I know this is off the usual topics, sorry, just have a quick question about VPNs and how they work. My understanding was that VPNs either block your IP to websites or browsers as a whole, not the applications on your computer like utorrent - Hazar told me that they block all connections period - from your computer to....anywhere (for instance). So can someone clarify what they actually do cuz I'm getting a lot of different feedback throughout the web. Thanks in advance - if any group can clear this up, it's this one. R.
It's really, really easy to understand. Your computer connects to the VPN, using your network connection. All net connections go through the VPN. So essentially every time you try and access anyone or anything on the net, you ask the VPN server for it, it gets it for you, and sends it to you. Basically all the traffic that your computer sends and receives is sent through an additional server which actually makes the connection for you and then encrypts it between you and the server. Your pc makes outbound connection -ENCRYPTED-> server --> net Net --> server -ENCRYPTED-> Your pc
lt depends on how you set up the routing (or how it is set up for you) as to where your packets go/come from. All traffic may go via the VPN (internet and lan) or it could be that the internet traffic is routed directly from your machine to the internet and lan traffic is routed to the VPN (split tunnel). Net admins normally will be very unhappy with a split tunnel config as you talk to the remote network via the VPN tunnel (under their control) but talk to the internet outside the tunnel. This opens the possibility of malware entering the remote network from the internet via your machine (as the internet access is via your machine and not via the remote network under their control).
I don't think Raijen was talking about a corporate network but from his home machine thru a VPN service - am I right? The way I understand it is they provide you with a different IP address to the one your ISP gives you so that your ISP only sees the VPN IP address and nothing else - they provide all DNS etc services and/or encryption. Unlike anonymous browsing sites the VPN creates an extra networking connection on your computer and this is more secure than anonymous browsing sites.. The process adds overhead to your internet connection and can decrease browsing speeds dramatically especially if the provider is half a world away like they are for us.
I have a normal Dial-up Connection(little faster) provided by BSNL in India,is it possible for the ISP's to track me?ie. is it possible for them to make logs of your browsing, downloads or file sharing (torrents) of me?
Yes it actually is dude. Some ISP's even block all torrent activity on specific customers because it is illegal. As long as you have not had a problem yet, then you should be ok and they always warn you first before proceeding further so it should not be an issue right now.
Don't worry pkagi, dial up connections are made of magic, so unlike ordinary ADSL connections, your ISP, even though they are the ones providing you with the pages, cannot see what you're doing! all because it uses a slightly different and way slower way of transferring data! kidding.