the internet so as the evil ones. That's why government institutions and your national internet service provider keep tracking your internet activities all the time. If any fraudulent or terror activities are to be done somewhere, they try to trace it via their logged data and eliminate the threat before a threat eliminates us.
That's why many countries won't encourage VPNs as they consider it a risky approach for common civilians. If it is encouraged openly, then every single person would be doing it and they can't differentiate between anyone because they won't be able to decrypt the encrypted surfing data. Anyone with bad intentions would be a major threat if he would be using the VPN each time before going to the internet. That's why all the security institutions won't allow any open usage of the VPN. They are interested in tracking your records for your safety; however, you won't be having your free private life.
There are many types of VPN services available in the market nowadays. Most of them are free but they have their limitations and other premium VPs are good options too. Following are the details about several types of VPN.
Free routers VPNs work as just the router. They just redirect your internet requests to the private network and all the responses from the public networks against your search queries revert back to you from the same private network connection. There is no direct network connection between the public network and your device. You can get a new random IP address each time while connecting to that free VPN. So, your location is untraceable.
These free VPNs are most favorable towards newbies and freebies. Almost all teenagers use such free VPNs to stream their favorite content platforms like Netflix, Hulu and Sonyliv etc.
The major benefit of such VPNs is that they won't cost you some extra bucks but they are not much feasible as well. They are usually slower than premium ones because many people use their free services and their server is usually down due to heavy traffic. Moreover, their security is not as much safer as it should be. As they also have an advertisement revenue model for their return of investment (ROI), you are still on the verge of losing all your data online to some specific advertisers. That's why you observe many ads even on VPNs.
So these are not trustworthy for secured businesses. They are just valuable for youngsters for steaming the restricted games and apps free of cost.
Premium VPNs are dedicated VPNs for your network connection. They are not rushy as there are no freebies there on their server. Only mature and serious peeps buy their membership to have either a better speed of internet or much safer protection for their online surfing. In such premium VPNs, several layers of VPN protocols are added and your data is made fully encrypted. Further, your one-session data expires- once you logged out from that private connection. That's the most attractive part to buy a premium service of a VPN as it gives you full control and assurance about your protected internet surfing.
These premium VPN services have several backup servers on their end, so their speed is rarely compromised.
Such VPNs give freedom of speech and free life- a true meaning.
VPN is a virtual private network that allows you to access the public network, privately. It was built for just accessing office resources remotely in 1996. Nowadays, it is working as a proper proxy network to access all the restricted platforms. You can secretly browse anything from your PC and your IP address and browsing history won't be tracked.
There are several purposes of VPN as it behaves as a separate private network connection providing a speedy internet, secured internet and ad-free service; plus, it gives you an opportunity to access all the restricted services and international offers. Some corporate companies and banks use their own VPNs to make their data secure via their own private network.
There are several pros and cons of a VPN. The major pros of VPN are data security, speedy internet and providing access to any restricted media by changing your geometric location and IP.
The cons of VPN are the extra expenditure and a risky approach to a probable violation of the law according to some specific countries.
You should check its capability of providing secure 256 bits data encryption. You should check whether it has as many locations as you want or not. You must check its assigned IP addresses beginning- it must match with that particular location's IPs. You should also check the internet speed via that particular VPN. It is supposed to give you a higher speed.
Obviously, it is preferable to go with the premium ones as they provide better privacy and speedy service than free ones. However, if you want to just access your favorite show or game which is restricted in your location, you can go with the free ones. Don't try to process any secret data like banking or credit card transactions while using free VPNs.
It's not a hectic task nowadays, you can just simply download an app from the play store or an app store and the app sets up a VPN connection on your public internet automatically assigning you a random IP of a different location. However, you can set up manually via VPN settings in your network settings.
For a Windows PC, you need to sign up with your VPN service providers and establish a username and password once.
Once you have got your VPN subscription, you can simply go to the network settings and create a VPN server choosing a specific IP address, username and password.
Then you just need to connect with that particular VPN network each time. It works as a proxy network in your windows.