What Is a VPN
In today’s digitally advanced world, we spend multiple hours online everyday. Whether it is for shopping, watching movies, working, attending classes, scrolling on Instagram etc. While the internet supplies endless amounts of entertainment, it also comes with multiple risks. Risks such as hackers, data tracking, doxxing etc. This is where a VPN, or Virtual Private Network, comes in.
But what is a VPN, and why do multiple people use it every single day. In this blog, we’ll learn about what they are, how they work and why they are important for everyone to know about.
Introduction
A VPN, or a virtual private network, is an application whose purpose is to create a secured and encrypted connection. Instead of directly connecting you to websites, your internet first passes through the VPN server.
This process of redirecting your internet to another server hides your IP address and makes your data completely safe. This makes it harder for hackers to locate you and steal your personal information. VPN’s can be compared to a large tunnel which protects your data and saves you from any potential attacks.
How Does it Work
To fully understand how VPN’s work, we should first learn how a normal internet connection works without a VPN.
Without a VPN, your device directly connects to your internet service provider, or an ISP. Your ISP then connects your device directly to the website you want to go to, the website can then see your IP address.
By using a VPN, your data is redirected through a VPN server and not directly through your ISP. The VPN server then connects to the website on your behalf, which allows the VPN to fully protect your data. The website will see the IP address of the VPN server that you are using instead of your own IP addres.
Why do people use VPN’s?
There are multiple reasons to use VPN’s-
- Protect Online Privacy- Multiple different websites that you visit everyday collect information about your daily browsing habits. But with VPN’s, you can now reduce this tracking by hiding your IP address, which makes it difficult for online websites to track you location.
- Improve Security on Public Wi-fi- Public wi-fi networks like the ones at airports or restraunts or hotels are more often than not less secure than private networks. For this reason, people use VPN’s while on public networks so as to conceal their data and hiding their personal information.
- Access Region Specific Content- Some content that is available online may not be available in specific country. By connecting through a VPN server which is located in another country, we can bypass the region restriction.
- Secure Remote Work- Many businesses and companies provide VPN’s to their employees so they can safely access the company files without the risk of being hacked
Types of VPN’s
There are multiple different types of VPN’s to choose from like-
- Personal- This is the most used type of VPN. People use it for their own personal use
- Business- This is the type of VPN that companies provide to their employees so that they could safely access the company files
Are VPN’s Completely Anonymous?
A common misunderstanding that most people have is that a VPN completely hides the user and makes the anonymous. But the actual truth is that VPN’s do not guarantee complete anonymity. A VPN can only hide your IP address, but websites can still collect your information through multiple different things like browser cookies.
Are VPN’s Legal
In most countries, VPN’s are allowed. But some countries completely disallow the use of VPN’s. Before buying a VPN, make sure they are legal in your country