What Is VPN Tunneling (And How Does It Work)?

We are in an age where everything is turned into data. What we look at online is stored into data, and turned into suitable advertisements. Where we go out to eat is stored, along with our favorite coffee houses and bars.

The people we interact with both in person and online are saved and stored as data on our phones, computers and laptops. Even the conversations we have can be recorded and stored by our handy phone assistants, and used to personalize ads and suggestions on our social media accounts. Online data is now the hive and hub of our lives.

As a result, you will want to protect that data about yourself, and preserve your privacy. When you scroll online, you may not realize how much information about yourself is vulnerable to attack or to theft, and so you may be looking for a way to protect yourself. This is where VPNs come in handy.

What is a VPN?

A VPN is a means of establishing a secure and stable connection between you and the internet.

When using a VPN, all of your online data traffic is encrypted and routed through a protected virtual tunnel, which in turn disguises your information and IP address. This can help you keep your IP location and address invisible to other internet users, and also help keep your data and yourself secure from external attacks.

In the most basic sense, a VPN will hide your IP address, along with your physical location and information as it encrypts and protects your internet data and traffic. This means that no one will be able to trace your internet usage to you, so that they cannot tell who you are, where you are, or what you are looking at and doing online.

You can use a VPN to protect your data on many different devices, they are not just for computers. VPNs can be utilized for iPhones, iPads, Android devices and other devices that can access the internet.

What is VPN Tunneling?

VPN tunneling is an encrypted and protected link between your computer, phone or online devices and outside networks. This provides an extra barrier of defense between you and online external attacks.

A VPN tunnel, or a virtual private network tunnel is a means of cloaking your online activity, information, and making it more covert. A VPN tunnel works by connecting your smartphone, computer or table to another network, which hides your IP address, and protects all of the data that is generated whilst you surf the internet.

What this means is that by using a VPN tunnel, you can hide your information from other people. This in turn means that you can keep government bodies, hackers, businesses, companies and anyone from tracking your online activity, data, or viewing your IP address.

Keeping your IP address is paramount to your safety online as it actually can identify your physical address and location.

By using a VPN tunnel, you can successfully protect yourself from online attacks, hackers, and any breaches in your personal or online data. Our whole lives are now online, with information on social media, documents on our work laptops, and even our frequent locations stored on our phones and email accounts.

A VPN tunnel protects you from having this information breached to anyone. This is especially important if you are using public Wi-Fi networks at hotels, coffee shops or restaurants, as this makes it much easier for hackers to gain access into your data.

To use a VPN tunnel, you will need to connect to the internet using the VPN tunnel everytime. You will have to sign up to a VPN service, and log into your VPN provider’s service every time you surf the web. Only then will you be able to hide your search, IP address and activity.

VPN Tunneling Protocols

There are various types of VPN tunnels available, and each of them work in different ways.

PPTP

This is Point to Point tunneling, which is one of the oldest methods in use. This is a fast connecting VPN protocol, however its protection is a little outdated, and can be breached by outsiders due to its weaknesses.

SSTP

Secure Socket Tunneling protocol is only available on Windows operating systems, but is incredibly secure and a great choice for the ultimate protection. In addition, it does not use fixed ports so the SSTP protocol can get through firewalls.

L2TP/IPSec

Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol is a step forward from the basic PPTP protocol. This type of tunneling offers two types of protection, with encryption and security. As it has two layers of protection, it can be extremely reliable, but it will slow down your connection speeds when online, which is a little disheartening.

In addition, it has been known to get blocked by firewalls, as it uses fixed ports.

Open VPN

If you want a really strong protection when you are online, then try a VPN provider that uses the Open VPN protocol. This type of VPN tunneling works with the majority of operating systems, including Windows, Linux, Apple, along with Android systems for mobiles and iOS systems for iPhones.

The Open VPN tunneling protocol is widely considered the best of the best when it comes t o VPN tunneling, and will offer you the best encryption and protection for your data and activity online.

Summary

To summarize, VPN tunneling is a useful technology that will help keep your identity safe, activity hidden, data and IP address encrypted whilst online. This is paramount to ensuring that no one can breach your data on the internet or use your personal data against you.

However, you should remember that you will need to enable VPN protection on any devices that you use the internet on, as you will not be fully protected. Just remember to always sign in whenever you want to surf the web!