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What is a VPN? Virtual Private Networks 101

VPN stands for virtual private network — a software that helps secure your access to the internet by establishing a protected and private connection, even when accessing from a public network. A VPN will:

Make your browsing private
Hide your IP (Internet Protocol) address
Stop your internet provider from tracking you

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What is a VPN? Virtual Private Networks 101

You need a VPN if you want to:

Stay secure when using public Wi-Fi hotspots.
Make your activities online safer.
Access more internet content and bypass censorship.
Ensure you’re not tracked or recorded online.
Make price discrimination work for you.

Safety online & offline

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How does a VPN work?

VPN creates a secure connection

Connecting to the internet via a VPN establishes a secure virtual tunnel between the VPN and one of its servers. This tunnel is then used to transfer all your internet traffic.

VPN changes your IP address

Once your internet traffic goes through the VPN tunnel, your IP address changes. This means that websites and services consider you to connect from where your selected server is located.

VPN encrypts your data

To ensure the tunneling process is secure, VPN hides your data under code (encrypts it) so no information can escape and no one can identify who you are.

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How does a VPN work?

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What is VPN tunneling?

What is VPN tunneling?

A VPN tunnel is a secure connection between your device and the server.

Tunneling relies on encapsulation, which hides VPN communications on the public internet. Anyone checking your internet connection will see that you are using a VPN, but not what you’re doing.

There are many ways to create a VPN tunnel, and that’s why multiple VPN protocols exist.

What is a VPN server?

A VPN server is just a standard internet server configured with VPN software.

If you try to connect to a VPN server, it will ask for proof that you have a VPN client. Once you’re in, all your traffic goes through this server. Anyone watching from outside can only see a mess of random internet data going in and out of the server. Hence, your whereabouts remain unknown.

What is a VPN server?

So, what can a VPN do for you?

Protect you on public Wi-Fi

Protect you on public Wi-Fi

Free public Wi-Fi is handy when you’re on the go. Sadly, it is unsafe and makes you vulnerable even to basic cyberattacks. A VPN encrypts your online data and secures your personal information.

Mask your browsing

Mask your browsing

Masking your IP address is essential to secure online privacy. A Virtual Private Network ensures that your location and browsing history are hidden. This way, you can surf without anyone trying to steer your choices.

Unlock censored websites

Unlock censored websites

Access to various websites is restricted in many countries due to geoblocking and censorship. You can unblock sites by connecting to a VPN server based in a different country.

Avoid personal data sales

Avoid personal data sales

Your browsing data is valuable to data brokers and marketers. A VPN hides your browsing habits & other data, making it less attractive to all sorts of business entities.

Provide safe & fast streaming

Provide safe & fast streaming

With a VPN, you can be private when enjoying your favorite streaming services. Our ultra-fast servers and unlimited bandwidth will ensure a throttle and buffer-free experience.

Reduce price discrimination

Reduce price discrimination

Websites and services use your location and cookies to tailor prices for their goods. With a VPN, you can avoid such marketing practices and save a buck when shopping online.

Interested in more details? Read our article on the benefits of a VPN!

Disclaimer: We prohibit using Surfshark services for any unlawful purposes as it is against our Terms of Service. Please be sure to act in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations of streaming service providers.

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What does a VPN hide?

A VPN hides a lot, but not everything. In fact, the only way to hide everything is to never go online in the first place. But to explain the subject further, we have prepared the following table:

Can you hide this?	With a VPN	Without a VPN
IP address	Hidden	Exposed
Location	Hidden	Exposed
Browsing habits	Hidden	Exposed
Internet traffic	Encrypted	Exposed
E-mail you use to register	Exposed	Exposed
Credit card information used for purchases	Exposed	Exposed
Googling when signed in to your Google account	Exposed	Exposed
Information you put on social media	Exposed	Exposed
Targeted ads	Minimal	Very frequent

If you’d like to know more, read our article What does a VPN hide?

Does a VPN make you fully anonymous?

No, a VPN does not make you totally anonymous. In fact, there is no way you can be fully anonymous on the web.

What you can do is significantly enhance your online privacy with a VPN. While it doesn’t hide all the traces of your internet use, it hides a lot.

Does a VPN make you fully anonymous?

What is an IP address, and why can others see it?

What is an IP address, and why can others see it?

An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a digital label used to achieve communication between networks. It serves the purpose of identifying:

The host (you);
Your location in the network.

This means that without a VPN, the data traveling over the internet display your IP address at all times, allowing websites to gather information about you. Here a VPN steps in and hides your IP address and location, ensuring your privacy online.

What is encryption, and how does it work?

Encryption is what VPNs use to encode and secure your data. An encrypted message would look like complete gibberish to anyone else unless they had a key to decode it.

The VPN client and server generate and exchange this key when you first connect to a VPN. Every time your data travels through the encrypted tunnel – it’s scrambled and later unscrambled using this key.

So how powerful is encryption? Well, it depends on what you use. The AES 256-bit cipher is considered the best encryption algorithm and is used by the US government, the NSA, and reliable VPN service providers, including Surfshark.

What is encryption, and how does it work?

How secure is VPN?

A VPN is very secure if it uses the best encryption & connection protocols, as Surfshark does.

Most security measures bank on making themselves too tedious to crack. For example, an encrypted session could take up to trillions of years to decode (depending on the computer used).

And even if someone managed to crack it, many VPN providers like Surfshark have implemented something called Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS). This means that a VPN client generates a new key every 7 minutes or so.ng an encrypted connection. They prey on people who don’t protect themselves online and on public Wi-Fi hotspots.

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What are the types of VPNs?

While there is no hard-and-fast ISO-approved classification of VPN types, here are the currently agreed-upon definitions:

Remote access VPN

Remote access VPN

Remote access VPN allows the user to connect to a remote network securely. It helps simulate the level of security you’d have by connecting to that network from a safe location. You’ve probably encountered it during the work-from-home boom if you needed to access the company intranet outside of the office.

Site-to-site VPN

Site-to-site VPN

Site-to-site VPNs connect intranets to networks. This is useful for large companies with offices all over the world. So while the office intranets are spread out all over the place, the site-to-site VPN connects them into a single, seamless network that employees can use without having to configure and connect to other networks - or worse, have to ask colleagues in other offices to forward the data.

Personal VPN

Personal VPN

Personal VPNs - or consumer-grade VPNs - are meant for individual users. Instead of connecting to a different network, it connects them to a VPN server in a secure, encrypted manner. The benefit of this is that when a user accesses a website or service via a personal VPN, said website or service thinks they’re connecting from the VPN server. Surfshark et al are personal VPNs.

VPN protocols

VPN protocols do not significantly impact your connection’s speed, stability, and security. However, they determine how your VPN connections work from start to finish. Here are some that you may come across:

OpenVPN

OpenVPN

OpenVPN is an open-source VPN protocol. It’s fast, secure and compatible with many routers. Because it is open-sourced, its code has been examined through and through by cybersecurity experts worldwide. Generally, it performs worse than IKEV2 and WireGuard.

Available on: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, and BSD.

Supported by Surfshark: Yes

Wireguard®

Wireguard®

WireGuard® is a relatively new protocol built to surpass OpenVPN and IPSec in power use and performance with only 4,000 lines of code.

Available on: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and others.

Supported by Surfshark: Yes

IKEv2/IPSec

IKEv2/IPSec

Internet Key Exchange version 2 (IKEv2) is on par with WireGuard’s quality. It can outperform other protocols in terms of speed when switching networks and at shorter distance connections, making it popular among mobile users.

Available on: macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, Blackberry, Unix, and others.

Supported by Surfshark: Yes

PPTP and LT2P/IPSec

PPTP and LT2P/IPSec

Both are severely outdated tunneling protocols, and I highly recommend avoiding them. Albeit fast, they can offer neither the security nor reliability of OpenVPN, IKEv2, or WireGuard.

Available on: Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.

Supported by Surfshark: No

SSTP

SSTP

SSTP is a tunneling protocol rather than a VPN protocol, meaning that it lacks the functionality of OpenVPN, IKEv2, and WireGuard. While considered relatively safe and easy to use, its code was never audited, and it has issues working on other operating systems like Mac OS.

Available on: Windows, Linux, and BSD.

Supported by Surfshark: No

Shadowsocks

Shadowsocks

Shadowsocks is not a VPN protocol but a tunneling proxy. However, it can run as a protocol on VPN clients. It was created for the sole purpose of bypassing The Great Firewall of China. It is fast, hard to detect, and can be used to skirt government-imposed censorship.

Available on: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, and Linux.

Supported by Surfshark: No

How to pick a VPN service

Let’s say, hypothetically, that I have awakened a deep yearning for a VPN in your soul. The question is, then, how do you choose one?

Here are the essential things to look out for before choosing a VPN service provider:

Server coverage

Server coverage

A strong VPN provider should have good worldwide VPN server coverage. This will give you more locations to choose from and will decrease server load.

VPN encryption

VPN encryption

A secure VPN encryption algorithm is essential. Make sure to look for the AES-256 cipher – a current standard in the industry.

Server load

Server load

If there aren’t enough servers to balance the user load, connection speeds will suffer and become slow.

VPN protocols

VPN protocols

Protocols are vital to a VPN’s security, and you can use different ones based on your preference. I recommend you look for services that offer OpenVPN, IKEv2, or WireGuard.

MultiHop

MultiHop

It is a VPN feature that directs your traffic through several servers simultaneously. It is not essential, but it can give your online security an extra kick.

Obfuscated VPN servers

Obfuscated VPN servers

When obfuscated (a fancy term for making something obscure), a VPN server will make your traffic seem like regular internet traffic. This helps to bypass VPN blockers and win hide-and-seek against your internet provider.

Device support

Device support

Before purchasing a VPN, make sure it supports the device you wish to secure. It happens. We’ve all been there.

RAM-only servers

RAM-only servers

These are becoming a staple for any VPN service. When running on RAM, servers automatically wipe all the data whenever turned off.

The Privacy Policy

The Privacy Policy

It is one of the most important parts of any VPN service. It’s an immediate red flag if your VPN provider does not have a Privacy Policy or if they’re logging sensitive information without any stated reason.

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How to set up a VPN in three easy steps

Purchase a VPN subscription

1. Get a VPN subscription

Download a VPN application

2. Download a VPN application

Set up a VPN manually

3. Connect to a VPN via an app or manually

Install Surfshark on all your devices

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Or set the VPN up on your router!

Or set the VPN up on your router!

If you have many devices to cover – try to set up VPN on a router! Just one router connection allows you to protect your household, securing all, even VPN app-incompatible devices.

FAQ

How to test if a VPN is working?

The easiest way to check whether your VPN is working is by performing a DNS leak check. Turn off the VPN, perform the test, and check your IP. After that, connect to a VPN and do the same test again. If your VPN works, the IP addresses you get should be different.

And if you want a more detailed description, check out this blog post for more ways to see if your VPN is working.

What devices are VPNs compatible with?

Device compatibility always depends on the VPN provider. Surfshark supports apps and plugins on most computer and mobile devices, smart TVs, and consoles.

What is a no-logging or a no-logs VPN?

No logging means handling users’ data without keeping any logs or records of their online activity. In short, a no-logs VPN will not collect the following information about your internet activity:

Your IP address;
Your network traffic;
Your browsing history;
Your bandwidth information;
Connection timestamps;
Session information.

Are VPNs legal?

The short answer is yes – VPNs are legal in most countries. However, it is still against the law to use a VPN for illegal activities.

Some countries ban VPNs for political and legislative purposes like internet access control and stunting freedom of speech. Yet, most countries do not forbid their use.

What is a VPN web browser? Can I use it?

A VPN browser has a built-in VPN protocol that protects the user’s browser resources. Not everything that is advertised as a VPN browser is one. Some are just privacy browsers.

Can a VPN make my internet connection faster?

In some cases, yes. If you’re streaming or downloading something, your ISP (Internet Service Provider) may throttle, i.e., slow down your internet connection. They do this to save on and distribute bandwidth across their internet users. But since a VPN hides your traffic, your internet service provider lacks the information to throttle you.

However, in most other cases, a VPN will not make your connection faster because it adds extra steps to accompany your connection. By default, the prolonged process may slow your connection, but it will hardly be noticeable.

How much does a VPN cost?

VPN prices vary across different VPN providers. Here is a table of price comparisons from some of the better-known VPNs:

Time period	Surfshark	Nord VPN	Express VPN	Private Internet Access
3 years	–	–	–	$2.03
2 years	$2.49	$3.99	–	–
1 year	$3.99	$5.84	$8.32	$3.33
6 months	–	–	$9.99	–
1 month	$12.95	$12.89	$12.95	$11.95

Can't I use a free VPN?

You can, but you shouldn’t.

A VPN uses servers to reroute your information. Thousands of these servers are scattered worldwide, costing money to set up and maintain. The same goes for developers and everyone else that works to keep the VPN functioning.

In other words – free VPNs don’t exist because no VPN services are free to maintain. It’s all a question of where the VPN service is getting its funding. Mainly there are three ways to do this:

Setting up a subscription;
Bombarding the user with ads;
Collecting and selling the user’s information.

A “free” VPN often does numbers two and three simultaneously. So, be careful when choosing a VPN service provider!

Is VPN safe?

Yes, VPN is safe as long as it’s not a free VPN.

What happens if you don't use a VPN?

When not using a VPN, you are easier to track, the ISP can get your internet browsing history, and you may experience bandwidth throttling.

Remember, there are more reasons why you should use a VPN.

What makes your data valuable?

Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and websites can monitor, log, and later sell the information connected to your browsing, e-shopping, and other habits. This data is valuable to ad brokers and service providers because it reveals patterns in your actions, such as likes, hobbies, and interests. They can later use this to make product offers you’re more likely to buy.

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