Tip #7: What is a VPN? - Exploring the Internet

Most likely everyone has at least heard of a VPN and how it can allegedly keep you hidden online, or maybe access content that may be restricted for some reason. Well, yes it definitely can. In fact, if I could find one fast enough I would never not be connected to one, and here’s why. 

What is a VPN?

 

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, and in my previous article “What is the Internet”, I talked broadly about what a network is in relation to the internet. As a recap, a network is just a bunch of computers connected, with an admin (usually your Internet Provider like Comcast or AT&T) controlling or directing the flow of traffic. 

Basic Connection

If you want to connect to Netflix, it goes like this:
Computer → Local Router [whatever WiFi you are connected to] → Internet Provider → Netflix

Meaning, to connect to Netflix, you must tell the router where you are going, and the router will tell the internet provider, and so on until you reach your destination. Much like passing a folded note from the back of the classroom to the front.

Assuming everyone follows the rules and no one is opens the note the contents are ‘hidden’, but everyone has to at least know where it is going. 

Message = Sent IP address, Destination IP address, + encrypted contents. 


VPN Connection

If someone doesn’t want you to reach Netflix, they put the destination IP on a blacklist, and every time they see a message going to Netflix, they trash it and perhaps send you a nasty letter.

But with a VPN, the connection goes like this:

Computer → Local Router → Internet Provider → VPN; VPN → Netflix

The way this works, is that now the destination IP is the VPN, not netflix.
The hidden content of the message, is that the VPN should connect to Netflix.

As long as that specific VPN isn’t on a blacklist, the Internet Provider doesn’t notice, because they didn’t see the contents of the message. 

 

The Pros

With a VPN, neither your router nor your internet provider ever sees where you are actually going, or what you are actually receiving, because all they see is that you are sending/recieving encrypted data to/from a random network.

This gives anonymity online, and allows you to “sidestep” restrictions because you connect from an unrestricted source. If you want to request from Japan, connect to a Japanese VPN and suddenly the service will believe you are in Japan and will hand over the information, which the Japanese VPN sends back to you. 

 

The Warnings

The only way to get caught, is if the destination suddenly flags the VPN, and the VPN snitches and tells about you.

This can happen if:

1. The VPN keeps “logs” of exactly when who connected to what.

2. You are the only one, or one of very few connected to the network at the time in question.

That is why most smart VPN companies advertise as “no logs”, but even then you have to do your own research as to whether or not they really do keep logs, because some still keep them in roundabout ways. 

 

Basic Connection:
So, say you are torrenting/downloading a less-than-legal movie. Perhaps wherever you downloaded it from gets flagged due to how torrents work.

  • The site coughs up its user IP addresses to the movie company.
  • The movie company looks for the Internet Provider for each IP, and contacts them demanding they cough up names linked to the IP address.
  • They comply, and you get caught.

But with a VPN:
The movie company looks for the Internet Provider for each IP, and contacts them demanding they cough up names linked to the IP address.

  • Your “Internet Provider” shows up as a VPN company.
  • They do not know anything about anything because they don’t keep logs.
  • You move on.

 

So in movies where the “hacker” talks about bouncing their signal all over the world, they’re just saying they connected to multiple VPNs before they did whatever.

 

 

Like? Question? Comment? Leave A Comment!
Emmanuel Company Blogs

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Two Minute Technology: Machine Learning

Image
Two Minute Technology: Machine Learning Any learning entity - be it an animal, human or a machine begins with an initial set of observations - raw data . This kind of data can stem from interactions, transactions, information exchange, examples, instructions or experiences. A brain - whether it belongs to a human or animal, tries to look for patterns inside that initial data and then uses it to perform actions or make decisions. This same phenomenon can be applied to machines, using machine learning. Machine learning is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence. According to Arthur Samuel, a computer scientist, machine learning gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. Another computer scientist, Tom Mitchell, took the same details of machine learning, but broke it down further in his definition. I find Mitchell's definition more fitting to describe exactly what machine learning is. "Machine learning is a well-posed learning problem: a computer...
Read more

How apple has dominated the phone company

Image
  In the growth of smartphones in 2007  apple made basically the first touch screen held cell phone in which it was different from all of the others that was around. This tech guru Steve jobs knew at the time that he had something special. At this time he was competing with companies that were making flip phones, blackberries or even the slide up phones at the time. This was an outside the box move in which no one was doing at the time or even thought about doing.  Cell phones have come a long way back in the day before that they were carrying like bricks with them and you can tell it was a bad time. This mix of new styles of phones which basically turned the whole industry into touch screens and smartphones. This company lost their lead Steve jobs who was the man with the plan and stated this trend but the company has been able to continue to grow.  Many people don't know that the company made a bad deal with AT&T at the time. This deal was made to get all of t...
Read more

Ryan's Top Ten Albums - In Rainbows - Radiohead

Image
  In Rainbows - Radiohead Released 2007 - Genre: Art Rock, Experimental Rock While the albums I talked about in this blog are not ranked in any particular order, I can confidently say that this is my favorite album. Radiohead has always been one of my favorite bands, my original idea for this blog was to do an entry on each of their nine studio albums. In Rainbows came at a very unique point in the band’s career, as they had already seemingly reinvented the wheel twice, with the release of OK Computer in 1997, and Kid A in 2000, and their few albums since had been highly regarded but never to that same level. In Rainbows was their attempt at reinventing their sound again and doing something groundbreaking, and they delivered. The buildup to the album's release was very unique, as the band promoted the album almost solely on their own website, where they boasted a pay-what-you-want scheme for the album, where fans could pay any amount (or nothing at all) to download the album. I...
Read more