What is a Virtual Private Network?

by do son · March 18, 2022

Image: cyberghostvpn

VPN – Virtual Private Network, is a networking technology that helps to create a secure network connection when participating in a public network such as the Internet or a private network owned by a service provider. Large corporations, educational institutions, and government agencies use VPN technology to allow remote users to securely connect to their own private network.

Image: cyberghostvpn

When connecting a computer or another device such as a phone or tablet to a VPN, the computer behaves as if it were on the same local network as the VPN. All traffic on the network is sent over a secure connection to the VPN. As a result, you can securely access local network resources even when you are far away.

When browsing the web with a VPN, the computer contacts the website through an encrypted VPN connection. All requests, information, and data exchanged between you and the website will be transmitted in a secure connection. Let’s take CyberGhost VPN as an example. If you connect to one of its US servers, Netflix will then show you all its American content, no matter where you are in the world.

Learn about VPN protocols

The essence of the VPN protocol is a set of protocols. There are several functions that every VPN must deal with:

Tunneling – The basic function of a VPN is to deliver packets (packets) from one point to another without revealing them to anyone on the path. To do this, a VPN encapsulates all data in a format that is understood by both the client and the server. The sender puts it into tunneling format and the receiver extracts it to get the information.
Encryption: Tunnelling offers no protection. Anyone can extract the data. The data also needs to be encrypted in transit. The receiver will know how to decrypt data from a given sender.
For security, the VPN must confirm the identity of any client that tries to “communicate” with it. The client needs to confirm that it has reached the intended server.
Session Management: Once the user is authenticated, the VPN needs to maintain the session so that the client can continue to “communicate” with it for a period of time.

Advanced use of VPN

Although it sounds quite simple, in fact, VPN is used to do a lot of things:

Access to business network while away: VPN is commonly used by business people to access their business network, including all resources on the local network, while on the go, away travel,… Intranet resources do not need to be in direct contact with the Internet, thereby increasing security.
Access your home network, even when you’re not at home: You can set up your own VPN to access when you’re not at home. This will allow remote access to Windows via the Internet, use files shared in the local network, play games on the computer over the Internet as if you were on the same LAN.
Anonymous Browsing: If you are using public WiFi, browsing the web on non-https sites, the safety of data exchanged in the network will be exposed. If you want to hide your browsing activity to make your data more secure, you should connect to a VPN. All information transmitted over the network will now be encrypted.
Access to geo-restricted websites, bypass Internet censorship, bypass firewalls,…

If you want to use a VPN service, I recommend you to use CyberGhost VPN which has many advantages