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How does a VPN work?

How does a VPN work?

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VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, and as the name suggests, it is designed to give you online privacy, as well as a much greater level of security than you usually have.

How does a VPN make all this happen? That’s what we’ll look at here. And while on the surface, the inner workings of a VPN may seem a bit complicated and hard to understand, we’ll break it down into easy-to-understand parts.

We also anticipate the most frequently asked questions you might have about how a VPN works regarding certain scenarios such as streaming otherwise blocked content, and provide some adequately clear and succinct answers on a range of topics. Let’s break down the terminology, then, starting with a quick comprehensive explanation…

How VPN Works…in 30 Seconds

When you are online, you are constantly sending data (make requests – for example, for a web page) from your device, and receive the data back (in our example, the content of said web page).

This raw data can be seen by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), or possibly other parties if they intercept it at some point during the flight.

The VPN app encrypts the data as it leaves your system, and sends it to one of the VPN company’s servers around the world Before Heading to the internet. Since the data is now encrypted – mixed – it is unintelligible and cannot be exploited by ISPs or other hacking parties.

The second advantage is that the VPN server actually becomes the origin of your internet traffic, which means that your location appears to be where that server (computer) is – not yours. actual The site is at home. So, you not only get security, but you also get anonymity with a VPN (and other location-based perks).

Encrypted servers, tunnels, and protocols

Let’s look at the process described above briefly in more detail. The VPN provider will have a range of servers all over the world (in some cases, like the popular NordVPN, more than 5,000 servers). In simple terms, these servers are computers located somewhere around the world that run the VPN company’s software, and when you use a VPN, you are also running the VPN provider’s app or client on your device.

The client app lets you choose one of these many VPN servers, and then sends your data to that server under what is usually referred to as an encrypted tunnel. This simply refers to the secure connection that has been established between your device and the VPN server, or more specifically, the two programs running on them – the client application and server software.

This tunnel or connection is secure because the VPN app encrypts your data before you leave your device, and it remains encrypted during the journey through the tunnel to the VPN server. When the server receives this data, the software on it can decrypt it, and the data can then be routed to its destination on the Internet.

In addition to the security afforded by encryption, the traffic appears to come from the VPN server, so it’s as if you’re using this computer yourself. There are many potential benefits in this, for example, access to streaming services that are not usually available in your country – we will discuss this in more depth later. Systems that censor citizens and block content, services or websites can also be circumvented with a VPN, because your computer will not appear in your homeland, but anywhere else; So it will not be censored.

Note that a heavy system (or indeed your ISP) may be able to detect that your device is connected to a VPN, but it will not be able to snooze any traffic going to the VPN server – to find outside of what you’re doing online – because the data Encrypted, and this encryption is so strong, it can’t (actually) crack.

If you have heard of the VPN protocols mentioned before, and wondered what those protocols are, they are the forms of encryption that VPNs use, which come in various different forms. OpenVPN is one of the most popular protocols used, providing security in spades, but there are many others, including the newer WireGuard protocol. And now the likes of ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Hotspot Shield are putting their own proprietary protocols on the table.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

How does a VPN work – a simple analogy

OK! For those who might benefit from an analogy to further clarify how a VPN works, here’s a quick way – but keep in mind that this is Too simplified Explaining what we just went for, trying to try to make the basics as completely clear as possible.

Let’s imagine that you write some “data” on a postcard and send it to a recipient somewhere else in the world (website) from your home (computer). Usually, a nosy postman (your Internet service provider) can read that postcard. Or someone else entirely could just glance at the postcard and read it at some point during their journey; Who knows.

The VPN provides a secret key to allow your postcard to be written in a code (encrypted). Anyone can still read it, but this would be nonsense – an incomprehensible soup of letters. Also, with a VPN, instead of going directly to the intended recipient, the postcard first goes to the distribution center (VPN server). Here, the VPN holds the key to decrypt the code, and translates (decrypts) the postcard so that it can be read. The zip is then sent to the recipient (who can read it as normal, when they get it) using a VPN service delivery agent.

The postcard is also stamped with the origin of the VPN distribution center, not your home or hometown – so for all intents and purposes, it’s as if the hub sent the postcard.

As mentioned earlier, this really oversimplifies the way things work, but hopefully gives you the general idea. This might also make you wonder about the following – that while the postman (ISP) might not be able to decrypt the postcard, there’s nothing stopping the data being viewed by VPN guys, right? That’s right, we’ll get to that soon…

How does a VPN make me safer online?

As we have seen, first and foremost a VPN provides security when you are online by encrypting the data you send, protecting it from prying eyes like your ISP. While your ISP can see that you’re connected to a VPN (maybe – or at least that you’re connected to an encrypted server somewhere), all data flowing through their systems will be encrypted, so your ISP won’t be able to understand that.

So your ISP won’t be able to make use of your data for their own purposes (possibly selling information about users to advertisers, for example – or giving away details to authorities if requested).

Furthermore, when you connect to the Internet in more dangerous scenarios – like using public Wi-Fi in an airport or a coffee shop, for example – where your data is likely to be compromised by a malicious party, again, because the data is encrypted by the VPN, You are safer because that party will gain nothing from snooping.

In addition to greater security, a VPN gives you anonymity, changing your IP address (more on this in a moment) to be different from what it really is – in other words, replacing your computer’s address with the VPN server’s address, as We have already discussed.

This means that your online activities cannot be traced back to your device, potentially protecting you from breaches of your privacy, or perhaps even more direct threats like targeted DDoS attacks that disrupt your internet connection. DDoS attacks directed at individuals (rather than services or businesses) can be very rare, but game cheating is no more than using something like this to sabotage a competitor.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Could a VPN somehow fail to ensure my safety?

While the right VPN can be a defining asset in terms of your online safety, then, there are ways a VPN provider can let you down – at least in some cases.

As we just discussed, while your ISP may not be able to see your internet traffic when using a VPN, your VPN provider can instead see what you want online – or at least it is.

However, a good VPN will ensure that it doesn’t log any information about what you get online like ISPs do – but it’s worth checking your VPN’s privacy policy to make sure it doesn’t keep any of these logs, and will treat you with the privacy you deserve.

Again, this is why it is important to use one of the best VPNs and well-known service providers that have been around for a long time, and have built up a solid reputation as being trustworthy. Another thing to look out for are VPN companies that not only make promises and claims about privacy, but actually audit and independently verify their own “no logs” and security measures.

A good VPN should also ensure that it protects against DNS leaks – data about your online activities leaks from an encrypted VPN tunnel – and should use a kill switch in its implementation. A kill switch intervenes to save your privacy and stop sending data unprotected if the VPN connection drops (as with any piece of software, glitches can occur if you’re not lucky).

Any well-thought-out VPN will have all of this, and we do the hard work for you, scrutinizing apps and privacy policies alike in our VPN reviews to make sure you have these vital features (or to talk about them if they don’t).

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

How does a VPN change my IP address?

Your public IP (Internet Protocol) is your device’s address on the Internet, which is the numeric equivalent of your home’s postal address (if you want to know more about this, we have a complete primer on IP addresses and how to find them here).

When you use a VPN, as we’ve already seen, your device connects to one of the VPN’s computer(s) elsewhere on the Internet. In effect, your device and this server become part of a private network of some kind – a “virtual” network, hence the name Virtual Private Network. For all intents and purposes, the VPN server is seen as the origin of the data (for you data) coming from this private network.

So your real IP address, the digital address of your device, is effectively hidden, and the data source appears to be the VPN server, which has a different IP address. In fact, this IP is different now sound to be your IP address.

To summarize, then, technically, this is not a case of “changing” your IP address, as much as your real IP is hidden away from the IP address of the VPN server.

How does a VPN for streaming work?

As we’ve already proven, when you use a VPN, you connect to one of the VPN’s computers (servers), and it looks like you are is being This computer (you are identified by its IP address, as just discussed). Now, if that server is in a different country than you, you are effectively masquerading as this other computer in its actual location. This means that you can view streaming content that you may not be able to access due to geo-blocking.

Here’s an example: BBC iPlayer is blocked for anyone trying to access its content outside the UK. So, imagine that you are in the US and want to watch iPlayer. You can launch your own compatible BBC iPlayer VPN app and then join a UK VPN server; Let’s say you choose a London server. It looks like you’re now actually that computer in London, and iPlayer will work fine as a result – it’ll think you’re in London, even though you’re actually in the US.

Or you should do it anyway – there is a caveat that content providers like BBC or Netflix will try to detect if a VPN is being used. Basically, they don’t want people to avoid their regional restrictions, so they try to identify VPN connections – note that they can’t see any data, only the VPN is used – and then block them. For this reason, there is a possibility that you will be detected as a VPN user and therefore still be banned, but in general, the best streaming VPNs use more sophisticated software and methods to avoid…

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