Whether you work from a regular office, remote office, or on the street with a Linux device, a Linux VPN is one of the ideal ways to guard yourself on the internet. But how efficient are VPNs, and which is the best one for you? What are the downfalls to using a VPN? Our official guide will answer all your VPN-related questions -- including a few you probably haven't thought to ask.

What exactly is a VPN?

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) aims to provide you with security and privacy as you communicate over the internet.

A VPN builds a private tunnel over the open internet. The idea is that everything you transfer is encapsulated in this private communications channel and encrypted, so even if your packets are intercepted -- hackers can't decipher them. VPNs are potent and essential tools to protect yourself and your data, but they do have limitations.

How does it work?

Let's begin with the basic idea of internet communication. Imagine you're at your desk and you want to access a website. For this purpose, your computer inducts a request by sending some packets. If you're in an office, these packets often move through switches and routers on your LAN ere they are transferred to the free internet through a router.

Once on the free internet, those packets move through a bunch of computers. A separate request is made to several name servers to translate the DNS name to an IP address. That data is transferred back to your browser, then it sends the request, again, through a stack of computers on the public internet. Gradually, it reaches the infrastructure, which also passes those packets, grasps a web page, and sends all that back to you.

All internet requests usually result in a whole series of communication events between multiple points. A Linux VPN operates by encrypting those packets at the starting point, often protecting the data and the information about your generated IP address. The VPN software on your end then conveys those packets to the VPN server at some destination point, decrypting that information.

Bottomline

When you're at a distance from home or the office, and you connect to the internet, you'll most often be doing so through Wi-Fi provided by your hotel or the eatery, library, or coffee shop you're operating out of at that moment. Seldom, Wi-Fi has a password. Other times, it will be open. In both cases, you have no idea who else is accessing that network, and hence, you have no idea who might be noticing your traffic. Therefore, if you're a Linux user, you must use Linux VPN on the go.