VPN one of the hottest tools

#VPN #networking #security

Here is another one of those tools that isn't just for one type of person, but more so for the vast majority of internet users.  From your cellphone user, your tablet user, laptop, and even desktop users.  It can be used by a pre teen, all the way up to a grandmother, and for good reason, added security, added functionality, and a little bit of everything.  When we get on the internet, we want to be safe, or at least as safe as we can get, so without further adieu lets look into Virtual Private Networking.

Lets start out with, what is a Virtual Private Network?

A Virtual Private Network, or VPN, is a way of configuring a local network across the world wide web.  Giving multiple individuals access to a remote site, say an office, or a home office, maybe a student.  When this is configured the local connection you are on isn't the network you are officially on.  Which means when you send an email or browse a website, the port information and data is no longer transmitted over the local network.  The new local network is recognized as the remote network you're connected too.  Meaning that someone in Kentucky, and someone in New York City can see one another as local users to one another.  If you're using a software that allows for local instant messaging, or have a mappable drive on your device, you can see one another.  With that said, think of the additional opportunities, such as local network drives, and printers.  You gain the ability to use these devices even though you are in a remote location.

Not only does your computer behave as if its on a LAN that is no-where near to you, the data being transmitted from the individuals devices are encapsulated in encryption for the remote network to decrypt when it arrives.  I'd like to share a small bit of info as to where and why this would be great with a short story.

Short story

I got married on the 14th of March, 2015, Pi day to be exact.  Celebrating and having a good time with friends and family.  Throughout the whole day I didn't think about computers once, lets be honest it was my wedding day, so why should I have?  Well my sister in law got my wife and I one of the best possible gifts you can get anyone, a hotel room the night of the wedding.  I don't know about you folks, but a night away from home the day you get married is SO nice and relaxing, its the best.  Denise, if you're reading this, THANK YOU!!

Now as many of you noticed by now, I'm a computer guy, I like to do computer related things quite often, it can be a curse.  I logged into the hotels open wifi, which as I've stated in the past is a HORRIBLE idea, and I ran a quick scan using fing.  Image here on the left is what I saw. I had access to 161 different IP addresses all unmasked, unsecured, just right there for the reaping.  For ethical reasons I didn't dive into who and what was doing everything, but I can say this chuck fellow had some open ports on his iPhone.  Chuck, whoever you are, close those ports up. I can't say for certain how many of these were without a VPN, heck some of them could have been on a VPN, I'm just reporting my findings real quick.  Just look at this, 161 available IP addresses, right there, I didn't even try, Fing is free.  For obvious reasons I've hidden the name of the hotel from view, but seriously now guys?  Upscale hotel room, you should know better than this.

How a VPN could've helped

As I said earlier the network traffic gets encrypted between the computer, and the remote network, which doesn't mean that list above would've hidden me.  Yes my computer would've still shown up on that list, yes people can see I'm doing something, but... they can't see what I'm doing.  Within reason of course.  I could've done some banking, I could've surfed some elicit websites, could've logged into a network drive, all while having my traffic anonymous.  But let me reiterate, I'm not invisible, I may be camouflaged, but I'm not invisible.

How To Get a VPN

Getting a VPN is quite easy as well, there are multiple options.  You can pay for one, or you can make one with the proper hardware.  If you want to buy I suggest a provider such as Private Internet Access, under $10 a month for an extra layer of security?  Not bad if you plan on being out and about often.

As for the DIY option, I actually plan on implementing this myself when I buy my house, due to the cluttered nature of my present living conditions, I don't have much of a place to have my stuff and do my thing.  But I will be making a raspberry pi VPN using openVPN.  Here are instructions from readwrite on how to do your own if you'd like to try it out.  Seems to be pretty straight forward, of course this is the more complex option of the two, not exactly for every person out there to try.  It will involve linux (which scares many people) and it will involve text editors, so tread lightly.

Summary, or TL;DR

So to wrap up today's post in a quick summary.  VPN's hide what you're doing in plain sight, using them will dramatically increase your security while you're on in public, and in some cases even in private.  They will also give you an extra layer of network connectivity to shared drives and other network devices.  God knows if you have a tool or files you want to use on a server in your bedroom, accessing it from afar opposed to saved locally may be one of your best friends (movies are a good example of this).

If I made any mistakes, or you have an questions, feel free to comment in the comment boxes below.  I know they went missing for a while, I apparently clicked a wrong button when changing layouts, you can yell at me for that too if you want.  And as always, be safe my goblins.

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