VPN 101
What is a VPN and what does it mean?
VPN stands for "virtual private network" — a service that helps you stay private online. A VPN establishes a secure, encrypted connection between your computer and the internet, providing a private tunnel for your data and communications while you use public networks.
What does a VPN hide?
VPNs work on the operating system level, so they reroute all your traffic through other servers. That means all of your online traffic, along with your physical location, stays hidden while you surf the web. When you access a site through a VPN server, the source of your connection is shown as one of the many VPN routers — called a proxy server — not your own. So the owners of the site, and anyone else trying to spy on you, cannot deduce who you are.
A VPN is the closest you can get to true anonymity online without using the Tor network, which bounces your connection around a widely distributed network of volunteer relays, basically keeping your web activity in constant motion so nobody can focus on it. VPNs do not use this (very slow) protocol, but they do offer sufficient — and essential — protection as you cruise through today’s deregulated and hacker-lined cyber highways.
How do VPNs work?
The Virtual Private Network was first developed by Microsoft in 1996 as a way for remote employees to securely access the company’s internal network. Once it doubled company productivity, other companies began to adopt the practice. Corporate VPNs that allow remote work are now a standard feature of the global business landscape.
Here’s what’s going on behind the scenes:
What does a VPN do?
Instead of sending your internet traffic (e.g. your online searches, uploads, and downloads) directly to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), a VPN first routes your traffic through a VPN server. That way, when your data is finally transmitted to the internet, it appears to come from the VPN server, not your personal device.
Without a VPN, your IP address — a special number unique to your home network — is visible to the web. A VPN masks your IP address by acting as an intermediary and rerouting your traffic. It also adds encryption, or a tunnel around your identity, as you connect. The combination of the VPN server and the encryption tunnel blocks your ISP, governments, hackers, and anyone else from spying on you as you navigate the web.
How does the encryption tunnel work?
Encryption is a method of changing normal text into an unreadable jumble of code. A key, or decryptor, unscrambles the text and renders it back into readable information. When you use a VPN, only your device and the VPN provider contain the decryption key. Anyone else trying to spy on you would only see a mess of characters.
The VPN tunnel is created by first authenticating your client — a computer, smartphone, or tablet — with a VPN server. The server then uses one of several encryption protocols to make sure that no one can monitor the information traveling between you and your online destination.
Here you should remember that before being sent and received over the internet, any data needs to first be split into packets. To ensure each data packet stays secure, a VPN service wraps it in an outer packet, which is then encrypted through a process called encapsulation.
This exterior packet keeps the data secure during the transfer, and it is the core element of the VPN tunnel. When the data arrives at the VPN server, the outer packet is removed to access the data within, which requires a decryption process.
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Different types of VPN
There are two basic types of VPNs. A remote-access VPN allows users to connect to another network, be it the internet or their company’s internal system, through a private encryption tunnel.
The other type, a site-to-site VPN, is also called a router-to-router VPN. This type of VPN is mostly used within corporate environments, specifically when an enterprise has headquarters in several different locations. The site-to-site VPN creates a closed, internal network where the various locations can all connect with each other. This is known as an intranet.
Why use a VPN?
Do you really need a VPN? Short answer: yes. There are several important reasons why you need a VPN, the two main purposes being privacy and access.
Public Wi-Fi networks, such as those found in coffee shops, airports, and other public areas are incredibly risky. All it takes is one hacker connected on the same network, and they can easily spy on all your activity. A VPN acts like an invisibility cloak, hiding everything you do on your phone or computer and protecting you even from evil twin attacks.
And why use a VPN at home? VPNs also allow you to hide from your internet service provider (ISP), governments, and advertisers… so you can avoid censorship, price discrimination, and geo-blocks on media.
In short, here’s what the benefits of a VPN look like. VPNs protect by:
Types of VPN security protocols
VPNs use a variety of different protocols. Older protocols, such as PPP and PPTP, are considered less secure. Here are some of the types of security protocols.
1. IP Security (IP Sec). Internet Protocol Security is a popular protocol that protects data through either a transport mode or a tunnel mode. Both provide encryption. It’s considered highly secure and is useful for securing inbound and outbound traffic. But it can require a lot of processing power, and that can affect device performance. Also, some of the security algorithms used in IPSec in the past have been hacked by cybercriminals. Newer versions of IPSec use stronger, more complex algorithms.
2. Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP)/IPSec. L2TP is a VPN protocol that doesn’t encrypt data by itself. That’s why it’s paired with IPSec encryption. One of its primary advantages? It’s available on most devices and operating systems and provides a high level of security. The downside? It can result in slower connections. That’s because it uses the double encapsulation process.
3. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS). SSL was the encryption protocol VPNs generally used before 2015. It has evolved into TLS for encryption of data traveling to an SSL VPN server. One of the reasons that SSL has been largely replaced in VPNs is due to the large number of vulnerabilities discovered in the protocol.
4. Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP). PPTP was the earliest of security protocols and first released in Windows 95. It’s fast, but that’s because the protocol provides a low level of encryption.
5. Secure Shell (SSH). The SSH protocol isn’t considered especially user-friendly and doesn’t automatically encrypt all of your data. It’s more difficult for users to configure. Plus, fewer providers use this protocol, which limits your choices.
6. Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP). This Microsoft-developed protocol is considered highly secure and easy to use, but it doesn’t work as well on platforms other than Windows.
7. Internet Key Exchange, Version 2 (IKEv2). This protocol is based upon IPSec. It’s considered quite secure and fast. One downside? It can be blocked by firewalls.
8.Open VPN. This is perhaps the most popular VPN protocol. It combines high security and speed. Because it’s open source, numerous third parties maintain and update the technology.
Can you be tracked if you use a VPN?
VPN gives you a new IP address and encrypts the connection between your device and the VPN server, so no one can see what data you send and receive. But it won’t make you anonymous — there are other ways someone could track your actions online. Hackers could install malware (keyloggers, spyware, etc.) on your device. Or if you overshare online and use the same username everywhere, anyone with decent googling skills can gather a wealth of information about you.
A VPN is not an all-in-one solution for anonymity but rather an extra layer of security that protects your internet traffic.