What is VPN

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A life hacker talks about VPN so that everyone understands everything.

What is VPN?

Imagine a scene from an action movie in which a villain escapes from a crime scene on a highway in a sports car. A police helicopter pursues him. The car enters a tunnel with several exits. The helicopter pilot does not know from which exit the car will appear, and the villain escapes from the pursuit.

VPN is a tunnel that connects many roads. No one outside knows where the cars entering it will end up. No one outside knows what is happening in the tunnel.

You've probably heard of VPN more than once. There are also many articles on Lifehacker about this thing. VPNs are most often recommended because the network can be used to access geo-blocked content and generally improve Internet security. The truth is that going online through a VPN can be just as dangerous as directly.

How does a VPN work?

Most likely you have a Wi-Fi router at home. Devices connected to it can exchange data even without the Internet. It turns out that you have your own private network, but in order to connect to it, you need to be physically within range of the router signal.

VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a virtual private network. It works over the Internet, so you can connect to it from anywhere.

For example, the company you work for might use a VPN for telecommuters. They use a VPN to connect to their work network. At the same time, their computers, smartphones or tablets are virtually transferred to the office and connected to the network from the inside. To enter a virtual private network, you need to know the VPN server address, username and password.

Using a VPN is pretty straightforward. Typically, a company sets up a VPN server somewhere on a local computer, server, or data center, and connects to it using a VPN client on the user's device.

Built-in VPN clients are now available on all current operating systems, including Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and Linux.

VPN connection between client and server is usually encrypted.

So VPN is good?

Yes, if you are a business owner and want to secure your corporate data and services. By letting employees enter the work environment only through VPN and by account, you will always know who and what was doing and doing.

Moreover, the VPN owner can monitor and control generally all traffic that goes between the server and the user.

Do employees sit on VKontakte a lot? You can close access to this service. Gennady Andreevich spends half his day on sites with memes? All his activity is automatically recorded in the logs and will become an iron argument for dismissal.

Can I use a VPN outside of work?

Yes. The most common type of VPN service is free public service. In Google Play, the App Store and on the Internet, you will find thousands of such good-natured people. They provide a VPN for free and cover all associated costs, including payment for data center services, development of convenient applications, support, and so on. In return, they only need information about everything you do online in order to sell your detailed digital portrait to advertisers. At the same time, you can show you custom ads based on your interests. Everything is simple and fair.

Paid VPN services are a different matter entirely. In theory, they live off a subscription fee and do not use user data for sales and advertising. The problem is that it is very difficult to verify their honesty.

Perhaps a cunning service charges both you and those who are willing to buy your data.

There is a separate category of paranoid - ordinary citizens who believe that their boring everyday life can be interesting to Big Brother. They choose a VPN with enhanced anonymity and anti-surveillance. The problem is that most of such services, especially domestic ones, will transmit information about the user to law enforcement agencies at the first request.

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, a VPN is like a tunnel that connects many roads. No one outsidedoes not know what is happening in it, except for the owner. He has surveillance cameras at every meter. He sees everything and can dispose of the information at his own discretion.

Why VPN then?

VPN allows you to bypass geographic and legal restrictions.

For example, you are in Russia and want to listen to music on Spotify. With regret, you learn that this service is not available from the Russian Federation. You can only use it by going online through the VPN server of the country in which Spotify operates.

In some countries, there is Internet censorship that restricts access to certain sites. You want to go to some resource, but it is blocked in Russia. You can open a site only by going online through the VPN server of a country in which it is not blocked, that is, from almost any other than the Russian Federation.

VPN is a useful and necessary technology that copes well with a certain range of tasks. But the security of personal data still depends on the VPN service provider's good faith, common sense, attentiveness, and Internet literacy.

Okay, so which VPN should you install?

• 5 Good Free VPN Services →
• How to set up your VPN →
• 10 Paid and Free VPN Services for All Occasions →
• Best Free VPNs for Google Chrome Browser →
• ProtonVPN - Ultra Secure VPN Service for Computers and Mobile Devices →
• Tunnello - Fast & Free VPN Service →