Virtual Private Networks (VPN)

Virtual Private Networks (VPN) are generally used for one purpose: establish virtual presence in a different location.

But, practically, it is one of ways to change the IP address.

How it works

Normally, the client (phone, laptop or any other devices) connects to VPN server, establishes a secure communication channel, and after that it sends all the traffic via that encrypted channel. The VPN server sends the traffic elsewhere and puts responses back to encrypted channels.

Why is it secure

Of course, every VPN protocol is different and we can’t speak about all protocols altogether. But there are shared principles:

  1. There is a secure cryptographic key exchange between the client and server. Keys are not transferred over network. Alice and Bob guarantee that.

  2. The communication itself lies on modern cryptographic methods, usually requiring vast amount of time to bruteforce keys used.

Best practices

Known protocols

  • Wireguard
  • IPSec v2 (see strongswan and libreswan)
  • OpenVPN

All of these protocols have a good support in all operating systems.

How to set it up

We recommend not to use free services. They are not safe, they can sniff traffic and sell the metadata of your accesses.

Paid services of known providers are better, but still not encouraged for sensitive things.

The best way is to set up your VPN server. It might take a while and won’t be free, however, it will be secure and you can be assured in the privacy of your server.

TODO: add manuals