People uses VPNs today, some know its uses while some don’t, but this post will clear your curiosity if you are among those out of knowing why and when one should use VPN. The VPN acronym stands for virtual private network which implies masking or hidden public identity of a user and changing it with private one which also accompanies with high security while surfing public network.
The ability to make a secure connection is one of the reasons why people use VPN today because all your online activities and data are now protected from stealing by cyber-criminals. But not all your internet activities are protected by VPN, this is because one cannot escape from online phishing, cyber-squatting and downloading malicious software to his computer, this is what brings the limitations of VPN servers. The establishment of encryption tunnels secures the unencrypted connection from user and turns it to an encrypted one by using SSH (Secure Shell) protocol.
How VPN works
VPN is a service that provides a secure and private connection between a user and the internet, while one is surfing publically his identity remain private making difficult to be tracked by other people. VPN uses to hide one real IP address and changing it with different one from the VPN server, the connection to VPN server not only change one IP address but also makes strong and protective layer between the internet service provider and other eye open sources to the extent even tracking one’s identity and visited pages is hardly to be done. A user’s information seems something of no use because when one is connected to the VPN server then even the website he visits can’t find his real identity which in turns changes it to the virtual identity provided by the server.
Accessing websites of any kind can be possible with the use of VPN; this is one of the relative merits of using VPN. One can have access to forbidden webpages by using VPN which result in making a gateway to the protected contents and making it impossible to be tracked and block. Most of the blocked websites are blocked by governments, schools, network administrators and organizations so to make restrictions between people of particular territory to have limited access or completely banned from entering the blocked websites, but this is all transparent restrictions when one is connected to the VPN because the connected VPN server will now serve as a bridge between the user and the protected website making the identity of the user invisible while revealing the server’s identity as the connected user’s own.
Are VPNs safe at all?
There are two answers to this, one is; using VPN makes your connection secure and private, but one should keep in mind that using VPN doesn’t guarantee full security and protection because VPN servers can’t protect a user from dangerous websites like phishing websites and using VPNs cannot replace the use of anti-virus software since it will not prevent a user from downloading malicious software to his device. Some VPN servers’ uses this method for stealing your data since all your information can be tracked by them, most of these servers claim to provide free security and protection to their users which in return use your information for their profits. A chance of getting infected with malwares is high by using free VPNs since your information is open to them and can be used as their source of income.
Some countries prohibit the use of VPNs by their citizens and if one broke the rule he might end up being punished. The reason that lead to prohibition of using VPNs in some countries is that; when a certain websites are blocked to be access by citizens then this go in vain since one can use VPN servers to bypass the restrictions, but when the use of VPN is not allowed then this will block all the way around from getting through.
Conclusion
VPN is service that provides a secure and protection between a user and the public internet. VPN servers hide the identity of a user from ISP and eye open sources making the user’s information protective and untracked. People uses VPN connections to access a website of any kind even if it is blocked from getting access. Using VPN has relative merits because it can be use legally and illegally especially when prohibited to be used by government or network administrators. VPN doesn’t provide complete security since it can’t replaces the use of anti-virus software in terms of getting protected from malwares and dangerous websites.
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