When you’re connected to the Internet, all of your activity is logged and associated with your Internet Protocol or IP address. If you’re using a shared WiFi network, others on the network could see what you’re doing. Even on your home network, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can still see your activity. Using a VPN is like creating a digital middleman between your device and the Internet that blocks others from seeing what you’re doing. When you connect to a VPN, instead of your activity being associated with your IP address, now it’s the VPN server’s IP address that is associated with your data. You might think of it like a return address: instead of the mail coming from your home address, it’s now coming from the VPN server’s “home” address.
The data that is sent and received when you’re online is also encrypted, so besides it not coming from your own IP address, it’s also unreadable. You could think of it like sending scrambled information through a secret tunnel, and it’s not readable until it reaches its intended destination on the other side. Even if someone were to intercept the message in the tunnel, without the key, they wouldn’t be able to decipher it. Without getting too technical, the important thing to remember is that with a VPN, data is encrypted as it enters the tunnel and it’s decrypted as it leaves the tunnel using encryption keys.
The process of establishing a VPN connection is relatively straightforward. When a user connects to a VPN server, the VPN client software on their device initiates a handshake with the server. During this process, the client and server exchange keys to establish an encrypted connection.
Once the connection is established, all data transmitted between the client and server is encrypted and cannot be intercepted by third parties. This includes data sent over public networks, such as Wi-Fi hotspots or cellular networks.
The data that is sent and received when you’re online is also encrypted, so besides it not coming from your own IP address, it’s also unreadable. You could think of it like sending scrambled information through a secret tunnel, and it’s not readable until it reaches its intended destination on the other side. Even if someone were to intercept the message in the tunnel, without the key, they wouldn’t be able to decipher it. Without getting too technical, the important thing to remember is that with a VPN, data is encrypted as it enters the tunnel and it’s decrypted as it leaves the tunnel using encryption keys.
The process of establishing a VPN connection is relatively straightforward. When a user connects to a VPN server, the VPN client software on their device initiates a handshake with the server. During this process, the client and server exchange keys to establish an encrypted connection.
Once the connection is established, all data transmitted between the client and server is encrypted and cannot be intercepted by third parties. This includes data sent over public networks, such as Wi-Fi hotspots or cellular networks.