How does a VPN work, and what is it useful for?

Whenever you connect to the internet, your device sends data packets to a server. During transit, the packets pass different stations, the first one being your internet service provider. All of these stations reroute your package and help it reach its final destination. Imagine a VPN as an encrypted tunnel between your device and a SnowHaze VPN server. Whatever you do online is first rerouted and sent through this tunnel before it reaches its final destination. This way, the VPN hides your actual IP address and ensures the encryption of your data. Originally, VPNs were used to connect different locations of a business to a single network. These days, VPNs are popular mainly for their advantages in terms of privacy and security. They present a simple yet very effective and efficient tool for hiding and encrypting internet traffic. Other common uses of VPNs include streaming videos from abroad, peer-to-peer file-sharing, or accessing blocked or censored websites.

Contrary to what many VPN companies want you to believe, a VPN is not a one-stop solution for anonymity. A VPN offers a set of unique features that are difficult to obtain differently, like hiding the IP address and ensuring encryption. However, there are other common threats that a VPN does not protect against. Unencrypted e-mails, for example, are still unencrypted once they leave the protection of the encrypted VPN tunnel. Many websites use a multitude of tracking technologies, some of which a VPN can protect against, and some of which it can’t. Therefore, it is essential to combine a VPN with other tools such as encrypted e-mail services and private browsers to get the best protection. That said, there are several threats and scenarios where only a VPN can help.

Why would I need a VPN?

You connect to public Wi-Fi

Public Wi-Fi is available at most airports, hotels, and restaurants. Although very practical for remotely working, shopping, or streaming a Netflix series, they also pose a significant security risk. It is relatively easy to intercept traffic in public Wi-Fi. A hacker might even create a malicious hotspot with the sole purpose of sniffing your traffic. Without encryption, the hacker can potentially access sensitive information like passwords or credit card details. Unfortunately, it is challenging to distinguish credible hotspots from their malicious counterparts. With a VPN, the traffic is always encrypted between your device and the VPN server. Even if a Wi-Fi is malicious and intercepts your traffic, it is encrypted and reads like gibberish.

You travel abroad

In foreign countries, some services that you paid for may be blocked. This includes many streaming services but goes as far as search engines; for example, Google is blocked in China. Losing this access is annoying, and this is where a VPN can help. With a VPN, all your traffic is sent to the VPN server first. The VPN server then reroutes the traffic to the final destination. Thus the server of the final destination only ever sees the VPN servers IP address and not yours. If you connect to a VPN server in your home country, you can continue to enjoy all the services that you are used to.

You are shopping online

Salaries and purchasing power vary drastically between countries. Merchants exploit this to increase profit by increasing prices for countries where people have a higher purchasing power. Some merchants even go a step further and use personalized rates. These are based on data about you that is available to the merchant. This process is known as dynamic pricing. Ever wondered when you kept seeing an ad of a product that you once searched online? It is data about your past search history, income, and more that are used to personalize prices. A VPN can help here as it makes it harder for companies to track you. Furthermore, you can connect to a VPN server in a country with lower purchasing power and might receive more moderate prices. This is the case when a merchant uses IP address-based dynamic pricing. Thus, a VPN can help you to profit yourself from dynamic pricing!

You want to protect your browsing activity from your local network and ISP

Whenever you want to connect to the internet, your device initiates a connection with your internet service provider (ISP). Your ISP then redirects your communication to the server of the requested service, be it streaming a video, visiting a website, or sending a message. Because your ISP has to reroute the traffic, it knows which services you are using, who you are in touch with, or which websites you visit. Depending on the connection, the ISP also sees which video you are streaming, or the actual content of the message exchanged. When using a VPN, this is different. In simple terms, you can imagine a VPN as a tunnel between you and SnowHaze VPN servers. Your ISP still needs to reroute your traffic, but only to our servers independent of the service requested. Furthermore, everything is fully encrypted and reads like gibberish for your ISP or other third parties. Thus, a VPN effectively cuts out your ISP. A VPN reduces the amount of collectible data remarkably and prevents third parties from selling and sharing this data with others.

You are a high-risk individual

High-risk individuals like investigative journalists or political activists often face considerable risks associated with their valuable work. Contrary to what many VPN companies want you to believe, a VPN is not a one-stop solution for anonymity. As a high-risk individual, you need to take a multitude of precautions to protect your privacy and ensure your security. Of these precautions, a VPN is an inevitable part to ensure encryption and hide the IP address. Using an end-to-end encrypted e-mail or messaging provider gives an additional layer of security to protect sensitive messages. Combined with a VPN, an excellent private browser can protect from some forms of tracking that a VPN cannot protect from, like canvas fingerprinting.

You use file-sharing services

Peer-to-peer connections (P2P) offer a fast and reliable method to share data. This data may include anything from legitimate documents to illegal videos. Despite the legitimate use cases of P2P, many ISPs throttle the bandwidth of or completely block P2P connections. With a VPN, the ISP cannot distinguish between different connections. Subsequently, your ISP cannot throttle or block any of your P2P connections.

How to use a VPN?

Using a VPN is straightforward. First, get a subscription for SnowHaze VPN here. There is a seven days free trial available in our iOS version. Once you have your subscription, you find detailed tutorials on how to set up your VPN here. Whenever you wish to protect your traffic, you simply turn on the VPN. Then your device connects to one of our VPN servers and establishes the secure communication channel. Everything between your device and the VPN server is now effectively cut out and can’t intercept your communication, including your ISP and other third parties. The service you are accessing now only sees the IP address of the VPN server. This unblocks content such as videos or websites that are blocked based on IP location.