Types of VPN and 7 Types Of Protocols & More
The Internet is becoming the essential part of our life, for students and small businesses and even for research, it is the best source of gathering knowledge and promoting your services.
You can reach the other end of the world while sitting in an office of your hometown via the internet.
Sometimes the right things come with a lot of problems; you can utilize the enormous web network in your business, study and many more cases however your privacy is questionable here.
Cybercriminals are increasing day by day, and you are not safe from your ISP or even your government authorities. Snooping eyes are always watching you when you are using the internet without any protection, or you can say without a VPN.
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A VPN can hide your true identity as well as it can encrypt your data, encryption is the reason why most of the people use VPN.
Suppose you are sending a message or file online to your friend who is far from your location, then the data you are sending will travel through several servers and finally reach the destination server.
If anybody is monitoring that is quite common and easy for an ISP and hackers in any of the servers, they can read your message or steal your information without any hassle.
In case of public wifi and hotel wifi, the internet users still face a lot of problems regarding the privacy issues.
If you want to secure your sensitive files and maintain your online privacy, you should use a VPN. There is another reason you can use a VPN, and that is called freedom,
you can download torrents or watch unlimited free contents online and also free yourself from Geo restrictions with a VPN.
A bunch of companies offers VPN with different protocols and features, but it is hard to understand, which VPN is the right choice for you. You have to well aware of security protocols and about their uses to select the best VPN for you.
Different VPN protocols allow different types of functions, and they are available in different kinds of prices. That means your budget is also considered here to choose a VPN.
The popular types of VPNs are PPTP VPN, L2TP VPN, IPsec, SSL, Hybrid VPN and a few others; I will describe them all for you so that you can have a bright idea about what you are purchasing.
PPTP VPN (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol)
The PPTP or Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol creates a tunnel to pass your internet traffic safely and make your connection secure.
Remote users usually use this VPN to connect to a VPN network using their existing internet connection. This VPN is perfect for home users as well as business users.
PPTP VPN is not costly because you do not have to purchase any additional hardware and no need to install any features either.
This makes the use of this VPN more comfortable. You can configure this VPN on the popular platforms like Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, and that’s another reason you should use this VPN.
PPTP VPN is excellent and inexpensive and provides you a safe connection by passing data to its tunnel, but this VPN has some disadvantages as well.
Encryption is essential to give any information via the internet since it makes all data unreadable that means if someone tries to read the data he won't understand a word.
PPTP VPN does not offer any encryption facility, and it’s the most significant disadvantage of this popular VPN. There is another disadvantage you will find in this VPN;
the VPN depends on PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) to provide the necessary security features to its users.
Site-to-Site VPN
Site-to-Site VPN is known as a Router-to-Router VPN as well, and this is popular among corporate users.
Most of the international companies have offices located in different places of the world, and with this type of VPN, the companies maintain a secure connection within various
offices in different countries. Usually, the companies utilize Site-to-Site VPN to connect with their multiple branches, and also they use this VPN to communicate with other companies as well.
Site-to-Site VPN is mainly famous for its function to join networks of numerous locations and it is possible since the VPN works as a virtual bridge among these networks.
This VPN is not like the PPTP and offers you the encryption facility, this VPN encrypt and decrypt your data when it's necessary. Hardware or software based routers do this process and these may be present on both ends of the network.
The Site-to-Site VPN is far better than PPTP VPN in case of security because it allows users the encryption feature. However, it has some disadvantages as well. Users need a dedicated line to use various sites within a network, and Site-to-Site VPN doesn’t allow any dedicated line so that we can consider it as a disadvantage.
SSL and TLS - What's the Difference?
If you have any e-commerce site or website that offers different services to the customers,
then this VPN is perfect for you. SSL and TLS have various functions,
but they both combined to form a VPN protocol. SSL is Secure Sockets Layer, and TLS is Transport Layer Security.
You will need a web browser to use this VPN since it will be the client. This VPN restricts the user access to specific applications and creates safe browsing from the computer browser to the application server.
The web browser switch to the SSL with fast speed and the user needs to perform no practical action. This is a good VPN indeed, but it's best for only the shopping websites or similar ones not for the home users.
IPsec - Internet Protocol security VPN
Internet Protocol Security or IPsec provides security to your internet traffic within an IP network. You can access your central site via a tunnel which will be located in a remote location.
IPsec provides the ultimate encryption throughout the connection; it works in two modes these are Transport mode and Tunneling mode.
Both of the methods ensure the strong encryption, in transport mode, only the message in the traffic is encrypted and in the tunneling mode, the whole data packet is encrypted.
IPsec VPN perfectly conceals your information and gives protection against snooping eyes. It will be difficult for someone to understand what information you're sending or receiving. This VPN is also combined with other protocols for better performance.
IPsec also has some disadvantages; it's not for the users who are seeking inexpensive and straightforward VPNs. This VPN setup process is time-consuming, and it is expensive than other VPNs available in the industry.
Microsoft and Cisco developed L2TP which means Layer to Tunneling Protocol. L2TP is not a single VPN;
this VPN works together with another VPN. In most of the cases, the L2TP protocol combined with the IPsec protocol to provide you a better quality service that means the ultimate security.
If you use this VPN, your data will travel through a tunnel between two L2TP connection points and if the IPsec VPN works it will encrypt the data.
L2TP does not encrypt data if it works separately and its dependent on the PPP protocol like the PPTP VPN.
MPLS - (Multiprotocol Label Switching) VPN
MPLS is known as Multiple-Protocol Label Switching; it’s the VPN that is for Site-to-Site connection. This VPN is more flexible than other VPNs, and also it boosts the speed of the distribution of the data packets.
Usually, internet service provider or ISP uses this kind of VPN and connects several sites to form a VPN.
MPLS is not for the beginner or home users, it's complex to handle, and setup process is painful. This VPN is expensive, and if you want to make any change, you have to perform a lot of hassle.
Hybrid VPN
You can guess from the name of the VPN that it is a combination of two VPNs and these are IPsec and MPLS. In this case, IPsec VPN works as a backup of MPLS to provide strong encryption.
This kind of VPN is perfect for those who want higher flexibility and usually used by business companies. This technology allows users to combine both of the protocol IPsec and MPLS and use them from the same site.
The MPLS VPN does not offer these many features. However, the user has to pay a high price, so it is not the best choice for them. To eliminate this disadvantage here comes the IPsec protocol, by using this together with MPLS, the user can get better flexibility than before.
If the user utilizes a hybrid VPN, he will get maximum protection over a public internet connection and also he will be able to connect the central site to a remote location. Combining these two VPNs didn’t lower the cost, but it is clear that it allows you huge advantages at a high price.
Why Do You Need A VPN and Which One Is The Best For You?
Here you can see a lot of VPNs with various technologies and protocols. You must be thinking why you need to use a VPN and choose your protocol by doing so much hassle and spending your money.
Yes, money is essential, but it's more important to spend your money to ensure your privacy and secure your business.
If you are running a business and have different offices in numerous places in the world than using a VPN will be useful for you.
A VPN will allow the secure connection, and you don’t have to spend a lot for every office. Your employees will able to connect with official sites from any location and privately share confidential files and information.
Most of the big companies and organization use VPN to ensure their security. If you are thinking no one is watching you, then you are wrong.
On the web sensitive information are not safe, your ISP, cybercriminals or government organizations may be eavesdropping your activities, and if you are a businessman, you can face a significant threat from your competitors.
Now it should be clear a secure connection over the internet is necessary, I want to ensure that a paid VPN can provide you safe access to the internet will full privacy.
If you choose the right VPN, you don’t have to think how many users will access from only one VPN. Some VPNs create a safe connection for your whole company.
If any new employee joins your company, he/she can access the main site privately and requires just some simple settings. This type of VPNs won't cost you extra money for new users, and that’s why it’s suitable for businesses and organizations.
A VPN allows users different types of services, you will find a bunch of variations and from those, you can choose the best one that suits your needs, this article will help you a lot in this case.
Security facilities like proxies or tor browsers are not so efficient or flexible for the users and offer limited features. Sometimes they can be scum.
If you want to use any free VPN there is a problem as well, most of them are fake and uses the user's personal information to make money by selling them. So, using a suitable VPN worth your money there is no doubt on that.
When it comes to choosing the right VPN, you must identify the main reason why you want to use the VPN. If you want to watch unlimited movies, sports, music videos and many more without facing any legal actions you can use an ordinary VPN protocol.
Since you do not require any active encryption, and that’s why any VPN which is not so costly will be enough for you.
However, if you want a VPN with strong encryption such as for research or business, you can choose the best one within your budget.
Choosing the right one also depends on your location as well as the network. If you want to connect all your networks which are located in various places you have to use site-to-site VPN.
There is variation in these VPNs depending on price, but it will be wise to don’t consider the cost if you need the ultimate security.
We are a group of Technical experts who are very much concerned about Online Privacy. Every review that we write is the result of multiple testing on various devices. We verify the locations and the server that provides the IP and check whether it is safe to work with or not.