Virtual Private Network- All you need to know about VPNs.

If you are looking for safe and secure, unrestricted, a geo-spoof access to the Internet, then VPN is what you are searching for. VPN, a.k.a, Virtual Private Network allows you to connect to the Internet via the server of VPN provider. The data travelling between your device and the VPN server is securely encrypted.

VPN started with the commercial sector where the employees could have a remote access to the internal company network through a secure VPN but since then, has changed from corporate to small businesses to individuals using it for the unrestricted access to the Internet. Majority of you have been using VPN already in the form of Psiphon, Tor, Opera VPN etc. for accessing Geo-restricted content like ABC, BBC etc.



How it helps :-

You have an IP address of your own, basically which is your Internet's home address. Whenever you access Internet, you connect to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) which pulls in the packets of data which is stored in the server of the particular website, so all data travels through the ISP. This data can be tracked by your ISP, or for that matter, even sniffing governmental organisation. What VPN does is that you first connect to the VPN server and all the data travels in an encrypted form and it saves you from prying eyes and helps you access Internet in a safe way.  Note that your VPN service provider can still see what you are accessing on the Internet.

• VPN hides your Internet activity form ISPs and govenrments.
• It helps you geo-spoof your location by connecting you to a server of some other country providing access to geographically restricted content.
• It protects your private data when connecting to public WiFi hotspots.

What's bad?

VPN slows down your Internet. VPN is basically you, using another IP address, along with encryption. The encryption-decryption process and the increasing data travelling time slows down the Internet. So better the encryption, slower the Internet. It is kind of dicey because sometimes you might get a faster speed if the traffic through your VPN server is lesser than the usual server. A bit of luck there.

Does it make you anonymous?

This is a myth. No online activity is purely anonymous. Even the VPN providers keep logs of what you access on the Internet. Even the "no-log" VPN providers track your data in real time for troubleshooting since they cannot keep logs. The privacy-oriented VPNs can go to great lengths to keep your data private, so what they provide is privacy (and not anonymity). So, it ultimately comes down to trust on your VPN service provider. No VPN provider will go to jail for your illegal activity, so remember you are private but not anonymous.

Free, Freemium or Premium?

This is ultimately for you to decide. If data security is your utmost need, then going for a trusted-paid service will be better, otherwise, you can give a try to free or freemium services but those are severely restricted. Choose what suits you the best. 

This is all you need to know about VPN. If you loved the article, give it a thumbs up. Like it, share it. If you did not, leave us a feedback.