VPN Virtual Private Network Basics

virtual private network basics from meta glasses store

Last Updated on June 22, 2022 by Meta Glasses Store

VPN stands for “Virtual Private Network”. A VPN is a service that protects the privacy of your internet connection. Whether you are shopping online, conducting online research, playing online games or any other activity that requires an internet connection. When shopping for Virtual Reality Hardware from Meta Glasses Store, privacy needs to be considered.

Without a VPN, your privacy can be exposed online. A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel to the various data connection points that you make online, which then protects your online identity by hiding your Internet Protocal (IP) address.

An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two main functions: network interface identification and location addressing.

A more simple example is your home address and how that information allows the post office to deliver mail to you. They can not deliver mail to you without an address, and you can not get on the internet without an IP address.

Since you do not want everyone in the world to know where you live, in a similar fashion, you can hide your IP address to accomplish the same thing.

What Is Your Public IP Address Right Now?

See your current IP Address as the internet world sees it.

Assuming that you clicked the link above and checked your own IP Address just now, see all of that information? From that set of numbers, with the right tools, one can pretty much figure out your physical location, your internet service provider and more. It is pretty alarming right?

What Does A VPN Do?

A proper VPN will take the information from your IP address and mask it. Basically, it will expose the VPN server information (since some type of IP address is required to access the internet) and hide your actual information. A proper VPN will also encrypt your data which can lead to also protecting your devices.

You can choose to appear to be located in a different country and more. Matter of fact, people in countries where freedom of speech is heavily limited rely on VPN’s to communicate with others for the purposes of doing their work and the like.

Someone who requires extra security for sensitive data and more will also use a VPN to hide their IP address. Please note, there are various types and security levels of VPN providers. Hence, why we can not make recommendations on which VPN provider to select that is best for your needs.

A couple of good questions to always ask a VPN provider is what is their policy regarding the storage of information and access to log files.

What Does VPN Tunneling Actually Do?

When a Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunnel is created, it must first “authenticate” the “client”. In this case, a “client” is your computer, smartphone, or tablet (or any other like device) with a VPN “server”.

Authenticate basically means that yes, this device or customer (you) does in fact have an account with the provider. If during the authentication process there are issues, it could be as simple as a billing issue or a local area internet access issue.

Once authenticated, the server then uses one of several encryption protocols (often dependent of the level of security needed) to make sure that your connection is secure, and that no one can monitor the information traveling between your client device and your online destination.

Generally, before data is sent and received over the internet, data first needs to be split into “packets”. To help ensure each data packet stays secure, a VPN service wraps it in an exterior packet, which is then encrypted through a process called “encapsulation”.

This exterior packet keeps the data secure during the transfer of data and is a primary element of a VPN tunnel. When your data arrives at the VPN server, the outer packet is removed which then allows access to the data within. This stage requires a decryption process.

After the VPN tunnel is established, your device sends out encrypted information. A VPN Server decrypts it and forwards the information to the designated web server (the website that you visiting, etc). It also hides your real IP address before sending the data.

Instead, at least publicly, you will appear to have the IP address of the VPN server that you are connected to rather than exposing your actual information. When the website that you are visiting responds to the data request, the VPN server once again encrypts the data and sends it to you.

The final step occurs once the data reaches your client device. The VPN will then decrypt the data once more.

Now that your internet connection is masked and secure, shop our Virtual Reality Optics and Hardware!