Picture yourself in a crowded mall. Everyone can see where you go, in which store you have entered, what you are buying, and even with whom you are talking. Kind of invasive, right? Now, imagine for a second you’ve got this cloak and, all of a sudden, nobody can see where you’re going or what you’re up to. Well, that is kind of what a VPN, or a Virtual Private Network, is doing for you online. It keeps your internet activities far from prying eyes, hence making your browsing very private and very secure.
Want to surf the web as a ghost? In a time when everything you do appears to be traced, a VPN can be that digital invisibility cloak. Streaming your favorite shows? Shopping online? Just plain old browsing? A VPN can help you be anonymous and safe. But exactly what is a VPN, and why should you care? Let’s explore in more detail.
What Is a VPN?
A VPN is like a secret tunnel for your internet connection. Going online without a VPN is similar to driving on a highway, where everyone can see your car, where you’re going, and what you’re carrying. With a VPN, it makes your car invisible and your journey hidden from everyone else on the road.
Put simply, when you connect to the internet through VPN, it sets up a safe, encrypted connection between your gadget—like your phone or computer—and the internet. This basically allows anyone else a really hard time seeing what you are doing on the web. Also, your IP address, which more or less acts as your home address online, is concealed, so as far as the sites and services you’re using are concerned, well, you could technically be browsing from halfway across the world.
Depending on what one wants to achieve, there are different kinds of VPNs. One example could be a situation where you work from home, desiring access to your office network; hence, you would be using a Remote Access VPN. If a company has several offices in the downtown area of cities and wants to connect them securely, it will use a Site-to-Site VPN. If you want to connect only to a specified server, you would use a Client-to-Server VPN, for example, with gaming or streaming.
Just think of popular VPN services like NordVPN or ExpressVPN as the secret agents at the very top within the internet world: they always ensure your activities on the web never fall into the wrong hands.
History of VPNs
Let’s take a quick trip back in time. The internet wasn’t always this wild, open world that it is now. In the 1990s, when the Internet was pretty new, people began to realize they actually needed a way for their communications over it to be private. This is when VPN technology began to come around.
The first technology that would morph into VPN was developed by Microsoft in 1996. It was called Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol, or PPTP. In many ways, it was the grandfather of today’s VPNs. Years ago, a lot of businesses wanted a safe way to connect their offices and employees over the internet, so they turned to PPTP.
Fast forward somewhat and the popularity of the Internet just boomed—an explosion. Suddenly, there was everybody online, from businesses to kids playing all kinds of games. But also, with this boom, new risks appeared: hackers, cybercriminals, and even governments started to snoop on what people are doing online. VPNs evolved to keep pace with these threats, thus adding stronger encryption and more features to protect users.
And VPNs today have ceased to remain the tool of big businesses but becomes a part of technology that is used by us all. Be it for maintaining privacy or trying to watch some TV series that is not available from your country, VPNs have become one of the most popular in the world.
Why do you need a VPN?
Here is the answer: One day, a buddy of mine connected to public Wi-Fi in a coffee shop just to check his bank account for a couple of minutes. Little did he know that there was a snooper among the café customers, who was about to get away with his bank details. He managed to shut it down in time, but just barely. Had he used a VPN, his data would have been encrypted and that snoop wouldn’t have seen anything.
That is just one use of a VPN—security. Suppose you’re at a cafe or at a bus station—anywhere with public Wi-Fi. Your data is at risk. A VPN acts like armor to keep your information safe from a potential hacker lurking in the shadows.
Another major reason is privacy. Maybe you are browsing online to get a surprise gift and don’t want your history to show. With a VPN, all online activities are hidden from the ISP. That means that nobody can track you on the internet, including the websites you are visiting.
VPNs are pretty badass for accessing content that is geo-restricted. For instance, have you ever tried to watch a video online when suddenly something like “Sorry, this content is unavailable in your country” pops up? Your blood boils, am I right? With a VPN, you can just change your virtual location somewhere other than your home country, and you won’t get into any trouble viewing the content. It’s like having a magic key that opens doors all across the web.
Finally, VPNs are still relevant in bypassing censorship. In some countries, some sites and services are blocked, so with a VPN, you can bypass the blocks and access the whole Internet, whatever part of the world you are in.
Types of VPNs and Their Uses
But now, let’s consider the types of VPNs and when to use them. You are working from home and you need access to your company’s internal network. You would use a Remote Access VPN; your work network you’d be connecting into—the one you wanted access to—would be no different, in essence, from the one you might use at the office. It very much helps those working or studying from remote areas who require resources for school right at their homes.
Another one is the Site-to-Site VPN. Imagine a large company with its offices distributed around the world in places like New York, London, and Tokyo. It wants to form a secure conjoinment across all these offices so all the employees can share files and collaborate. A Site-to-Site VPN solution would be put to use to connect all the offices, so though they are thousands of miles apart, it will give a feeling that all the offices are just under one roof.
Thirdly, we have the Client-to-Server VPN. This is more task-specific. Suppose you’re a gamer and you want to connect to a game server in some other country to play with friends—a Client-to-Server VPN could make that possible. By the way, that’s also how you can access Netflix or BBC iPlayer in another country.
Each type of VPN has its own virtues, one to choose, based on what you need it for—whether for work, play, or just browsing safely, there’s going to be a VPN.
How to Choose the Right VPN
Getting a VPN service is not any different from choosing the right tool for the job. You want something that suits your requirements perfectly. Let’s break down what you should look for:.
First up, pay special attention to speed. Nobody likes a slow internet connection, especially if you’re watching a movie or playing an online game. Some VPNs can slow down your internet because of all the data encryption that occurs in the background. This is another reason you have to pick among VPNs known for being speedy. A couple of great examples at the moment are ExpressVPN and NordVPN; these provide high-speed connections without hits in performance.
Think about security next because it’s the biggest point of using a VPN in the first place. Look for a VPN using strong encryption like AES-256; it should really be unbreakable. Also, look for one with a “kill switch.” This is like a safety net; if your VPN connection drops for whatever reason, the kill switch automatically disconnects your internet to prevent any leaks of data.
Have a look at their privacy policy. Thus, you get to know whether the VPN you are choosing keeps logs of your activity, which actually defeats the purpose of using one in the first place. Make sure the VPN you choose has a strict no-logs policy, meaning they don’t keep any record of what you do online.
Now, there’s the choice between free and paid VPNs. Free VPNs might be tempting, but they are usually limited in features, with slower speeds, or data caps—sometimes with ads. Not to mention that, in reality, you are likely just the product if something is free. On the other hand, paid VPNs offer more stellar services, features, and more powerful security. Besides, they are not too expensive. For a couple of bucks a month, you can get a top-shelf VPN that will keep you safe and private online.
And think about what you actually need the VPN for. If you are all about streaming and you want to watch shows from another country, make sure the VPN has servers in that region. If you are going to travel and bypass censorship, then look for a VPN that is known to work in countries with strict internet control.
The Downsides of Using a VPN
I won’t pretend VPNs are perfect. And there are a few downsides that you should know about. First, there’s a potential speed issue: VPNs use a process of encrypting your information and then sending it to a secure remote server for decryption. So, in theory, all this could slow down your internet connection a bit. That’s kind of like taking the scenic route instead of the highway: in some cases, slower, but safer. The speed difference will actually be small with a good VPN.
Then there’s also the matter of trust: you trust the service with your data when you are using a VPN, so again, proper no-logs policies and a good reputation are quite key. If the VPN is logging your activities, there is no good to come of it, and it would likely defeat the entire purpose of using a VPN in the first place.
Of course, it’s also worth noting from the legal and ethical front. VPNs are legal practically everywhere, but tough laws against them do exist in some jurisdictions. For instance, using a VPN in countries like China and Iran could land you in hot water. Understanding that jurisdiction might help in use.
And let’s not forget about cost. While there are free VPNs out there, the best ones usually require a subscription. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—after all, you’re paying for better security and privacy. But it’s something to keep in mind if you’re on a tight budget.
The Future of VPNs
Coming to the future, VPNs will assume much more importance. Just the way threats to privacy and security mature with time, the internet is growing and evolving. Fret not, since VPNs are doing that right along.
For example, given the fact that 5G networks will soon be introduced, the speed of the Internet will increase substantially. It obviously means that VPN services have to keep up with it, providing high-speed connections without slowing us down. Moreover, we will observe how VPNs will integrate with other technologies, such as the Internet of Things. Every device urges the need for secure communications.
Even privacy laws are changing. In some jurisdictions, it’s an increasing need for government installations of strict regulations pertaining to data privacy, which might, in turn, affect the working mechanism of VPNs. On the brighter side, it will bring better privacy-focused VPNs, granting the user more control over their data.
In the end, VPNs get to develop into stronger encryption and security features because of the rapidly increasing sophistication of cyber threats. Good news? With these organizations stepping up and constantly finding new ways to protect our safety online, we can all begin to sleep better.
VPN in a nutshell
It’s like an all-around guard you hire for the security of your body; in a similar way, a VPN guards your security and helps you access content from anywhere in the world. Privacy, streaming a show that isn’t available in your country, or you simply want to be safe on public Wi-Fi—an awesome tool to have in your digital toolkit.
Sure, VPNs come with their downsides. Speed is reduced, and you have to trust your provider. But when you weigh this against the benefits—better privacy, more security, and the ability to bypass georestrictions—it’s apparent that using a VPN is worth it.
It’s just evident that as we move forth into the future, the role of VPNs in our online lives will surge. As the internet becomes part of our daily life, VPN is the chief to protecting your privacy. But what better way to fast-forward this and open a whole new world of secure and open internet matters at the same time than a VPN? So what are you waiting for? You might just find that it’s the tool you never knew you needed.
