What is a VPN and How Does a VPN Actually Work?

What Exactly is a VPN?

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. A VPN is a type of technology that allows you to establish a secure internet connection between your device and the internet within an insecure network. It can protect your privacy and allow you to do a private search by letting you browse anonymously online.

A Virtual Private Network, VPN, can “mask” your IP address. So, I hear you ask, what is an IP address? Well, an IP address is an Internet Protocol address, which is a unique number for your device that is your identity on the internet. With VPN, you can choose any server location with its own number to stand as your IP address, which means your identity is invisible on the internet and you can privately search.

A VPN can keep you safe online. It protects your online security and is able to safeguard privacy. As your computer connects to a VPN, your displayed IP address becomes the same as that of the VPN server. As a result, all your online traffic is transferred to the VPN through a secure internet connection. Then, you can work smoothly on the internet and securely visit any website from a local network. No matter where you are, a VPN lets you use the internet as if you are located where the VPN indicates. That is especially useful when you use public WiFi.

A VPN enables your data to be encrypted at the source and decrypted at the end-address. If you are concerned about your privacy, use a VPN. It will protect you from a variety of online threats.

How does a VPN work?

A VPN works by establishing a VPN tunnel between a local network and an exit node at another position that may be thousands of miles away. Doing this, a VPN hides your IP address and creates the illusion that you are not where you are when you get online. One advantage is that you can get fully anonymous access to the internet to search privately.

Next, let’s see how a VPN works.

As a VPN transmits data through WiFi, the data will be disorganized through encryption. As a result, your data becomes unreadable and your data security can be guaranteed. Therefore, the VPN can hide your searches to prevent prying eyes from seeing your online activities.

Do you know your internet service provider (ISP) can track your browsing history if you don’t use a VPN? Sadly, it’s true and happens more often than we’d like to admit. A VPN can help hide your browsing history, protecting your data, or information from being known by the internet service providers, and letting you privately search. The reason why your ISP can know your online activity just derives from your IP address. ISPs locate their servers around the globe, and once your IP address is exposed, any server may record your browsing history. A VPN can hide your IP address. As soon as your IP address is masked, all your online activities cannot be tracked by your IP address and your connection to the VPN will be anonymous and secure.

What does a VPN Hide?

A VPN Hides Your IP Address and Location

Anyone can visit your browsing history and your location during your browsing if your IP address is on show. Since a VPN hides your real IP address, it allows you to anonymously visit websites so you can protect your browsing history from being collected, browsed, or sold. But if the device you’re using is a public computer or owned by your employer, school, or other organizations, your browsing history can be also seen. To prevent that from taking place, incognito or private browsing mode is suggested.

With a VPN, You Can Keep Your Browsing Activity Anonymous

You can be tracked online because your location is easily identified when you browse. Your internet service provider and a web browser can track your online activity. Also, websites can keep a log about your browsing activity. Web browsers can track your browsing history and relate it with your IP address. However, all the above privacy issues will vanish as soon as the VPN is used. Remember: for the best private search, use a VPN.

A VPN Hides Your Devices

A VPN can protect your devices, including your PC, laptop, tablet, and smartphone from being spied on. When you get online, your devices may be the first target for internet hackers, which is especially true when public Wi-Fi is used. In a word, the information about your devices is safe when VPN is used because it stops hackers from monitoring your activities.

Keep Your Web Activity Secret Through VPN

Can the government track me online? Unfortunately, yes. The government can very easily track online activity. But fortunately, a VPN can stop your internet service provider from seeing your browsing history. Therefore, if the government requires your ISP to provide your online activity, you’ll be protected when a VPN is used. As a result, your internet freedom can be totally maintained. However, you should 100% ensure your data is also secure in your VPN provider. BitVPN can do this.

Do I Need a VPN?

Everyone should use a VPN, but not everyone knows it. When you get on the internet with Wi-Fi, would you have worries that your data may be seen or stolen? If your answer is ‘no’, you belong to the majority. That’s where the real problem starts.

Remember those annoying advertising calls or spam emails you keep getting? How do they know your number? Why is your email available to them? There are so many tunnels for your data to be acquired by businesses. Is the internet safe? Absolutely not.

First, a VPN can be used to stop any man-in-the-middle-attack on the same network access point from intercepting your web traffic. So, a VPN works perfectly for travelers and public WiFi users. Someone in the same network as you or someone that controls your network can intercept your information when you establish a connection.

Second, a VPN can be used by those who need to hide IP addresses. A VPN can cloak the IP addresses of your devices and your real IP address can be hidden behind the IP address of a VPN server. IP addresses are created based on locations, so someone’s geo-locations can be known based on his/her IP address. Although your IP addresses may get changed, your online activity can still be tracked according to the IP address formation rule. Therefore, VPN can be used to stop advertisers or hackers from tracking your online activities.

Third, a VPN can be used by some journalists or political activists to break the internet barriers built by local governments. The internet should be equally used and everyone has the same rights to get access to it. But due to some political reasons, some people’s internet liberty is badly compromised. If a VPN is used by them, however, the government’s internet barrier will be broken so that their internet access freedom can be respected.

Fourth, people who access the internet from their computer, tablet, or smartphone will benefit from a VPN. A VPN service will always increase your security with the encryption and anonymization of all your online activities. When you use Wi-Fi at the coffee shop, the airport, or the hotel you’re staying at while traveling cross-country, you have no clue whether or not the connection you’re using is secure.

Finally, a VPN lets you shop around to get the best deal. Rather than being limited to your local market, you get access to the global market. The internet might also come with government restrictions, such as the ability to access adult entertainment or gambling sites, social media, and even international news sources. But if you connect with a VPN, you can decide what you want to watch. Anyone who wants to protect their privacy and security on the internet is using VPN.

Which VPN is Best?

When confronted with numerous VPN services, it’s a headache to choose the best VPN. While it would be easy for us to directly recommend a type of VPN, we’d rather teach you how to analyze a VPN service and decide which VPN is best.

VPN Cost: Free or Paid

Most VPNs have both free and paid versions. Generally speaking, free and paid versions run on the same technology. The only difference between them lies in the fact that some ads are usually embedded in the free version. That’s a business model of VPN providers. And you need to acquire traffic by completing some activities like daily check-in, games, watching videos or questionnaires. While you do get access to decent VPNs this way, all these activities and adverts are annoying and cost you a lot of time. I spent about 30 minutes completing a questionnaire just to gain 1Gb traffic on a VPN. Totally not worth it.

However, the real determination to choose a free or paid version of VPNs has nothing to do with cost and time. Privacy and security weigh in, too. It’s more possible that VPN providers will abuse users’ data on the free version than on paid version because there’s no real legal relationship between VPN providers and free users. So, think twice before you make a decision.

  VPN Technology Base

Not everyone can be a tech expert. But everyone needs to safeguard online security and privacy. Always hide your IP address with a VPN. Technology is the root of VPNs and it plays an essential role in your online activity protection.

Up to now, there are two categories of VPNs in the market: centralized VPN and decentralized VPN. A centralized VPN is the most popular. But it depends on the centralized VPN server to process all the transmitted data that is encrypted. That centralized server can be hacked, leaving you exposed.

Decentralized VPN, however, depends on multiple nodes on the network and all the servers on the same network share only partial data. As a result, no one can obtain complete data and the highest level of security can be gained. A decentralized VPN relies on blockchain technology with which all of the devices or servers on the same network share the job of mining.

In a word, as far as online privacy is concerned, a decentralized VPN is more secure.

  VPN Security

Another consideration in choosing a VPN service derives from the VPN provider’s behavior: do VPN providers record your online data? Normally, VPN providers explain their duties and privacy policies on their websites. Unfortunately, some VPN service providers like to take advantage of boringly long policies to stop their users from carefully reading “tricks” that usually include their rights to keep online logging.

Therefore, your online security can be further improved by using a no-logging VPN service because it can protect you from government monitoring and ISPs from knowing your online activity.

Actually, you can choose to believe a VPN provider’s privacy policy. However, a more reliable way to further protect your privacy is to use technology. For example, a decentralized VPN never keeps your online logging at all because it’s totally impossible when blockchain technology is used. The transmitted data is distributed to numerous servers on the network and it’s almost impossible to collect all the information from all participating servers.

  VPN Sign Up

Yes, one of the main aims to use a VPN is to browse anonymously online. But some VPNs also collect your personal data in the step of sign up. So, an anonymous sign up on a VPN cuts the last risk of being insecure. When you’re ready to use BitVPN, only a username is called for. You don’t need to provide any personal information like email or phone number. That’ll dramatically improve your online privacy and security.

VPN Apps for Multiple Devices and Operating System

VPNs should be used on PC, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones. Besides, they can be compatible with different operating systems: Android and iOS. Up to now, most VPNs can meet that demand.

BitVPN: A Truly Decentralized VPN

BitVPN is your ultimate internet privacy solution, ensuring your anonymous online browsing experience. With BitVPN’s decentralized data structure, you can surf, unblock, and stream any content anonymously wherever you are.

The decentralized P2P network of BitVPN is empowered by TOP Network’s high-performance public blockchain platform.

BitVPN features the following merits:

  • Maximize your Internet privacy with sophisticated data scrambling
  • Zero personal information is involved when using BitVPN
  • Built upon a decentralized, open-communication TOP network & public blockchain platform
  • Decentralized structure enables BitVPN to become truly anonymous, private, and secure
  • Private access to your social media sites, streaming, games, and apps
  • Globally distributed VPN nodes ensure you a seamless VPN connection

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