Virtual Private Network (VPN) is something that most of us will encounter as a tool for securing ourselves on the Internet. The definition of a VPN is an encrypted connection between computers that secures the information relayed between them. Unfortunately, there are two very separate tools with that name that serve different functions. Here is a brief explanation of each.

Business or Enterprise VPN

If you are connecting to a local network of your company, school, agency or other organization and require a VPN client to access those resources, then this is the type of VPN you are accessing. Integrated with a firewall, the hardware and software behind this feature protects the organization’s assets with encryption, user authentication and filtering tools. It allows remote access to internal services. The work from home revolution during the pandemic certainly drove many of us towards this VPN.

This VPN is excellent for protection of the organization’s assets as well as securing the traffic between the organization and its remote users. However, you should realize that this type of VPN is not useful for ensuring the privacy of the remote user’s browsing. That’s the purview of the other type.

VPN Services

When you are getting advertisements for VPNs that harp on how unprotected you are, they are referring to a different sort of service. In order to achieve a higher level of privacy by protecting your actual IP address from the sites you are accessing, these services have you connect to their service so all of your traffic flows first through their servers using a different IP that belongs to them. There are legitimate and nefarious reasons for using this type of service for IP privacy. What can’t be questioned though is the usefulness of the VPN encrypting all of the traffic. Particularly when you are on unsecured or public networks, VPNs are very useful for protecting your communications. There are free options and paid options for these VPNs. Stick to well known brands and remember you get what you pay for. If you are not the customer, then you are the product.