What is VPN?
You probably heard of a VPN before it's even possible. You've used one before, but do you know what it does?
A VPN stands for virtual private network, which basically means it gives you privacy Online. Originally VPNs were only used in business settings where big businesses, organizations or governments wanting to secure their data since people worked remotely and needed to connect online, businesses needed to create a secure connection.
Otherwise they were at risk for hacking or other loss of data.
Nowadays VPNs are used by everyone specifically because it ensures your location stays private. Your data is encrypted and that you can surf the web anonymously.
But how does it work?
Let's back up for a second to understand how the internet works. When you visit a site like Facebook or Twitter, you type in the domain name. That domain is basically a nickname for the website's IP address.
An IP address is just like your home address. Only it consists of numbers and not street names. Since it's much easier to remember names and a string of numbers, we give websites, domain names, and a server translates them. Your computer has an IP address too.
And so does every device browsing the internet? When you type in the website's domain name on your browser, whether you're using Chrome Firefox or even internet Explorer, you send your data into the internet until it reaches a server, that server then translates the data and sends you back the website, you request it.
The problem is when you send that data to the server, you're sending them your IP address. And a lot of other information too. This is where hackers can intercept your information.
Imagine you're sitting in a coffee shop using their public wifi on your phone, and you want to check your bank account.
Someone else with a laptop can easily log into the network and get ahold of your passwords, emails and other information you might have.
But if you use a VPN, they won't be able to access that the websites you visit can also gather your information, but they tend to do it in order to study their demographic. Usually it's not a problem, but sometimes you want to protect your identity and privacy.
How does a VPN protect my privacy?
When you send information online, a VPN creates a tunnel that encrypts your information this way. If someone gets a hold of your data, they won't be able to read it.
The tunnel also makes it harder to hack in, but don't be fooled. It is still possible. Just much harder to do a VPN also adds in an extra server. We spoke about how you send data from your computer to a server, and then that server pings you back with the website.
But with VPN, your data goes to their server first. And then it's sent out to the website. This extra step helps in a lot of ways. First, it can change your location. A lot of video streaming websites like Netflix have strict content depending on your geo location.
Let's say you want to watch your favorite show on Netflix, but it's not available in your country. You send your information to one of the VPN servers in America, and then that server sends it to the Netflix website. Netflix now thinks you're in America and you can stream your show without any problems.
A VPN tricks them into thinking you're in a different location because the signal was coming from a different server.
Remember how we mentioned websites sometimes collect your data. Will many times governments can request this information and use the list at IP addresses to track your location.
But with the VPN, their information only reaches the VPN server.
They can't track you back to your original IP address. See how cool that is. Many VPNs also have a no logs policy, which means they don't record what sites you visit. So if the government requests the VPN provider for tracking logs, your information, won't be there. There are Two types of VPN (1) Remote Access VPN and (2) Site-to-site VPN.
What is Remote access VPN?
The Dawn of internet has revolutionized not only our personal life professional life, too gone are the days when geographical limitations and distances mattered. Thanks to the telecommunication and remote access technology.
You could be seven seas apart from your workplace and still managed to perform daily work tasks. As if you were right there. Work from home. Culture has brought great convenience, but not without a few security risks and restrictions.
While organizations have become unconventional and encourage employees to work remotely. They also find themselves shrouded with security, threats and barriers that hinder smooth workflow such as, or security standards, hefty cost, lack of trained personnel, simultaneous connections to different devices set up difficulties.
So how does one combat these problems?
The answer is simple. Use a remote access VPN.
What is remote access VPN
Remote access VPN enables users to establish secure online connections independently with a remote computer network based in a remote location, allowing company employees to securely access its network without any restrictions from anywhere in the world.
How does it work?
It works by creating a secure remote connection to the VPN server. The VPN server assigns an anonymous IP address to the remote VPN client. While the connection builds, it changes the preset router to the secure remote access client to establish a secure connection with the VPN network who needs it. Remote access VPN is best suited for organizations or individuals that have a global presence with operations in numerous countries. It can boost an organization's productivity and serve as a more economical option than building and managing two different networks.
Remote access VPNs. Aren't only useful for work from home employees, but for connecting regional offices with each other, as well as the central system using a dedicated IP.
What is a site-to-site VPN?
A site to site VPN connects one entire site to another entire site and is always active. Meaning is always on a site to site. VPN needs to be configured on both networks. So it's ideal for situations like this when you have multiple remote sites,
Here we have site a and site B both sites are connected to the public internet site to site. VPNs are typically configured on either a router or a firewall on both sites. A popular site to site VPN is IP sec. IP sec is a framework or set of rules for creating VPNs over a network. It does not define any one way to create a VPN, but rather allows several protocols to be used for each VPN feature.
IP sec is often used for site to site VPNs, but it can also be used for remote access VPNs as well. Once the VPN is established all devices on each site, consent data securely over the VPN.
How does site-to-site VPN work?
Well, let's say a host from site a send some data over to site B. The router will look at this data, see that it's destined for site B and realize it needs to send this over the VPN before it can send it over the VPN though.
When the root of sends the encrypted data, the data will make its way over the public internet safely to the remote site. Then the encryption process is reversed. Again, let's take a closer look. The route of receives the encrypted packet using that session key that has already been exchanged. The router can decrypt the data back to the original form from there. The route to can forward this packet onto the destination. Okay? So that is a site to site VPN.