If you need a more reliable and robust arrangement (one that also supports site-to-site connections), consider using a dedicated VPN router. If you’d like to network multiple computers together quickly through a VPN, consider installing stand-alone VPN server software.
If you want simple remote access to a single computer, consider using the VPN software built into Windows.
Now, let’s talk about how to create and connect to your own VPN. Instead, they use their own proprietary VPN technology. Keep in mind that some of the services highlighted in the next section don’t use these protocols. In short: When in doubt, try to use SSL or OpenVPN. Here’s a quick rundown, including the strengths and weaknesses of each. When choosing a networking protocol for your VPN, you need worry only about the four most popular ones. Because your Internet traffic routes through the VPN, it looks as if you’re just another British visitor. Journalists and political dissidents use VPNs to get around state-sponsored censorship all the time, but you can also use a VPN for recreational purposes, such as connecting to a British VPN to watch the BBC iPlayer outside the UK. Because the VPN encrypts your Internet traffic, it helps to stymie other people who may be trying to snoop on your browsing via Wi-Fi to capture your passwords.įourth and finally, one of the best reasons to use a VPN is to circumvent regional restrictions-known as geoblocking-on certain websites. Third, if you’re concerned about your online privacy, connecting to an encrypted VPN while you’re on a public or untrusted network-such as a Wi-Fi hotspot in a hotel or coffee shop-is a smart, simple security practice. This diagram illustrates the difference between using an unencrypted connection and using a VPN-secured Internet connection at your average coffee shop. Even if you don’t have a chain of offices to worry about, you can use the same trick to connect multiple home networks or other networks for personal use.
For this reason, most businesses big and small rely on a VPN to share servers and other networked resources among multiple offices or stores across the globe. Second, VPNs are particularly useful for connecting multiple networks together securely. Most companies maintain VPNs so that employees can access files, applications, printers, and other resources on the office network without compromising security, but you can also set up your own VPN to safely access your secure home network while you’re on the road. First, you can use it to connect securely to a remote network via the Internet. You have at least four great reasons to start using a VPN.
In fact, the lion’s share of modern VPNs are encrypted, so computers, devices, and other networks that connect to them do so via encrypted tunnels. But VPNs connect to the outside world over the Internet, and they can serve to secure general Internet traffic in addition to corporate assets. Lost amid today’s VPN conversation, however, is the fact that virtual private networks are much more than just pipelines for connecting remote employees to central work servers.Īnd that’s a damn shame, because VPNs can be helpful tools for protecting online privacy, and you need not be an office drone to enjoy their benefits.Ī VPN, as its name suggests, is just a virtual version of a secure, physical network-a web of computers linked together to share files and other resources. Marissa Mayer made Yahoo’s VPN famous by using it to check on the work habits of her employees.