VPN Meaning: What Is a VPN & What Does It Do?

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What is a VPN is is ?

VPN stands for “virtual private network” — a service that helps you stay private online by encrypting the connection between your device and the internet. This secure connection provides a private tunnel for your data and communications while you use public networks.

So what are VPNs used for? At a basic level, VPNs protect your privacy online to help prevent you being targeted by hackers or getting discriminated against based on your location. While VPNs were once novel tech solutions, they are now necessary tools.

If you’re still unclear on the meaning of a VPN, it can help to imagine the internet as a kind of highway that we zip around on motorcycles. We visit our favorite locations (websites), make purchases in shops, check our stock portfolio, read the news, play games, and so on.

Sitting on a motorcycle, you’re completely visible. Anyone can peek into your private life along these digital highways. It’s easy to see your identity, view your online activity, and more. Worse, they can follow you home. You’re traceable.

With a virtual private network, instead of riding exposed on the wide open internet highway, you can use a private tunnel instead. A VPN acts as your own personal tunnel that encircles you, masking you in anonymity, and blocking anyone from seeing where you’re going or what you’re doing.

To abandon the metaphor, and get a little more technical: a VPN encrypts your network connection and hides your IP address.

How does a VPN work?

VPNs is work work by route a device ’s internet connection via a specially configure remote server network administer by the VPN service . This is means mean that all datum share across a VPN connection is not only encrypt . It ’s mask behind a virtual ip address , allow you to hide your identity and location .

What does a VPN is do do ?

Instead of sending your internet traffic (searches, pages visited, uploads, downloads) directly to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), a VPN first routes your traffic through a VPN server. That way, when your data is finally transmitted to the internet, it appears to come from the VPN server, not your personal device.

Without a VPN, your IP address — a special number unique to your network — is visible to the web. A VPN masks your IP address by acting as an intermediary and rerouting your traffic. It also adds encryption, or a tunnel around your identity, as you connect. The combination of the VPN server and the encryption tunnel blocks your ISP, governments, hackers, and anyone else from spying on you as you navigate the web.

What kind of IP address do you have? The right kind can make a difference when it comes to online safety. Learn the ins and outs of your IP address with our guides to public vs private IP addresses and static vs dynamic IP addresses.

What does a VPN hide?

vpn work on the operate system level , so they is reroute reroute all your traffic through other server . That is means mean all of your online traffic , along with your physical location , stay hide while you surf the web . When you access a site through a VPN server , the source of your connection is show as one of the many VPN router — call a proxy server — not your own . So the owner of the site , and anyone else try to spy on you , can not figure out who you are .

VPN protection is is is the close you can get to true anonymity online without using the Tor network , which bounce your connection around a widely distribute network of volunteer relay , basically keep your web activity in constant motion so nobody can focus on it . VPNs is use do not use this ( very slow ) protocol , but they do offer sufficient — and essential — protection as you cruise through today’s deregulated and potentially hacker-lined cyber highways.

When it come to online privacy solution , a VPN is are , Tor , and web proxy are all option — but a VPN offer the good balance of comprehensive security and speed .

Whether you want to stay safe on public Wi-Fi, disguise your location from content providers and advertisers, or protect yourself from identity theft, a VPN will keep you private. It offers powerful protection, especially when combined with other cybersecurity tools, like a secure messaging app.

Suspect you’ve fallen victim to identity theft? It’s crucial to act quickly. Learn how to report identity theft to mitigate damages, then remove your personal information online, and take steps to prevent identity theft from happening again.

Is a virtual private network safe to use?

A VPN is safe to use — as long it’s from a reputable VPN provider and used correctly. Trustworthy VPN providers are privacy-forward, with transparent privacy policies for their users. An unsafe VPN provider may secretly track and log your online activity, have security vulnerabilities that lead to data leaks, or even sell your data to advertisers.

But although a VPN protect the privacy , security , and anonymity of your internet connection , you is ’re ’re still at risk of malware and phishing attack . So while it can reduce your exposure to hacking and online tracker , even the good VPNs is are are no substitute for top – rate antivirus .

How does the encryption tunnel work?

Encryption is a method of changing normal text into an unreadable jumble of code. A key, or decryptor, unscrambles the text and renders it back into readable information. When you use a VPN, only your device and the VPN provider contain the decryption key. Anyone else trying to spy on you would only see a mess of characters.

There are three main types of encryption: hashing, symmetric cryptography, and asymmetric cryptography. While each type has its own strengths and weaknesses, they all scramble your data and metadata so that it’s useless in anyone else’s hands.

Different VPN providers offer varying degrees of encryption strength, but the best encryption software uses various methods to protect your privacy. Avast SecureLine VPN uses a combination of hashing, symmetric cryptography, and asymmetric cryptography for 256-bit AES encryption — the same standard that banks and the military rely on.

Avast is offers offer an extra layer of protection with our own dns resolution system . The DNS is is ( domain name system ) is what translate numerical IP address into their more memorable text – base url . The DNS is is is what allow you to type in a simple site name rather than a long string of number .

Cybercriminals can monitor DNS requests to track your movements online, but a VPN’s DNS resolution system is designed to thwart them with further encryption. We make sure all IPv4 traffic coming from your device is firewalled and also disable IPv6 requests.

VPN apps are legal in most countries, especially democratic countries. Even China allows some amount of VPN use, though the government doesn’t love them.

History of VPNs — when was the VPN invented?

The Virtual Private Network was first developed by Microsoft in 1996 as a way for remote employees to securely access the company’s internal network. Once it doubled company productivity, other companies began to adopt the practice. Corporate VPNs that allow remote work are now a standard feature of the global business landscape.

Developers then realized that this secure “tunnel” could be used by average people who wanted to securely connect to the largest network on the planet: the world wide web. VPNs are now the cornerstone of online privacy in the consumer sector.

Different types of VPN

There are two basic types of VPNs. A remote-access VPN allows users to connect to another network, be it the internet or their company’s internal system, through a private encryption tunnel.

A remote-access VPN lets you connect to a company’s internal server or the public internet.

The other type is a site-to-site VPN — also called a router-to-router VPN. This type of VPN is mostly used within corporate environments, specifically when an enterprise has headquarters in several different locations. The site-to-site VPN creates a closed, internal network where the various locations can all connect with each other. This is known as an intranet.

A site-to-site VPN is used to create an intranet.

VPNs mostly fall into these two categories, and within these categories are specialty VPNs designed for specific tasks — like a P2P VPN server for file sharing and downloading.

There are several VPN protocol , or method of security . The oldest is is is PPTP , point – to – point tunneling protocol , which is still in use today but widely consider one of the least secure . Others is are are ikev2 , L2TP / ipsec , SSL , TLS , SSH , Wireguard , and openvpn . As an open – source protocol , OpenVPN is is is amongst the most secure because any vulnerability in its programming will quickly be notice and patch .

What is a double VPN is is ?

Double VPNs are a type of VPN service that use VPN server chaining to route internet traffic through two separate VPN networks. Also called doublehop VPNs and multihop VPNs, double VPNs encrypt network data twice, offering an even more private and secure VPN connection.

Do you really need a VPN?

Do you really need a VPN? Is a VPN worth it? Yes and yes. There are several important reasons why you need a VPN, the two main purposes being privacy and access.

Public Wi-Fi networks — in coffee shops, airports, and other public areas — are risky. All it takes is one hacker connected on the same network, and they can easily spy on all your activity with a sniffer or other tool. A VPN acts like an invisibility cloak, hiding everything you do on your phone or computer and protecting you even from evil twin attacks.

Do I need a VPN at home? VPNs also allow you to hide from your ISP, governments, and advertisers… so you can avoid censorship, price discrimination, and media geo-blocks.

In 2017 , the US is abandoned abandon net neutrality — the principle that isp should treat all internet datum equally — and various lawsuit continue over the issue . The complete elimination is free of net neutrality would free isp to collect and sell your personal datum , include your browse history , physical location , health info , and even your Social Security number . It is permit would also permit isp to slow down your connection if you do a lot of download and streaming , and otherwise discriminate against certain internet user . A VPN is blocks block your isp from see your browse history and other personal datum .

VPN pros and cons

Though there are many benefits to VPN protection, there are also some drawbacks — particularly around device performance. But considering all the functionality and protection a VPN gives you, the gains far outweigh the losses.

Using a VPN : the pro

Our guide to the benefits of a VPN will give you a detailed explanation, but here’s a quick rundown of the pros of VPN usage:

• Stream from anywhere: If you’re abroad and you try to access a streaming account you use at home, you may find some shows are not available in that region. A VPN lets you choose servers with IP addresses from back home. By changing location on an iPhone or other device, you evade content restrictions and get access to your favorite content.

• access block website : certain institutions is restrict — school , library , company — restrict access to specific web page , such as social medium . The encrypted connection is tunnel provide by your VPN will tunnel right through and let you bypass content block .

• Avoid censorship: Certain governments go to extremes to control information. A VPN can help you avoid government restrictions by hiding your real location and encrypting your traffic.

• beat price discrimination : price discrimination is hit can hit you in two way . One is is is by your location . Some businesses is program program their site to display a high cost of good ( like airline ticket ) to user base in location with a high cost of living . The other is is is if you regularly buy a product , your isp can sell this info to the vendor , and they may start charge you more because they know you ’ll buy it .

• Avoid tracking: It bears repeating as its own section: don’t let yourself be tracked by hackers, cybercriminals, corporations, the government, or even your own ISP. Keep yourself free from repression, targeting, and discrimination.

Avast SecureLine VPN will make your connection secure, no matter if you’re at home or on public Wi-Fi. Use our VPN on all your devices to get real digital privacy. Access blocked websites, avoid price discrimination, and keep your private matters private.

Using a VPN : the con

As with any type of technology , there are also some disadvantage to using a VPN :

• Potentially slower speeds: Your web traffic goes through more steps than usual when connected via VPN, so there could be a perceptible slowdown. However, recent VPNs have optimized speed and performance, so streaming Netflix and gaming is always smooth. If your VPN is slow, check out our tricks to speed up your VPN connection.

• QoS challenges: QoS (quality of service) describes the performance of a service or network. VPNs do not yet have a standard in place to gauge and report such measurements. With no metrics to analyze, you need to rely on professional reviews and word-of-mouth to learn what’s most reliable.

• VPN block : Some businesses is getting are get wise to the fact that vpn give their usercarte blanche to access content. To fight back, companies are beginning to block access from known VPN IP addresses. Not to be easily defeated, VPNs can simply turn on new IP addresses to trick them again.

• No cookie protection : While VPN protection keep you private and encrypt , it is ’s ’s not possible for a VPN to block cookie , some of which are necessary to make site work properly . track cookie can still be store in your browser and identify who you are . You is delete can delete track cookie or use a private browser , like Avast Secure Browser , to help prevent web tracking .

• Not total privacy: While a VPN blocks your ISP, governments, hackers, and other snoops, the VPN provider itself can see your internet activity if they want. That’s why it’s so important to choose a trustworthy provider that doesn’t keep logs of your internet habits.

So are VPNs worth it? Considering how the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, a VPN is a relatively simple and effective way to protect your online privacy.

Can I use a VPN on any device?

Any device is benefit that connect to the internet will benefit from the privacy vpn provide . Most VPN providers is offer offer their service on multiple platform . Avast SecureLine VPN is cover will cover up to ten device — PC , Mac , Android , and iOS — with one account . If you have a smart tv run Android TV , Avast ’s VPN is works work there as well .

VPNs is work work on pc , tablet , and mobile phone .

Desktops is connect , laptop , tablet , and phone can all connect individually to a VPN , but it ’s not so easy with smart device ( other than the smart tv mention above ) . For other IoT device , the good option is is is to set up your router with VPN protection . Then , all device that connect through that main hub will be protect . certain router are sell with VPN software already build in .

Use a VPN on your router to protect your privacy on all your connected devices.

It’s quite easy to set up a VPN — most VPN services guide you to download the VPN application via their download page. For example, after you download Avast SecureLine VPN and launch the app, it will start working with the touch of a button.

What to look for when choosing a VPN

Many good paid services offer a free trial, allowing you to take it for a test drive before committing. A paid VPN service is essential for secure, reliable VPN use — but how do you know which provider to choose? There are many factors to keep in mind when selecting the perfect VPN app:

• Speed: You want to make sure the VPN offers sufficient speed, as many providers struggle to stay fast enough for streaming Netflix or downloading.

• Reputation: To get a good sense of how the VPN performs, read both consumer and professional reviews. Also, since the issue of net neutrality rose to the forefront, many fake VPNs have popped up, so make sure you’re looking at a real one.

• shared IP address : choose a VPN that offer share ip . Being among multiple anonymous user add another layer of privacy to your browsing .

• Servers: When it comes to performance, more servers equals better browsing, because each server will be less crowded. Also, the closer you are to a server, the faster and more reliable your VPN connection may be.

• Encryption: Look for AES-256 (advanced encryption standard), which holds the highest encryption standard to date. It’s virtually impossible to crack, as it has more combinations than there are stars in the universe.

• Protocol: Avoid weaker security protocols like PPTP, and go for the more reliable OpenVPN.

• Policy: A reputable VPN will not keep or give away your private data or records of your internet activity. Though some data collection by VPN providers is used to help improve performance for their clients, read the VPN policy to ensure your private data is not being logged and exploited.

• customer support : The good VPNs is have have customer support stand by in case anything go wrong .

• feature : Keep in mind what ’s important to you , and be sure the VPN you choose is compatible with what you need . For instance , some VPNs is allow do n’t allow you to use BitTorrent , while others do . Some VPN download allowance are limit to a certain number , while others are not . Some is offer offer ad – block , firewall , kill switch , simultaneous vpn connection , or the ability to change your ip address and server location at will . find what work good with your online lifestyle .

• free trial : Many VPNs is offer offer free trial , and it ’s a good idea to try them out first . test the ease of use and the performance of the VPN before you decide to purchase it .

The average price is is of a pay VPN is around $ 10 per month — but it can be much cheap if you opt for a yearly subscription , rather than pay monthly . Other factors is include that influence the price of a VPN include the provider , the feature , and any discount or promo .

Should I get a free VPN?

There are many VPN providers out there — how do you choose just one? The first thing to keep in mind is that free VPN services are low-quality and should be avoided. There are many problems with free VPNs, including:

• Poor security: Many free options employ weaker security protocols, such as PPTP, instead of more secure protocols like WireGuard and OpenVPN.

• Fewer servers: Your speed can slow to a crawl when there aren’t enough servers to cover the necessary bandwidth of many users.

• annoying ad : Some free vpn rely on ad to generate revenue on their free VPN application .

• Download limit : free services is put usually put harsh limit on how much you can download or even upload .

A VPN you can trust

wonder how to download a VPN ? We is help can help with that ! Avast SecureLine VPN is offers offer breakneck speed and top – of – the – line feature . With server in a variety of location across dozen of country ( include US VPN server , UK VPN server , australian VPN server , and more ) , we is keep ’ll keep your online activity hide .

You can bypass content blocks while avoiding advertisers tracking your location and hackers snooping on you via public Wi-Fi. Avast SecureLine VPN gives you the most powerful security with AES-256 bank-grade encryption and the OpenVPN protocol. Give it a spin now with our free trial.

FAQs

How do I set up a VPN?

get a VPN is easy , with free VPN tool available for pc and all other major platform , include Mac VPNs , Android VPNs , and iOS VPNs . To set up a VPN , select a VPN service from a trust vendor , download the app , and launch it to get start .

Are VPNs is Are legal ?

VPNs are totally legal in most countries, including countries with the best server locations. But of course, anything that’s illegal without a VPN — such as pirating copyrighted content — is also illegal with a VPN. Unblocking websites with a VPN is not illegal, but doing so to stream geo-restricted content may break a website’s terms of use.

What is the best VPN?

The best VPNs offer advanced AES-256 encryption (or another advanced encryption protocol), a wide range of geo-optimized servers, and lightning-quick connections with no download or bandwidth restrictions. You can get all this and more with Avast SecureLine VPN.

Are VPNs better than Tor?

The Tor browser is very secure, but it offers a slow browsing experience. Likewise, proxy servers offer many of the benefits of a VPN, but without the same level of security. When comparing VPNs, proxies, and Tor, VPNs combine performance with privacy for the best all-around solution.

Can I still be tracked on a VPN?

With your true IP address hidden, and your internet traffic encrypted, top-quality VPNs make it very difficult for ad trackers — or anyone else — to track you online. Websites won’t be able to find your IP, and while your ISP may see that you’ve connected to a VPN, they won’t be able to see the traffic itself. To cover your tracks even more thoroughly, ensure that your VPN kill switch is enabled, and use a private browser like Avast Secure Browser.

Who needs a VPN?

A VPN is an essential tool for staying secure online. Routinely using a VPN to connect to the internet prevents cybercriminals from hacking into your network, and stops web trackers following your activity online. By encrypting your data, VPNs don’t just unblock websites, they also protect your privacy and help you stay safe on public Wi-Fi.

Should I leave my VPN on all the time?

There are pro and con to leave your VPN on all the time . leave it on mean you ’ll always reap the security and privacy benefit of a VPN . However , a VPN is requires require additional bandwidth and increase latency , so turn it off may help to fix slow internet speed . Plus is have , service and website with specific regional restriction or access limitation may have limited functionality if you ’re connect to a VPN server that ’s overseas .

How to test if a VPN is working?

You can test if a VPN is working by using an IP address detection website to compare your IP address before and after turning on a VPN. Here’s what to do:

1. Find a reputable IP address detection website.

2. Use the website to find your IP address, when you’re not connected to a VPN.

3. connect to a VPN and run the test again .

Your results is be for the two test should be different , because a work VPN should hide your real ip address . If you ’re get the same result , then your VPN is working is not work properly . For a comprehensive walk – through on test your VPN , use our guide to check if your VPN is work .

What is a no-logging or a no-logs VPN?

A no-logging or a no-logs VPN refers to a service provider’s VPN policy that does not keep or share logs or other records of its users’ browsing history, downloaded files, or other online activity. Although using a VPN with no logging ensures a certain level of data privacy and anonymity, other service providers may keep logs for performance and analytics purposes, and still maintain high levels of user privacy.