Hello, my dear security conscious friends. In this week’s blogpost I will be introducing you to the world of VPN. VPN stands for a Virtual Private Network. In its most simplistic form a VPN connects you to other computers or servers over the Internet as if they are in your physical network. If that does not make much sense to you don’t worry, I will help you understand simply what it is and how you can take advantage of it. 🙂
Normally when you connect to a website you make a direct connection over the Internet to the server that is hosting the site. As described in one of my previous blogposts every packet that is sent between the server and your computer has two parts: an IP header and data portion. This however is mostly sent in plain text, hence no encryption on your data and people can actually spy on what you are doing. This is called a Man-in-the-middle attack.
When you use a VPN service what you are doing in essence is that you encrypt your data, send it to the VPN server, which sends it to the website that you requested and vice versa. When you make a VPN connection a tunnel between you and the server is created by the VPN service. All the packets that are sent use this tunnel and everything is encypted. This keeps your data safe from eavesdroppers and wrong doers on your network.
So what are the possible reasons to use a VPN?
Apart from the security feature it presents by encrypting your traffic VPN has also other interesting uses. It helps preserve your anonymity. The VPN server that you connect to replaces your original IP address in the IP header of the packet so that the other end of the connection does not know who you are. Think of the VPN server as a bouncing point for your traffic. This feature is helpful not only for the sake of protecting your identity, which gives you more safety from attackers on the Web, but also can help you access restricted content on the web. Some countries, for instance, block websites like Facebook, Youtube and many others that we take for granted. Most of these restrictions are based on the geographical location where you are. This is determined by your IP address. So when you use a VPN server in another country where access to that website is allowed, you “mask” yourself as if you are in that country, while you are sitting at home. Pretty neat, don’t you think? 🙂
Some companies block certain websites on their corporate network for various reasons. For instance, a college can block pages such as Facebook or any other website they wish. Using a VPN service enables you to bypass those restrictions and enjoy the freedom and anonymity you deserve.
Another application of using VPN is to access files and computers on a remote site securely. For example, many companies provide VPN access to employees to the company computers from a distance. I have personally worked for a company that ran its own VPN service, which helped me access my computer at work, while I was on the road. There are different types of VPN technologies out there, but I am not going to address them in this blogpost as it can be quite confusing and uninteresting for non-tech people. What you need to now when searching for VPN service providers is that the higher the encyption bit is, the better. Being in the IT field for some time I can safely say that one of the most secure implementations of VPN is OpenVPN. It uses SSL for encryption of the data in the tunnel, the same technology used to protect websites for a secure connection like banking and online shop websites.
Think about how many times you are glad to see that the Cafe you go for your cup of coffee has free Wi-Fi. That is great, right? Connecting to these Wi-Fi hotspots whithout protection however is absolutely not security conscious. Anybody on the network is a potential wrong doer, who can look into your data, while you surf the Net. VPN is your pal again and adds that very crucial layer of security to your coffee routine so you can relax, drink your coffee and do whatever it is that you do normally on the Web, without being afraid about your data security.
Now that you see the benefits of using a VPN how do you actually use it?
I know that you are a busy person and do not wish to dive into the problem of creating your own VPN server at home. It is a good idea to do it if you want to have a secure connection to your home network, while you are away. If you do want to do so I recommend using OpenVPN. At the official OpenVPN website there are a number of good explainations how to do it. If you want to make a VPN server at your home, but you are having trouble making it to work let me know and I will make a blogpost about it in the near future, although I have seen some very well written non-geek how-tos on the Net. The easier way to use VPN without all the technical hassle is to use a VPN service provider. These are companies that provide VPN services for different needs. What they do is they provide a small program that makes your computer or laptop a Client that connects to their server using credentials such as username and password.
There are numerous of VPN service providers out there, but how do you know which one is best for you? The first thing you need to consider is the number and location of the VPN servers that the provider offers. The more servers are available at different countries, the better. This is important for the load-balancing between the servers. Imagine each server as a branch on a tree and each client as a monkey. When more monkeys are hanging on the same branch it may break at some point, which leaves you with less options if that happens. When there are more branches on the tree the monkeys are spread out on all branches. Also think about the websites you want to visit and if there are servers of the provider in countries that allow access. Take for example Netflix. If you are, for example, on an internship in China you can watch your favorite Netflix shows if you are using a connection to a server in the USA.
The second thing that you need to consider is cost/features ratio. Here is the downside of using a VPN service provider. Most providers have a free option, but they impose limitations on your account like traffic allowed is only 500MB per day,week or month, which means you will not be enjoying much youtube videos or heavy websites for a very long time. Additional features like VoIP traffic (e.g. Skype) to be sent through the VPN tunnel or others are sometimes provided at a cost. It really comes down to what you want to use VPN for. If you do not want to have a monthly subscription you can have a look at OpenVPN’s commercial offering PrivateTunnel. It works on a prepaid basis with no time expiration of your traffic and it also has a free 500MB trial on offer to see if you like their service with no strings attached. Here is a nice video, which lists some of the better VPN solution providers.
Do you use VPN and want to give some feedback about your experiences with different providers? Or maybe you want to ask a question? Please leave a comment in the section below. 🙂
So there you have it. Another way to make your life on the Net a bit more safe. I would love to hear how you stay safe on the Net in the comments below. As always, stay safe and stay secure!