What is VPN? How it works?

Have you heard of VPN? Wait! Are you sure that your personal information is safe while surfing internet? If I say no then you will not believe but it is a fact. As you know that to access internet, we need to have an internet service provider (ISP). And your ISP stores your data to their server and they say that they store data to give better experience to their user. But this is not 100% true. In most of the cases they store your data for their profit. Some medium and even some big companies across the globe have allegation on them for selling personal data of their users. And they make a lot of money by selling your data.

So, here comes a question what you can do because you need an ISP to access internet. So, is there any tool to stop these activities? Yes, there is. And that tool is famously known as VPN (Virtual Private Network). This blog is fully dedicated on VPN. And I will say even if your personal data is 1% important to you then you must know about VPN.

So, let’s start…

Understanding of VPN

According to a latest UN report, 63% of world’s population have internet connection. And on average, an internet user spends 7 hours online per day. Is it not a big number? Yes, it is. Now, if I ask you that is your online activity or your personal information is safe while surfing internet? As a tech guide, this is my duty to tell you the truth that the answer is NO. Now, this sounds very weird to you but it is a fact that your personal information is not safe.

Let’s understand this “Game of data” in more detail….

Every internet user has an ISP (Internet Service Provider) through which they access to internet. And all the activities of that internet user store in a server. Now, for example, suppose you are using an app online. So, all the activities of yours in that app stores in their server as in the form of data. And that app says that they store data for you (a user of them) in order to better cater you to give you a better experience. But is this complete truth? No. The whole truth is that they store your data for both the reason, to give you a better user experience and for their profit (like in marketing and advertisement).

But in case of fraud company, they directly sell your data to other companies as well as to some illegal bodies which is absolutely illegal. And you will shock to know that they get paid a lot of money in exchange of your (a user’s) data. And what can they do with your data? They can do many things with just your data but we will know about that in upcoming blog. And most of internet user is not even aware this data accessing thing. But what can we do to this? Because it is also a fact that in today’s digital world, we need to go online in order to run our life smoothly. So, if this is a case it is very very important to everybody that while surfing internet no one can access to your personal data like where you live, what job you do, what kind of interest you have, your web history etc.

So, one of the best and famous solution to this problem exists is Virtual Private Network. Have you heard of VPN before? Maybe yes or no. Is there 100% guarantee that VPN will secure you completely? The answer is no. But VPN is the most effective solution of this problem. What is VPN? The definition of VPN is beautifully explained by Kaspersky.

According to Kaspersky, VPN stands for “Virtual Private Network” and describes the opportunity to establish a protected network connection when using public networks. VPNs encrypt your internet traffic and disguise your online identity. This makes it more difficult for third parties to track your activities online and steal data. The encryption takes place in real time.

What it means is that you get a private network while surfing internet. No one can track your online activity while you are using VPN and even you can change the location of yours by the help of Virtual Private Network. Now, I hope you got an understanding of VPN.

How does VPN work?

In the early section, you have already understood that what is VPN. Now, after understanding that the very obvious question is how this VPN works. Right? So, this section is dedicated to answer that question.

First, we will understand the system technically and then I will explain you with a very example for your better understanding.

Technically – When a user (you) use Virtual Private Network to access internet then what happens is that VPN encrypt all your data and then passes that encrypted data through a VPN tunnel to reach VPN server. But before entering to that tunnel the request sent to your ISP but because the data is encrypted, your ISP are not able to figure out what you are trying to access. And then through that VPN tunnel the request reaches to a VPN server where they hide your original IP address and give you another IP address and also hide your geo-location (which means from where you are trying to access internet). And after that you access to internet. After all this, your internet service provider (ISP) and other third parties cannot track your online activity or what data you send and receive online.

Now, let’s understand this by a simple example. Suppose you want to go from a place A to another place B. Place A is your home and Place B is your office. So, you enter into your car and drive it to some distance and then you enter to a secret underground tunnel. And before leaving the tunnel you changed your car in that tunnel and you came with another car to reach your office. So, with this no one will know that who is in that car. Because no-one has the access to that secret tunnel and about that anonymous car. So, that’s how a VPN system work.

Advantages of VPN

a) Data encryption – Encryption is all about security. And VPN encrypt all your data. So, even if someone hacks your data, it will take millions of years to read that. With the help of VPN, your online activities are hidden even on public networks.

b) Device can’t be traced – VPN hide your real IP address and give you another IP address. Because of this your device can not be traced.

c) Disguising geo-location – Suppose you are using a VPN which have servers in other countries. So, you can use a server of other country. And this is how you can hide your actual geo-location.

d) Access to regional content – With the help of VPN you can access to other countries content which are banned for your country.

e) Secure data transfer – Secure data transfer is one of the most important reason for using a VPN especially if you do remote work. Because VPN encrypts your data so then it becomes safer to transfer file.

f) Access to restricted content – While using you can also access to those content which are banned in your country by your government.

What is the negative points about VPN – Disadvantage

a) Store Data Log – The most obvious and the most important question about Virtual Private Network is that what if VPN service provider company will store our data? Then what is the point of using VPN. But it is seen that most of VPN service provider do not store your data. But as a user, you have to be aware that which are genuine Virtual Private Network and which are not.

b) Slow connection – This problem is very often seen by users. Because of the process of VPN and the limited number of servers, it is very common problem that you can face. The more near a server will be to you the more speed you will get.

c) Can’t access to some websites – Even with Virtual Private Network, you cannot access to some websites. They specifically build systems to block VPN user from accessing their website. Netflix is one of the example of those websites.

d) Cost – VPN can be free and paid. With free Virtual Private Network, you will get limited service. And with paid Virtual Private Network, you will get best services but they cost very high. So, it will be better to use free VPN if you want use it for personal but if try to use a paid one if it is for office purpose.

Types of Virtual Private Network

There are many types of Virtual Private Network exists. But mainly there are three types of VPN.

a) SSL

b) Site-to-site VPN

c) Client-to-server VPN

To know about each type of VPN in detail, you can visit Kaspersky.com.

Current status of VPN

With the exponentially increasing number of internet users, the cyber criminals are also increasing. Even companies are started selling their user’s data. In this situation, it is a concerned topic about people’s data security and about their privacy.

Not 100% but Virtual Private Network is currently one of the best and efficient solution to secure people’s data. According to data, the current number of VPN users is 1.6 billion worldwide. And this number is increasing day by day.

5 best VPN to use in 2023

There are many factors are responsible to tell which are the best Virtual Private Network. But in this article, we have chosen 5 best VPN to use according to their Play Store ratings and their downloads.

(i) NordVPN

Ratings – 4.5/5

Downloads – 50M+

(ii) Express VPN

Ratings – 4.3/5

Downloads – 50M+

(iii) Private Internet Access VPN

Ratings – 4.4/5

Downloads – 5M+

(iv) CyberGhost

Ratings – 4.3/5

Downloads – 10M+

(v) Surfshark

Ratings – 4.2/5

Downloads – 10M+

Conclusion

We have finally come to the end of our article. So, this was the complete guide to Virtual Private Network. In this blog, we came to know what Virtual Private Network is, how this VPN system works, what are the advantages and disadvantages of Virtual Private Network, types of Virtual Private Network, current status of Virtual Private Network and at the end we have seen the 5 best VPN to use. Lastly, we saw the top faqs asked by people globally.

FAQs

(1) Can I also use a VPN on my smartphone or other devices?

– Yes, you can.

(2) Why should I use a VPN connection?

– It is all about your privacy and security. Today Virtual Private Network is the most efficient tool to secure your data in this digital world. In future, if we make another tool then we can switch to that. But for now, VPN is a best tool to use.

(3) can someone use VPN to do illegal activity?

– Although, Virtual Private Network service provider says that they don’t store your online activites but this is not true. In many cases, they store your online activity. And if they suspect you doing illegal activity or if government asks them to give data about someone then they will give the data to government body.

(4) Is a Virtual Private Network really 100% secure?

– Virtual Private Network only secure your IP address and internet history. It does not secure your device/system from viruses/malware. So, yes even VPN is not 100% secure but still it is an effective tool.

(5) How to select a secure VPN provider? – It is an important question. So, I would say to select you have to first educate yourself about Virtual Private Network and then after doing some research you can easily select which Virtual Private Network is best for you. You can also connect to our website. We will write articles on those topics in coming days.

Team Vedaon hopes that this blog helps you to understand Virtual Private Network. If you have any query regarding this article or if you want to give feedback to us then please comment in the comment section. We would love to talk with you.