Hello, I was curious about how VPNs actually WORK.
It’s my understanding that a VPN encrypts your incoming/outgoing data so that your ISP can’t view your activity, or something like that. but, what does that mean/how does that work?
like, im running on their network/servers. shouldn’t they be able to view my activity no matter what? (not that that is a good thing, i super dont like the idea of everything i do/type being recorded by a company that does gods know what with my personal information)
how are VPNs actually possible? like, from a technical standpoint?
Once the VPN client sets up its encrypted tunnel to the VPN server, your ISP can only view encrypted content, which they can’t make anything of. There are some things they would know, such as the IP address you are connecting to and that it is a VPN provider, but the content going through that connection is private. The fact you are using their network to get to the VPN server is irrelevant, like driving on a highway doesn’t give the highway provider access to the conversations inside your closed car. They only know where you got on and where you got off.
One thing that is important, and is neglected by VPN marketers, is that once your traffic leaves the VPN server and continues on its way, it is no longer encrypted by the VPN. The VPN only affords privacy from your ISP, not from the internet as a whole. So the whole ‘privacy and safety’ thing is a big fat marketing ploy. What really keeps your data private for the whole trip is SSL (https websites) which is the encryption employed between your web browser and the web server at the final destination.
When you connect to a VPN, all your data goes through the VPN and then to the internet.
Your ISP in that sense can only see that you are communicating with a VPN server and not the websites you visit.
Encryption isn’t the biggest selling point of VPNs since most sites already use Https encryption. If you use a VPN to connect to an https site, the data is actually encrypted twice.
You are preventing your ISP from seeing what site / IP you are going to, period. HTTPS does not stop your ISP from seeing what sites you are going to, they can see the DNS request, the IP and know you are going to “ilovefreakyanimalparties.com” , going over a VPN, your ISP has no idea you are visiting that specific site.
main difference, most people use their ISP’s DNS servers - when you have a proper VPN tunnel, all traffic and requests go over said VPN, thus, your ISP is oblivious to what sites and DNS lookups you are doing.