A VPN is one of the most excellent methods to secure oneself from data breaches on the web. This is highly relevant while utilizing public WiFi networks.
However, regardless of how efficient are VPNs, and which one is best for you?
This becomes tricky when you’re not sure how does a VPN work. What are the drawbacks of utilizing a virtual private network (VPN)?
Thankfully, you’ve come to the right place. Keep on reading, as we’ll address all of your VPN-related questions, including those you probably didn’t even consider.
What is a VPN?
Let’s start with the basics. In the simplest of terms, a VPN is an abbreviation for Virtual Private Network.
A VPN’s goal is to protect your privacy and security when communicating over the internet.
The issue with the internet is that it is inherently insecure.
The ability to transmit packets (chunks of data) as consistently as feasible was a top goal when the internet was initially built.
Networking throughout the nation and across the globe was still in its infancy, and nodes would often go down. Instead of securing data, most of the internet’s fundamental protocols (communication techniques) were intended to route around failure.
The email, browsing, messaging, Facebook, and other apps you’re used to are all built on top of that Internet Protocol (IP) core.
Despite the development of specific standards, not all online applications are safe. Many people still transmit information without any security or privacy protection.
This makes any internet user susceptible to criminals looking to steal your finances. Or credit card information, governments were looking to spy on their people. And other internet users looking to snoop on you for a variety of reasons.
A VPN establishes a secure connection over the public internet. The concept is that everything you transmit exists in this private communications channel at high-level encryption.
This makes it impossible to interpret your packets even if malicious parties intercept the data.
VPNs are essential and practical tools for protecting yourself and your data, but they are not without flaws.
How Does a VPN Work?
Let’s begin with the fundamental concept of internet communication. Assume you’re sitting at your computer and wish to go to a website like Facebook.
To do so, your computer sends certain packets to start a request. If you’re at an office, those packets will most likely pass via switches and routers on your LAN before reaching the public internet.
Once on the public internet, the packets pass via a slew of different computers. To convert the DNS name Facebook.com to an IP address, a second request will list a succession of name servers.
That data returns to your browser, which further sends the request out to many machines on the internet. It eventually reaches the Facebook infrastructure, which likewise routes those packets, gets a web page.
What Kind of VPNs Are Available?
There are many kinds of VPNs, but you should be aware of the three most common ones. You can also check out the comparison of ExpressVPN vs NordVPN.
It’ll help you have an easier time understanding the different types of VPNs. Let’s take them one at a time.
VPN with SSL Encryption
Not every business employee has access to a company laptop that they may use to work from home. Many businesses encountered the issue of not having adequate equipment for their workers during the corona crisis in Spring 2020.
Using a personal device (PC, laptop, tablet, or phone) is often used in these situations. In this scenario, businesses rely on an SSL-VPN solution, usually deployed via a dedicated hardware box.
An HTML-5-capable browser, which is needed to access the company’s login page, is typically required. Browsers that support HTML-5 are available for almost every operating system. A username and password are required to get access.
Site-to-Site VPN
Site-to-site Private intranets are hidden behind VPNs, which enable users to access resources on the public internet.
A site-to-site VPN is helpful if your company has several locations, each having a LAN connected to the wide-area network (WAN) (Wide Area Network).
If you have two separate intranets and want to transmit data between them without needing users from one intranet to access the other, a site-to-site VPN may assist.
Large businesses mostly use Site-to-site VPNs. Setup is time-consuming, and they don’t provide the same degree of security and privacy as SSL VPNs. On the other hand, they are the most effective way to ensure communication inside and across large departments.
Client-to-Server VPN
When you use a VPN client, it’s like connecting your home PC to your office through an extension cable. Employees may connect from their home offices to the company network via a secure connection, just as they would if they were in the office. You’ll need to download and set up a VNP client on your computer first.
Instead of using his or her Internet Service Provider (ISP), the user connects directly to the internet via their VPN provider. VPN tunnel time decreases using this method.
Instead of constructing an encryption tunnel to hide an existing internet connection, a VPN may encrypt data before it’s available to the user.
An increasingly popular kind of VPN, this one is beneficial for providers of free public WiFi. It prevents third-party access and protects data encryption to the provider.
For whatever reason, it also prevents ISPs from seeing any unencrypted data and circumvents any restrictions placed on a user’s internet access imposed by the government of the nation in question.
The History of Virtual Private Networks
There has been a push to safeguard and encrypt internet browser data since humans began accessing the internet.
Back in the 1960s, the US Department of Defense was engaged in experiments to encrypt internet connection data.
The Predecessors of the VPN
Their efforts resulted in the invention of ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), a packet switching network, and the Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
There were four levels to TCP/IP: network (link), internet (internet), transport (transport), and application. By connecting to the universal network through the internet, local networks and devices may be exposed to it.
Software IP Encryption Protocol (swIPe) was the first version of the modern VPN, developed in 1993 by Columbia University and AT&T Bell Labs.
Wei Xu built an internet security protocol known as IPSec the following year, authenticating and encrypting data packets sent over the internet. PPTP was created in 1996 by a Microsoft employee named Gurdeep Singh-Pall.
Early VPNs
The internet was increasing in popularity when Singh-Pall was inventing PPTP, and the demand for consumer-ready, advanced security solutions arose.
Anti-virus software was already efficient in preventing malware and spyware from infecting a computer system at the time. On the other hand, people and businesses began to seek encryption software that would allow them to conceal their internet surfing history.
As a result, the first VPNs appeared in the early 2000s, although businesses virtually exclusively utilized them. However, the consumer market for VPNs began to take up following a slew of security breaches, particularly in the early 2010s.
What Are the Advantages of Using a VPN?
A VPN connection hides your internet data flow and protects it from prying eyes.
Anyone with network access and a desire to see unencrypted data may do so. Hackers and cyber thieves can’t interpret this data if you use a VPN.
Secure Encryption
An encryption key is required to read the data. In the case of a brute force assault, a computer would take millions of years to decode the code without one.
Even on public networks, your online activities are concealed with the assistance of a VPN.
Disguising Your Location
VPN servers function as proxies for you on the internet. It hides your exact location since the demographic location data originates from a server in another nation.
Furthermore, most VPN providers do not keep track of your actions. On the other hand, some providers keep track of your actions but do not share them with third parties. This implies that you will erase any possible record of your user activity.
Data Transmission That Is Secure
You may need to access critical files on your company’s network if you operate remotely. This kind of data requires a secure connection for security reasons.
A VPN connection is often needed to get access to the network. To minimize the danger of data leaking, VPN services connect to private servers and employ encryption techniques.
Browsing the Web: Secure Your Network and Internet Use?
If you’re not used to the nuances of technology, things can seem rather complex when you’re trying to secure your online data.
Hopefully, our guide has shed some light on how does a VPN work, and why even bother going through all the extra steps of using one.
And, if you enjoyed reading this article, you’ll love checking out our other tips and strategies. All of them will be posted in our technology section.