Introduction
The following document will contain information on how VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) work, reasons to use a VPN, compare & contrast hardware versus software VPNs, different types of VPNs, and VPN protocols. This is imperative to know for setting up VPN connections or to make a plan to set up a VPN.
How does a VPN work?
First, how does a VPN work? A VPN works by sending your packets to the Internet through a private service versus sending them to your ISP (Internet Service Provider). The VPN sits between your device and the internet. This allows the VPN to forward traffic for you to the rest of the internet allowing your IP address to be hidden and your location to be changed to the location of the VPN server.
Why use a VPN?
One reason that you might want to use a VPN is that it protects your browser history. If you're not using a VPN your ISP can track everything that you browse and then sell your data to advertisers to get personalized advertisements. Another reason you would want to use a VPN is it hides your location and IP address from websites or bad actors. Another reason is if you need to access resources hosted at your work from anywhere or work from home in general. Then you would want to set up a secure VPN connection to access your work network so there is an encrypted connection between you and your workplace.
Downsides of VPNs
A VPN service is not always trustworthy as some will say they will make you more secure and offer their services for free but have been caught selling your data to data brokers. Such as Hola, Betternet, Opera VPN, Onavo Protect, ZPN, FinchVPN, and TouchVPN. Also, most software VPN services have a monthly payment associated with them. Also, many people say that they have performance issues with VPNs.
How does a VPN affect performance?
Some people may experience some performance issues when using a VPN. This greatly depends on what VPN service you are using. For example, if you contact a VPN server that does not have the best connection to the internet or not running on the best hardware it may be slow at processing your requests. Another thing to consider is the location of the VPN servers. For example, if you're in California and your VPN server is in Tokyo your data will have to travel halfway across the world just to get to your server which can greatly impact performance.
Types of VPNs
One type of VPN is a site-to-site which is used for one private network to have access to another private network and vice versa. Then you have point-to-site VPN which is usually used for remote access the point being your home node and the site being your workplace's local network. There are also Cloud VPNs which is a hosted VPN server you would set up but it's in the cloud. You can also set up VPN chains so your traffic goes through multiple VPN servers to gain extra levels of encryption. Hardware VPNs mean you have a physical device with a dedicated CPU to encrypt and decrypt data versus a software VPN that uses the client CPU.
VPN Protocols
What is a VPN protocol? A VPN protocol is a set of rules that the client and server agree on to have a successful connection to be able to communicate with each other. One way to think about it is humans speak different languages and you have to speak or write in the same language with proper words, spelling, grammar rules, etc to communicate effectively. One VPN protocol is OpenVPN which is an open-source protocol that offers strong encryption using SSL/TLS which employs a 256-bit encryption so secure that even the NSA can't crack it. There is also IKEv2 (Internet key exchange version 2) which was developed by Microsoft and Cisco. This is a good protocol for mobile in particular as it has a fast reconnection speed on an unstable network. Although there are open-source projects that allow you to use IKEv2 on other Operating systems IKEv2 is primarily designed for Windows. Another Protocol is L2TP( Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol ) which connects a user to a VPN server however it does not have encryption so it is usually used with IPsec which makes it secure. One downside to this protocol is it's notoriously slow. This protocol also needs help to bypass some firewalls if that's your goal. Another Protocol is PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) which was originally designed for Microsoft dial-up connections and is rarely used anymore. This is mostly due to the lack of security but it's super easy to set up. Then there is also the Wireguard protocol which is much like the open VPN protocol with good security and is open source however it's new and has little of a user base to test for bugs. Also, it uses the same static VPN IP address every time you connect with a device which is a minor security flaw. Finally, the last VPN protocol is SSTP (Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol) which is very secure and firewalls have a hard time blocking it compared to other protocols however it's a closed source protocol, and there are some compatibility issues with it as it is only supported on Windows without having to implement some other third party tool.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are a lot of different kinds of VPN types to choose from that are each good in certain scenarios. Hopefully, this document has provided clarity on what type of VPN you should set up depending on your scenario and when you would use one versus another.
Works Cited:
- Paloalto, Types of VPN.
- Fortinet, How does a VPN work?.
- Nemchick, Emily, and Step Guide. “6 Common VPN Protocols Explained and Compared,” Avast.
- Risukhin, Artem. “Hardware VPN vs Software VPN: Pros and Cons Explained,” MacPaw.