VPN Beginner’s Guide

VPNs can seem complicated at first, but are actually easy to use.

The Beginner’s Guide to Understanding VPNs

  1. What is a VPN
  2. How Does a VPN Work
  3. How Secure is a VPN
  4. Is it Legal to Use a VPN
  5. Does a VPN Make Me Fully Anonymous Online
  6. VPN Logging Policies
  7. Free VPN versus Paid VPN
  8. Can I Use a VPN for Torrenting
  9. Can I Use a VPN to Watch Netflix and Hulu
  10. Does a VPN Work on Android and iOS
  11. Does a VPN Work on Kodi/SmartTV
  12. How Do I Install a VPN on My Router
  13. VPN & Tor — How to Use Them Together
  14. IP Leaks and Kill Switches
  15. When to Use a VPN
  16. When Not to Use a VPN

What is a VPN?

VPN (Virtual Private Network) is a service that lets you access the web safely and privately by routing your connection through a  server and hiding your online actions.

How Does a VPN Work?

Here’s how a VPN works for you, the user. You start the VPN client (software) from your VPN service. This software encrypts your data, even before your Internet Service Provider or the coffee shop WiFi provider sees it. The data then goes to the VPN, and from the VPN server to your online destination — anything from your bank website to a video sharing website to a search engine. The online destination sees your data as coming from the VPN server and its location, and not from your computer and your location.

Though it’s the standard, this sort of connection has some flaws. All of your data is out there in the open, and any interested party can peek at what you’re sending.

The internet is a collection of servers responsible for storing websites and serving them to anyone who wants to view them. Those servers talk with each other all the time, including sharing your data with each other to ultimately let you browse a page. Great for you to be able to surf, but not great for privacy.

Going online is like taking a commercial airline flight. The ticket agent, baggage handlers, security personnel, and flight attendants all need pieces of data to get you routed between cities. A similar exchange of information happens on the web.

If it’s just a fun website that you’re looking at then no need to worry. It doesn’t matter if someone sees your data. But if it’s online banking, business email, or anything else that’s a bit more sensitive — it’s a different story.

When you use a VPN service, your data is encrypted (because you’re using their app), goes in encrypted form to your ISP then to the VPN server. The VPN server is the third party that connects to the web on your behalf. This solves the privacy and security problem for us in a couple of ways:

The destination site sees the VPN server as the traffic origin, not you.
No one can (easily) identify you or your computer as the source of the data, nor what you’re doing (what websites you’re visiting, what data you’re transferring, etc.).
Your data is encrypted, so even if someone does look at what you’re sending, they only see encrypted information and not raw data.
As you would imagine, such a scenario is much safer than connecting to the web the traditional way. But how secure is it exactly?

 

resource : skythebestvpn