VPNs, or virtual private networks, come in handy by masking your online activity and location in public. A VPN provides a secure, private and easy way of connecting to an internet service provider’s servers to securely gain access to websites like Facebook and Netflix. But what does it all mean for you? Before we get to all the best VPNs, we should just highlight a few key things about a VPN to help you make sense of the technology and also don’t forget that just by visiting websites like https://www.fortinet.com/resources/cyberglossary/what-is-a-vpn you can get further information about VPNs.

So what is a VPN?

Generally, a VPN is an encryption tool that routes your data between a remote server in a secure way. An example of an encryption tool is a secure connection with an encryption key, like a keyserver. For this post, we’ll be looking at the most common way of obtaining a VPN through the website of most of the best VPNs, and this will probably be the method you’ll be using if you are not already a subscriber to a VPN service.

VPN for Windows What is a VPN, and can I use one?

This is a fairly simple question, and it can be a little confusing if you aren’t aware of exactly what you are getting into when you use a VPN. Just a quick refresher. There are two types of VPNs you can use:

Software VPN (Virtual Private Network) Software VPN (Proxy Server)

The first one is VPN software that enables you to encrypt and communicate over your computer. However, if you are just curious about what VPNs are and what they can do, you can start with the VPNs featured on this site or read more about what a VPN is. To be specific, a VPN’s purpose is to create a secure connection between a host (the server) and a client (your computer). This particular example of a VPN is called a Virtual Private Network or VPN.

A VPN does not automatically change your IP address to the server; instead, the VPN server will maintain a “one-way mirror” of your local IP address to the server (which is why all your internet traffic is sent from your local network to the server instead of going to your computer and then back out again), making it impossible for anyone from outside the location to intercept the traffic. In other words, a VPN doesn’t work if there is a physical link (wire or WiFi) that gets crossed from your computer to the server.