How does a VPN work?

Today, it has become easy for every Internet user to use a VPN. While it’s easy to understand what a VPN is for, not everyone knows how it works. Today, we are enlightening you on this point.

What does a VPN do?

First of all, before being able to explain how a VPN works, it is important to take stock of its usefulness. These services indeed allow you many things and we will list all that is offered to you by Virtual Private Networks.

When you browse the internet, you are identifiable by your IP address. Thanks to the latter, it is possible to go back to you. It’s sort of your physical address much like your home address. Thanks to a VPN: you can then hide this address.

By browsing the internet, the websites you use can then easily know your IP address. They obtain a more or less exact location easily on the way. The authorities can also, in the event of a problem, ask your Internet service provider which individual is hiding behind an IP address.

Your IP address allowing you to be identified, you understand that no one is truly anonymous on the internet. With a VPN you can hide your IP address. Thus, services and websites can no longer know from which territory you are connecting and even who you really are. You then become anonymous.

That’s not all, a VPN encrypts all the data that travels between you and the web server. As a result, no one can intercept the information circulating there and recover it for malicious purposes. This is the risk on certain public WiFi networks in particular. Securing your connection thanks to these services is therefore possible.

Bypassing geo-blocks is also a possible use for VPNs. On Netflix, it is impossible to access foreign catalogs from France. However, the latter sometimes have many more films and series that are not available in France.

Thanks to a VPN, it is possible to connect to a server located in the United States for example and then take advantage of the American catalog. Netflix will indeed believe that you are connecting from the other side of the Atlantic.

A VPN therefore has many interests and it can correspond to a variety of uses. To better understand how it works, it is essential to have a vision of all the possibilities it can offer.

What is the principle of a VPN?

We are going to explain to you concretely how a VPN works from a technical point of view. Indeed, on the user side it is most of the time very simple. Just choose a server and click a connect button. Behind, it is still a little more complex.

First of all, a VPN is an encrypted virtual private network. It is located between your computer (or any other device connected to the internet) and the destination server (which can be a website for example).

When you want to access a web page, the VPN will then isolate the information circulating between your computer and its server. All this is secure and encrypted so that no one can know the information circulating there.

On output, the VPN server will then communicate with the web server. In the eyes of the web server, this data is anonymous, because the websites cannot know that it is you who are trying to access this content. For them, it is the VPN server that accesses it directly. The site cannot even know your IP address.

In this tunnel: everything is encrypted and you are therefore protected from malicious attacks which can then possibly target you. Only the VPN server is capable at this time of going back to you, which is why you have to be careful when choosing your provider.

It is important to clarify that this does not necessarily protect you from attacks. However, if a hacker manages to recover your login data, it is encrypted. Impossible for him to read the contents.

Some VPNs also offer double security with double encryption. Your data then passes through two differently encrypted tunnels consecutively. It then becomes even more difficult to trace back to you, even in the event of decryption of the data of one of the two tunnels.

Also note that when you use a VPN, even your carrier (Internet Service Provider) cannot know what you are accessing. In the eyes of the latter, you are simply browsing the server of your VPN.

What is the difference between the different VPN providers?

On the market today, there are several hundred serious VPN providers. Some are paid, sometimes free and others are based on a freemium model. They are sometimes all very different and we will explain why.

As for Freemium VPNs, they are based on a slightly different business model. They offer free access to their services, but these are restricted. To take full advantage of it, you have to pay. This model still allows these services to be profitable and not have to sell your data to exist.

The last category is free VPNs. The biggest advantage is obviously that the user does not have to spend a single penny to be able to use the services. However, you knew it: nothing is ever free. Running VPN servers is a real cost.

The problem with this free service is that to be profitable, these VPNs sometimes resell user data to advertising networks. From a privacy perspective, that’s obviously not the best thing. Other free services opt for ads instead.

So there are big differences among some VPN providers, beyond the features that can vary from service to service. Just be sure to also pay attention to the location of the VPN (it is obvious that for a service based in China, it will be more difficult to trust it than one based in Switzerland).

Which VPN to choose?

To choose your VPN, it is important to take into account several criteria. They all work the same way in general although the type of encryption may vary to each other. In general, AES-256 encryption is used.

Then, of course, you have to check which services respect your privacy or not. Some VPNs will not hesitate to communicate your data to the courts in the event of a request on their part, for example, and others are located in countries where censorship is required, such as China. It is therefore difficult to trust these third parties.

Each VPN can offer different speeds, servers located in very different places in the world or even a double encryption system. It is also in relation to all these small features that your choice must be made.

It is important to read the terms and conditions of use of these services. So yes, it’s not obvious and always understandable, especially since reading these long paragraphs is very long, but it allows you to know precisely what these VPNs are doing with your data.

When you use them: All your data travels through the encrypted tunnel of these services, so it’s important to know what can be done with your data.

It is obvious that from a security and privacy point of view, we naturally recommend paid VPNs. They are often more efficient and also offer you greater respect for your privacy.

Note, however, that in fact, a free and paid VPN work the same way. Most of the time, the encryption is otherwise identical even if the technical teams of the services with a subscription are better able to react quickly in the event of a breach, for example.

As you will have understood, the operation of a VPN is actually quite simple. It doesn’t matter which service you use, it’s usually the same even though the type of encryption used can vary.