A VPN is one of the most widely used tools for improving online privacy, securing remote connections, and protecting data on untrusted networks. Businesses use VPNs to connect employees to internal systems, while individual users rely on them when using public Wi-Fi, accessing home networks remotely, or reducing how much information their Internet connection exposes.
But what does a VPN actually do?
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) creates an encrypted connection between your device and a VPN server. Instead of sending Internet traffic directly through your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to its destination, your traffic first passes through this encrypted VPN tunnel.
That can provide meaningful privacy and security benefits, but a Virtual Private Network is not a complete cybersecurity solution. It also introduces new considerations, including trust in the VPN provider, connection speed, DNS configuration, and potential privacy risks.
In this article, we will explain why people use VPNs, how they work, their main benefits and disadvantages, and the situations where using one makes the most sense.
What is a VPN?
A Virtual Private Network, is a technology that creates a secure connection between two points over an existing network such as the Internet.
For most users, those two points are:
Your device → Virtual Private Network server
Once the connection is established, network traffic can travel through an encrypted tunnel between them.
The VPN server then communicates with websites, applications, APIs, and other Internet services on your behalf.
Without a VPN, a typical connection might look like this:
Your device → ISP → Website
With a VPN:
Your device → Encrypted VPN tunnel → Virtual Private Network server → Website
From the website’s perspective, the connection generally appears to originate from the VPN server rather than directly from your public IP address.
VPN technology is also widely used inside businesses. Instead of connecting users to the public Internet, a corporate Virtual Private Network may connect remote employees securely to private company networks, servers, databases, or internal applications.
How does a VPN work?
When you connect to a VPN, several processes happen behind the scenes.
First, the VPN client on your device establishes a connection with a Virtual Private Network server. The client and server authenticate each other and negotiate how the connection will be protected.
Once the secure connection is created, packets travelling through the Virtual Private Network are encrypted and encapsulated.
In simplified form, the process looks like this:
- Your application creates Internet traffic.
- The operating system sends the traffic toward the VPN interface.
- The VPN software encrypts the packets.
- The encrypted data travels through the Internet to the Virtual Private Network server.
- The VPN server decrypts the traffic.
- The server forwards the request to its final destination.
- The response returns to the Virtual Private Network server.
- The response is encrypted again and sent through the Virtual Private Network tunnel.
- Your Virtual Private Network client decrypts it.
- The application receives the response.
The encryption prevents intermediaries between your device and the VPN server from easily reading the contents of the VPN traffic.
However, the connection between the Virtual Private Network server and the final destination is a separate matter. HTTPS and other end-to-end encryption protocols are still important even when you use a Virtual Private Network.
Why use a Virtual Private Network?
People use VPNs for several different reasons, but the most common ones are privacy, security, remote access, and network flexibility.
A Virtual Private Network can help when you want to:
- Protect traffic on an untrusted network
- Hide your public IP address from websites
- Connect securely to a company network
- Access devices on your home network remotely
- Reduce visibility of your browsing destinations to a local network operator
- Secure connections between offices or data centers
- Use Internet services through a server in another geographic location
The exact benefits depend heavily on the type of Virtual Private Network and how it is configured.
Main benefits of using a Virtual Private Network
1. VPNs encrypt network traffic
One of the biggest benefits of a Virtual Private Network is encryption.
If you connect to an insecure or untrusted network, such as public Wi-Fi in an airport, hotel, conference center, or café, other parties on that network may attempt to monitor or manipulate traffic.
A VPN encrypts the connection between your device and the Virtual Private Network server.
An observer on the local network may still be able to determine that you are connected to a Virtual Private Network server, but the contents of the encrypted tunnel are much harder to inspect.
It is worth remembering that Virtual Private Network encryption does not replace HTTPS. Ideally, your connection should use both.
That gives you:
VPN encryption between your device and Virtual Private Network server
and
HTTPS encryption between your browser and the website
These layers protect different parts of the communication path.
2. A VPN can hide your public IP address
When you access a website normally, the destination can see the public IP address used by your connection.
When you use a VPN, websites generally see the public IP address of the Virtual Private Network server instead.
This provides a degree of separation between your Internet connection and the services you access.
Your IP address can reveal information such as your approximate geographic region and Internet provider. Replacing it with the Virtual Private Network server’s address can reduce some forms of IP-based tracking.
However, hiding your IP address does not automatically make you anonymous.
Websites can still identify or track users through accounts, cookies, browser fingerprinting, advertising identifiers, and other techniques.
3. VPNs improve security on public Wi-Fi
Public Wi-Fi networks are convenient, but you usually have little control over how they are configured.
You may not know:
- Who operates the network
- Whether the access point is legitimate
- Whether other users can communicate with your device
- Whether network traffic is being monitored
- Whether DNS requests are being intercepted
Using a Virtual Private Network creates an encrypted tunnel before your traffic crosses the untrusted network.
For people who regularly work from hotels, airports, shared offices, or cafés, this can be particularly useful.
4. Secure remote access for businesses
VPNs are extremely important in corporate networking.
A remote-access VPN allows employees outside the office to connect securely to internal resources.
For example:
Remote employee → VPN gateway → Internal company network
Once authenticated, the employee may be able to access:
- Internal applications
- File servers
- Development environments
- Databases
- Administrative systems
- Monitoring platforms
- Private cloud resources
Without a Virtual Private Network or another secure access system, exposing these resources directly to the public Internet could create unnecessary security risks.
5. Secure connections between networks
VPNs are not limited to individual users.
Organizations can create site-to-site VPNs between separate networks.
For example:
Office A → encrypted tunnel → Office B
A company with offices in different cities or countries can use these tunnels to transfer traffic securely over the public Internet.
Site-to-site VPNs are also commonly used to connect:
- Data centers
- Cloud environments
- Branch offices
- Private networks
- Infrastructure providers
IPsec is frequently used for this type of network-to-network VPN connection.
6. Remote access to your home network
A VPN can also be hosted privately.
Instead of paying for a commercial VPN provider, you can operate a VPN server on a router, home server, VPS, or another device.
When travelling, you can connect back to your own network securely.
This can give you access to:
- Home servers
- Network Attached Storage (NAS)
- Smart home management systems
- Development environments
- Internal dashboards
- Private files
It essentially extends access to your private network through an encrypted tunnel.
7. Greater control over your network path
When using a VPN, your Internet traffic exits through the Virtual Private Network server.
This changes the route that traffic takes through the Internet.
In some situations, a different network path can bypass poor routing between your ISP and a particular service.
However, this is not guaranteed to improve performance. A Virtual Private Network can just as easily add latency because the traffic must travel through an additional server.
Common VPN use cases
Virtual Private Network technology has both personal and professional applications.
Remote work
Remote work is one of the most common business VPN use cases.
Employees connect to a VPN gateway before accessing protected corporate systems.
Authentication may include:
- Username and password
- Digital certificates
- Multi-factor authentication
- Hardware security keys
More advanced environments may combine Virtual Private Network access with identity management, endpoint security, device policies, and Zero Trust controls.
Public Wi-Fi
Travellers and remote workers often use VPNs when connecting to unfamiliar networks.
Instead of trusting the local Wi-Fi infrastructure with their traffic, they establish an encrypted tunnel to a trusted Virtual Private Network endpoint.
Administration of servers
System administrators sometimes use VPNs to restrict management interfaces to a private network.
Instead of exposing SSH, database administration panels, monitoring tools, or control interfaces directly to the Internet, access can be limited to users connected through the VPN.
This can significantly reduce the public attack surface.
Connecting branch offices
Businesses can establish permanent Virtual Private Network tunnels between offices.
Traffic between those networks is then encrypted while travelling over the public Internet.
Cloud infrastructure
VPNs are also commonly used to connect corporate networks with cloud environments.
For example:
Office network → Virtual Private Network → Cloud Virtual Private Network
This allows private services hosted in a cloud environment to communicate securely with on-premises infrastructure.
Development and testing
Developers may use VPNs to access staging systems, test servers, internal APIs, or development infrastructure that should not be publicly accessible.
Changing the apparent connection location
Because websites see the VPN server’s IP address, a Virtual Private Network can make a connection appear to originate from the server’s location.
However, services may use additional signals to determine location, and some platforms restrict or block VPN usage.
Users should always comply with the applicable service terms and local regulations.
VPN risks and disadvantages
VPNs are useful, but they are not without trade-offs.
You are transferring trust to the VPN provider
Without a VPN, your ISP handles your connection to the wider Internet.
With a commercial VPN, your encrypted traffic first passes through the Virtual Private Network provider’s infrastructure.
This means you are not eliminating trust. You are changing who you trust.
A Virtual Private Network provider may potentially have access to information such as:
- Your source IP address
- Connection times
- VPN server used
- Traffic volume
- DNS requests, depending on the configuration
- Destination information in certain situations
Claims such as “no logs” should therefore be evaluated carefully.
A Virtual Private Network can reduce Internet speed
Encryption requires processing, and sending traffic through an additional server can increase the distance packets must travel.
VPN performance depends on several factors:
- VPN server location
- Server load
- Your connection speed
- Virtual Private Network protocol
- Encryption implementation
- Routing between your ISP and Virtual Private Network provider
- Hardware performance
A nearby, well-connected VPN server may add very little latency.
A distant or overloaded server can make the connection noticeably slower.
VPN connections can fail
VPN services are still network services.
Servers can become unavailable, routes can fail, and client software can encounter problems.
For privacy-sensitive use cases, many Virtual Private Network applications therefore provide a kill switch.
A kill switch blocks Internet traffic if the Virtual Private Network tunnel unexpectedly disconnects, preventing traffic from falling back to the normal connection.
Some applications may bypass the VPN
Not every VPN configuration routes all traffic through the encrypted tunnel.
With split tunneling, some applications or destinations use the VPN while others use the normal Internet connection.
Split tunneling can improve performance and reduce unnecessary VPN traffic, but incorrect configuration may expose traffic that users expected to protect.
Websites can still track you
A Virtual Private Network hides or replaces your network-level IP address, but modern tracking does not depend only on IP addresses.
Services can still identify users using:
- Login accounts
- Browser cookies
- Fingerprinting
- Tracking pixels
- Device identifiers
- Application telemetry
A VPN should therefore be considered one component of a broader privacy strategy.
VPN and DNS: How do they work together?
DNS plays an important role in Virtual Private Network connections because most Internet applications use domain names rather than raw IP addresses.
When you visit:
example.com
your device first needs to discover the IP address associated with that hostname.
Normally, your DNS request may be sent to a resolver operated by your ISP, network administrator, or a public DNS service.
When a VPN is active, the Virtual Private Network software can change your system’s DNS configuration so that DNS requests travel through the Virtual Private Network tunnel.
The path might then look like this:
Device → Virtual Private Network tunnel → DNS resolver
instead of:
Device → ISP DNS resolver
This is important because DNS queries can reveal which domain names a device is attempting to access.
A properly configured Virtual Private Network should therefore consider both normal Internet traffic and DNS traffic.
What is a DNS leak?
A DNS leak happens when DNS requests bypass the Virtual Private Network tunnel and are sent through another network connection.
For example, your browser traffic may travel through the Virtual Private Network, while your DNS requests still go directly to your ISP’s resolver.
The connection could look like this:
Website traffic → VPN
but:
DNS queries → ISP
This weakens the privacy benefits of the VPN because the DNS resolver may still see which domains your device requests.
DNS leaks can occur because of:
- Incorrect Virtual Private Network configuration
- Operating system behavior
- Split tunneling
- IPv6 configuration
- Virtual Private Network client bugs
- Manually configured DNS servers
Reliable VPN configurations typically push specific DNS resolver settings to the client and route those DNS requests through the encrypted tunnel.
Organizations running their own Virtual Private Network infrastructure can also operate private DNS resolvers accessible only through the VPN.
VPN protocols explained
A Virtual Private Network protocol defines how the encrypted connection between the client and server is created and maintained.
Several protocols are commonly used.
WireGuard
WireGuard is a modern Virtual Private Network protocol designed around a relatively small codebase and a streamlined cryptographic design.
It is known for:
- Strong modern cryptography
- Fast connection establishment
- Good performance
- Relatively simple configuration
- Support across major operating systems
WireGuard uses UDP and relies on public-key cryptography to authenticate peers.
It is increasingly common in both personal and infrastructure-oriented Virtual Private Network deployments.
OpenVPN
OpenVPN is a mature and widely supported Virtual Private Network solution.
It can operate over UDP or TCP and uses TLS-based mechanisms for authentication and key exchange.
Its strengths include:
- Broad platform support
- Flexible authentication
- Extensive configuration options
- Long history of deployment
OpenVPN can be particularly useful when compatibility and configuration flexibility are important.
IKEv2/IPsec
IKEv2 is commonly used together with IPsec to establish secure Virtual Private Network connections.
It performs especially well when network connectivity changes, which can make it useful for mobile devices switching between Wi-Fi and cellular networks.
IPsec provides encryption and authentication at the IP layer.
L2TP/IPsec
L2TP itself does not provide encryption, so it is often paired with IPsec.
It remains supported by many operating systems but is generally less attractive for new deployments compared with newer alternatives.
PPTP
PPTP is an older Virtual Private Network protocol.
Its security mechanisms are outdated, and it should generally not be used when modern VPN protocols are available.
VPN vs Proxy
VPNs and proxy servers are sometimes confused because both can route traffic through another server.
However, they operate differently.
A proxy generally handles traffic from a particular application or protocol.
For example:
Browser → Proxy → Website
A VPN usually creates a network-level interface and can route traffic from many applications through the encrypted tunnel.
Device → VPN tunnel → Virtual Private Network server → Internet
Another major difference is encryption.
A Virtual Private Network is specifically designed to create an encrypted tunnel.
A traditional proxy does not necessarily encrypt traffic between your device and the proxy server.
For protecting network traffic on an untrusted connection, a Virtual Private Network generally provides stronger protection than a basic proxy.
Does a VPN make you completely anonymous?
No.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions surrounding VPN technology.
A VPN can hide your public IP address from destination websites and encrypt traffic between your device and the Virtual Private Network server.
It cannot automatically prevent:
- Cookie tracking
- Browser fingerprinting
- Account-based identification
- Malware
- Phishing
- Tracking by applications
- Data collection by websites
- Compromised devices
If you log in to a website with your personal account while connected to a Virtual Private Network, the website still knows who you are.
Think of a VPN primarily as a network privacy and security tool, rather than an invisibility switch.
How to choose a VPN
Different Virtual Private Network solutions are appropriate for different use cases.
Before choosing one, consider the following factors.
Security
Look for modern Virtual Private Network protocols and strong cryptographic implementations.
WireGuard, OpenVPN, and properly configured IPsec are common options.
DNS configuration
Check how the VPN handles DNS requests.
DNS traffic should not unexpectedly bypass the encrypted tunnel.
Server locations
The physical and network distance between you and the VPN server can affect latency and performance.
If speed matters, having servers close to your users can be useful.
Logging practices
Understand what information the Virtual Private Network operator records.
Marketing phrases alone are not enough. Look for clear explanations of what connection metadata or traffic information is retained.
Authentication
Business Virtual Private Network systems should use strong authentication.
Multi-factor authentication provides significantly stronger protection than relying solely on passwords.
Kill switch support
A kill switch can prevent traffic from accidentally using the normal Internet connection if the VPN fails.
IPv6 support
If your network uses IPv6, make sure the Virtual Private Network handles IPv6 traffic correctly.
A configuration that protects IPv4 but accidentally allows IPv6 traffic outside the tunnel can create privacy or routing problems.
Performance
Encryption performance, network routing, server capacity, and geographic location all affect VPN speed.
A VPN with many advertised server locations is not automatically faster. Network quality and peering can matter just as much.
VPN FAQ
Q1: What does VPN stand for? – Virtual Private Network stands for Virtual Private Network. It creates a secure logical network connection over another network, usually the public Internet.
Q2: Is using a VPN safe? – A properly configured VPN using modern encryption can significantly improve connection security, particularly on untrusted networks. However, VPN security also depends on the software, protocol, provider, authentication system, and configuration.
Q3: Does a VPN hide my IP address? – Generally, yes. Websites normally see the IP address of the VPN server instead of the public IP address assigned to your Internet connection.
Q4: Does a VPN hide browsing activity from an ISP? – A VPN encrypts traffic between your device and the VPN server. Your ISP can normally see that you are communicating with the VPN server, but it has less visibility into the traffic travelling inside the encrypted tunnel. Other signals and metadata may still be visible.
Q5: Does a VPN protect against hackers? – A VPN can protect network traffic from certain forms of interception, especially on untrusted networks. It does not protect you from every cyber threat. VPN cannot automatically stop phishing, malicious downloads, compromised accounts, unsafe browser extensions, or vulnerabilities on your device.
Q6: Does a VPN protect DNS queries? – It can. A properly configured VPN can route DNS queries through the encrypted tunnel and use a DNS resolver selected by the VPN configuration. Poorly configured VPNs may suffer from DNS leaks.
Q7: Is HTTPS still necessary when using a VPN? – Yes. HTTPS protects the connection between your browser and the website. A VPN protects the connection between your device and the VPN server. Using HTTPS remains important regardless of whether you are connected to a VPN.
Q8: Can a VPN increase Internet speed? – Sometimes, but it should not be expected. If your normal connection suffers from inefficient routing or certain types of throttling, a VPN may create a better network path. In many cases, however, VPN encryption and the additional routing step slightly reduce speed or increase latency.
Q9: What is the best VPN protocol? – There is no single protocol that is perfect for every environment. WireGuard is attractive for its simplicity and performance. OpenVPN provides extensive compatibility and flexibility. IKEv2/IPsec is widely used for secure network connections and mobile environments. The best option depends on your security, compatibility, network, and infrastructure requirements.
Q10: Can businesses use VPNs? – Yes. Businesses commonly use VPNs for remote employee access, connecting offices, securing administrative interfaces, and linking cloud infrastructure with private networks.
Conclusion
A VPN can improve online privacy, protect data on untrusted networks, and provide secure remote access to private systems. However, it is not a complete security solution, so it works best alongside HTTPS, secure DNS settings, strong authentication, and other good cybersecurity practices.
Hi, I’m Bella, a technology enthusiast who enjoys making complex tech topics clear, practical, and easy to understand. Outside of writing, I love trail running, biking, traveling, and photography.