VPN stands for “Virtual Private Network” and describes the opportunity to establish a protected network connection when using public networks. VPNs encrypt your internet traffic and disguise your online identity. This makes it more difficult for third parties to track your activities online and steal data. The encryption takes place in real time.

How does a VPN work?

A VPN hides your IP address by letting the network redirect it through a specially configured remote server run by a VPN host. This means that if you surf online with a VPN, the VPN server becomes the source of your data. This means your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and other third parties cannot see which websites you visit or what data you send and receive online. A VPN works like a filter that turns all your data into “gibberish”. Even if someone were to get their hands on your data, it would be useless.

What are the benefits of a VPN connection?

A VPN connection disguises your data traffic online and protects it from external access. Unencrypted data can be viewed by anyone who has network access and wants to see it. With a VPN, hackers and cyber criminals can’t decipher this data.

Secure encryption: To read the data, you need an encryption key . Without one, it would take millions of years for a computer to decipher the code in the event of a brute force attack . With the help of a VPN, your online activities are hidden even on public networks.

Disguising your whereabouts : VPN servers essentially act as your proxies on the internet. Because the demographic location data comes from a server in another country, your actual location cannot be determined. In addition, most VPN services do not store logs of your activities. Some providers, on the other hand, record your behavior, but do not pass this information on to third parties. This means that any potential record of your user behavior remains permanently hidden.

Access to regional content: Regional web content is not always accessible from everywhere. Services and websites often contain content that can only be accessed from certain parts of the world. Standard connections use local servers in the country to determine your location. This means that you cannot access content at home while traveling, and you cannot access international content from home. With VPN location spoofing , you can switch to a server to another country and effectively “change” your location.

Secure data transfer: If you work remotely, you may need to access important files on your company’s network. For security reasons, this kind of information requires a secure connection. To gain access to the network, a VPN connection is often required. VPN services connect to private servers and use encryption methods to reduce the risk of data leakage.

Types of VPN (Virtual Private Network)

VPN is of three kinds:

Remote access VPN (Virtual Private Network)

• The VPN which allows individual users to establish secure connections with a remote computernetwork is known as remote-access VPN.
  • There is a requirement of two components in a remote-access VPN which are as follows:
  I. Network Access Server (NAS)
     II. Client software.
  • It enables the remote connectivity using any internet access technology.
  • Here, the remote user launches the VPN client to create a VPN tunnel.

Intranet VPN (Virtual Private Network)

• If a company has one or more remote locations and the company wants to join those locations into a single private network, then that company can create an intranet VPN so that they can connect LAN of one site to another one.
  • Intranet VPN can link corporate headquarters, remote offices and branch offices over a shared infrastructure using dedicated connections.
  • If we use intranet VPN, then it reduces the WAN bandwidth costs.
  • The user can also connect new sites easily by using this network.

Extranet VPN ( Virtual Private Network)

• If a company has the close relationship with the other company (that company can be their customer, supplier, branch and another partner company), then those companies can build an extranet VPN so that they can connect LAN of one company to the other. It allows all of the companies to work in a shared environment.
• The extranet VPN facilitates e-commerce.

Type of VPN (Virtual Network Protocols)

There are three network protocols are used within VPN tunnels.That are:

Internet Protocol Security (IPSec)

We can make use of this protocol for encryption. It is used as a protocol suite. It is used as a “protocol suite for securing Internet Protocol (IP) communications by authenticating and encrypting each packet of IP of a data stream.” It requires expensive, time-consuming client installations, which is its most significant disadvantage.

Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)

Generally, it is the most widely used VPN protocol among windows users. It was created by Microsoft in association with the other technology companies. The most significant disadvantage of PPTP is that it does not provide encryption. It relies on PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol). It is implemented for the security measures. It is also available for Linux and Mac users. As compared to other methods, PPTP is faster.

Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP)

It is another tunnelling protocol which supports VPN. L2TP is created by Microsoft and Cisco as a combination between PPTP and L2F (Layer 2 Forwarding). L2TP also does not provide encryption as like as PPTP. The main difference between both of them is that L2TP delivers data confidentiality and data integrity.

Secure Socket Layer (SSL)

It is a VPN accessible via https over a web browser. Its most significant advantage is that it doesn’t need any software installed because it uses the web browser as the client application. With the help of SSL VPN, the user’s access can be restricted to specific claims instead of allowing access to the whole network.

Privacy, Security and Encryption

Data sent across the public Internet is generally not protected from curious eyes, but you can make your Internet communications secure and extend your private network with a virtual private network (VPN) connection. VPN uses a technique known as tunneling to transfer data securely on the Internet to a remote access.

The Internet connection over the VPN is encrypted and secure. New authentication and encryption protocols are enforced by the remote access server. Sensitive data is hidden from the public, but it is securely accessible to appropriate users through a VPN.