What is a VPN (Virtual Private Network), How does VPN work ?

What is a VPN (Virtual Private Network), How does VPN work ?. In the previous articles, we have given What is IP Address and How Craigslist Works. Today we are discussing what is a VPN connection, how does a VPN work, top 13 best VPN in India and benefits of VPN. A Virtual Private Networks (VPN) allows you to connect to the internet via a server run by a VPN provider. All data traveling between your computer, phone or tablet, and this “VPN server” is securely encrypted. As a result of this setup, VPNs:

Provide privacy by hiding your internet activity from your ISP (and government)
Allow you to evade censorship (by school, work, your ISP, or government)
Allow you to “geo-spoof” your location in order to access services unfairly denied to you based on your geographical location (or when you are on holiday)
Protect you against hackers when using a public WiFi hotspot
Allow you to P2P download in safety.

In order to use VPN, you must first signup for a VPN service, which typically cost between $5 – $10 a month (with reductions for buying 6 months or a year at a time). A contract with a VPN service is required to use VPN.

Types of VPN

There are two common types of VPNs.

Remote-Access—Also called a Virtual Private Dial-up Network (VPDN), this is a user-to-LAN connection used by a company that has employees who need to connect to the private network from various remote locations. Typically, a corporation that wishes to set up a large remote-access VPN provides some form of Internet dial-up account to their users using an Internet service provider (ISP). The telecommuters can then dial a 1-800 number to reach the Internet and use their VPN client software to access the corporate network. A good example of a company that needs a remote-access VPN would be a large firm with hundreds of salespeople in the field. Remote-access VPNs permit secure, encrypted connections between a company’s private network and remote users through a third-party service provider.

Site-to-Site—Through the use of dedicated equipment and large-scale encryption, a company can connect multiple fixed sites over a public network such as the Internet. Each site needs only a local connection to the same public network, thereby saving money on long private leased-lines. Site-to-site VPNs can be further categorized into intranets or extranets. A site-to-site VPN built between offices of the same company is said to be an intranet VPN, while a VPN built to connect the company to its partner or customer is referred to as an extranet VPN.

How does a VPN work?

Once the Internet connection is made, the user creates a VPN connection with the corporate VPN server. If the VPN connection is encrypted, there is no need to use encryption on the dial-up networking connection between the client and the ISP. Remote access data encryption does not provide end-to-end data

The working of VPN is not a terrible deal to understand, though it is. But, before that, you need to get an idea of the protocols, or set of rules in laymen terms, used by VPN in providing a secure personal network.

SSL (Secured Socket Layer): It uses a 3-way handshake method for assuring proper authentication between the client and server machines. The authentication process is based on cryptography where certificates, behaving as cryptographic keys already stored on the client and server sides, are used for initiating the connection.

IPSec (IP Security): This protocol can work in transport mode or tunneling mode so that it can do its job of securing the VPN connection. The two modes differ in the sense that the transport mode only encrypts the Payload in the data, i.e. only the message present in the data. The tunneling mode encrypts the entire data to be transmitted.

PPTP (Point-To-Point Transfer Protocol): It connects a user located at some remote location with a private server in a VPN network, and also uses the tunneling mode for its operations. Low maintenance and simple working make PPTP a widely adopted VPN protocol. Further credit goes to the inbuilt support provided by Microsoft Windows.

L2TP (Layer Two Tunnelling Protocol): It facilitates the tunneling of data between two geographical sites over the VPN network, often used in combination with the IPSec protocol which further aids to the security layer of the communication.

Important consequences:

Your ISP cannot know what you get up to on the internet
You appear to access the internet from the IP address of the VPN server
It is safe to use public WiFi hotspots
Your VPN provider can know what you get up to on the internet

Top 13 best VPN in India

Express VPN
Nord VPN
Pure VPN
Hotspot Shield VPN
Hide my AssVPN
Zen Mate VPN
Avira Phantom
Norton
IP Vanish VPN
VYPR VPN
Safer VPN
Iron Socket VPN
Tor guard VPN

Benefits of VPN

Eliminating the need for expensive long-distance leased lines
Reducing long-distance telephone charges
Offloading support costs

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Content in this Article

Types of VPN
How does a VPN work?