Tuesday, January 6, 2009

VPN Safe Secure Services Protection

by Darren W Chow

First of all, what is VPN and why do you need VPN? You see, in today's world, security is a big concern. Thousands and even millions of dollars can be lost because of a security breach. When you have top secret or confidential information stolen, or if you have someone breaking into your computer system and deleting important information, you have a lot to lose.

So in order to prevent that from happening, innovative developers have come up with a solution known as VPN (Virtual Private Servers). A VPN is meant to protect your system, as well as your network from being compromised. In other words, you don't want anyone to have unauthorized access to your system or network. That will help keep your data safe as you work.

How VPN works.

Here is a brief primer on how VPN works. When you surf the Internet, you are actually on a public network. That means that if your system is not protected whatsoever, anyone with malicious intent can create all sorts of problems for you. Some of these problems include spyware, viruses, intrusion attacks, etc.

To prevent that from happening, you can install additional hardware or software. When you install new hardware that acts as an active Firewall, that may help to stop many of the attacks. Some people prefer to do it with software, and that's where VPN comes in.

VPN is short for Virtual Private Network. What happens is that you will be setting up a private tunnel that others will have difficulty locating. In other words, to the outside world, you appear as anonymous. You do this by connecting to another server, and this server acts as your connection to the public network. When you connect to the Internet this way, you are actually on a Private Network. This is a much more secure way to surf the Internet. And the solution is known as VPN.

Benefits of a VPN.

As you can imagine, there are many benefits for using a VPN. You enjoy a lot of security and privacy. For example, if you are surfing from a wireless hotspot, your user names and passwords may be sniffed by sniffers on the network. Sniffer software intercepts data transmitted over the network, and that's how your user names and passwords can be captured. But when you connect through a VPN, there is no such risk.

Also, because you are surfing in a private network, you remain anonymous. Some websites log your IP address automatically, especially those that require form submissions. When you are in a private network, your IP address cannot be tracked. This means that you get more privacy as you surf.

Is it difficult to set up a VPN? The answer is no, if you know where to look. Professional VPN service providers will be able to setup a VPN account for you. When you want to go online, simply login to your VPN account and start surfing.

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