VPN — after I said I would write about it I kept getting requests to do so. But because of how busy I have been I am writing it a little late. My apologies for that. Anyway, let's begin.
The first question that comes up is: what does VPN even mean? Is it something you eat or something you wear? In fact you neither eat it nor wear it. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. You can guess from the name that a VPN is not a physical network but a virtual one. So to take this connection you do not have to install enormous equipment in your house — it all happens virtually. The name also has the word private in it. Clearly, then, it is not public but a personal network, so the security will be pretty good. So much for the what. Now let's find out how it works.
Suppose the Bangladesh–Pakistan war is going on. The year is 1971. Wait, wait, wait — I know what you are about to say. All right, assume that in 1971 there was an internet service as good as today's 😜 Let's say a brave fighter named Umar Faruk is going to tell another fighter about the state of the war through a message on Facebook. But the country's networking system is entirely in the hands of the Pakistan government. Cleverly, they block Facebook for this region. Now Umar Faruk is in trouble. He cannot get into Facebook.
Then, in despair, he sits down to watch BTV. On BTV an advertisement suddenly brings him a word of hope. The advertisement was for Boltu VPN. Use this VPN, it turns out, and the blocked Facebook can be used. There was no stopping Umar Faruk now! He quickly downloaded the VPN, slipped past the eyes of the Pakistan government, got into Facebook and finished the unfinished data sharing with the other fighter.
Now the question is how all this happened. A VPN works rather like a tunnel or passage. When you connect to a VPN, they connect you to a server. But what is the good of that? Those of you with some idea of computer networks have surely guessed a little already. Yes indeed — every server has an IP address . They are letting you use their server's IP instead of your own. And there is another gain in that. You are connecting to any website through their server, so your ISP or Internet Service Provider cannot even know that you are getting into Facebook — because the connection reaching Facebook does not come directly from your ISP, but through that VPN server. So on one hand it does not get your IP address, and on the other there is no trace of you. Which means you are out of reach 😎
All right, I follow all that. But what can I use it for — what are the benefits?
1. You can hide your IP address and browse privately. Your footprint will be nowhere. 2. Your browsing history or trace will not be with the ISP. 3. You can easily use websites that are blocked. 4. Your own security online is preserved. 5. You can exchange any data safely, so you are saved from anything being leaked. 6. While staying in one country you can use another country's IP address and so use some extra facility of that country.
I have made one big mistake. I should have written about IP addresses before this post. Nothing to worry about, though — it is coming soon. Beyond that I will later write articles on cryptocurrency, websites, servers and so on (insha'Allah).
