What Is A VPN?
A VPN, or virtual private network, is a secure tunnel between your device and the internet. VPNs are used to protect your online traffic from snooping, interference, and censorship. A virtual private network offers a higher degree of protection and privacy as you’re surfing the web, whether at home or outside.
Simply put, a VPN offers a secure connection over public networks (such as public transportation wi-fi, hotels or your preferred café) as well as home networks (such as your internet service provides).
VPNs protect your online activity by routing your traffic via specialized networks and encrypting your data and shielding you from the many dangers on the internet – from hacker attacks to data trafficking, identity theft, and more.
What VPN can Help you?
- Better Protection on public Networks
Do you frequently find yourself using free wi-fi in parks, hotels, cafes or anywhere else? You will therefore then be aware of the risks of unsecured public networks. Between wi-fi spoofing, honeypot attacks, and hackers looking to easily intercept your data, it’s a very bad idea to use your personal devices in such places without extra protection. A VPN will take care of everything, allowing you to enjoy the various public wi-fi networks away from prying eyes and in complete safety.
- Higher Levels of Anonymity
VPNs granting you “absolute” anonymity is a myth, but it is true they will shield your sensitive data from those who want to misuse it or even steal it.
Through masking your internet activity, a VPN would ensure that your surfing habits are kept hidden from your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and the government in extreme cases. Everyone has a right to privacy, and a worthwhile VPN works hard to preserve this right for its users.
- Dealing with Censorship
You can circumvent this problem with a VPN if you are planning to visit a country that implements serious internet restrictions-or currently living in one. A reliable VPN service will allow you to access multiple previously unavailable sites and services. Whether it’s Google and Facebook in China, VoIP apps in Dubai, or Western media in Russia, you won’t have to worry about government censorship again.
- Unrestricted access to the Internet at School Work
Restricting access to content which may be inappropriate or disruptive is normal for colleges, universities and workplaces. These constraints are often well-founded, but sometimes the blocks can go a little too far. If you’re tired of sites with blacklisted political discussions, or just want to log in to Facebook and check your news feed, using a VPN is the smart solution. However, bear in mind that if you are caught you can face consequences-proceed at your own risk.
- Improving Your Internet Connection
While using a VPN will always take a little from your internet speed, it may also help make it better!
This may sound weird, but when you realize that many ISPs actively throttle connections when they detect that you’re streaming, downloading large files, or using a lot of bandwidth in general, it starts to make sense.
When a VPN encrypts your data, it will be very difficult for anyone – including your ISP – to decipher that it’s yours, and you won’t experience any throttling. The result? An unclogged, faster internet connection and zero tampering with the service you’re paying for.
How Do VPNs work?
It all starts with your VPN client – the interface where your VPN connections are handled. When you launch it, you will pick a server at a place of your choosing that will be responsible for rerouting and encrypting your Web traffic.
Normally your ISP will be able to see the details of your traffic. But, when you start your VPN, all the ISP sees is that you have formed a link with a VPN server-anything that is off-limited past. The data will be routed through the VPN before arriving at their destination.
