Virtual Private Network

Norwegian IT company Opera has announced its offer of a free virtual private network (VPN) app, dubbed Opera VPN, with unlimited data for iPhone users. Normally, companies charge a little after expirty of a free trial period. But here the data offer is for unlimited quantity. A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network or internet. It enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.

VPN is a network that is constructed by using public wires usually the Internet to connect to a private network, such as a company's internal network. There are a number of systems that enable you to create networks using the Internet as the medium for transporting data. These systems use encryption and other security mechanisms to ensure that only authorized users can access the network and that the data cannot be intercepted, writes Webopedia. Consumers use a private VPN service, also known as a VPN tunnel, to protect their online activity and identity.

By using an anonymous VPN service, a user's Internet traffic and data remain encrypted, which prevents eavesdroppers from sniffing Internet activity. A VPN service is especially useful when accessing public Wi-Fihotspots because the public wireless services might not be secure. In addition to public Wi-Fi security, a private VPN service also provides consumers with uncensored Internet access and can help prevent data theft and unblock websites.

VPNs can provide functionality, security and/or network management benefits to the user.[1] But they can also lead to new issues, and some VPN services, especially "free" ones, can actually violate their users' privacy by logging their usage and making it available without their consent, or make money by selling the user's bandwidth to other users, according to Wikipedia.

Remote access VPN connections enable users working at home or on the road to access a server on a private network using the infrastructure provided by a public network, such as the Internet. Site-to-site VPN connections (also known as router-to-router VPN connections) enable organizations to have routed connections between separate offices or with other organizations over a public network while helping to maintain secure communications, according to technet.microsoft.com. Since all of the data sent through a VPN has been encrypted, companies do not need to be concerned with the loss of any private information to unauthorized people.