What is a VPN?
Also asked as: What does VPN stand for? · What is a VPN used for?
Direct answer
A VPN, short for virtual private network, is an encrypted connection between your device and a server run by a VPN provider. Your traffic travels inside that tunnel, so your own network and internet provider see only encrypted data going to one address, and the websites you visit see the server's IP address instead of yours.
What a VPN changes
Two things. First, who can read your traffic on the way out: with the tunnel up, the café Wi-Fi, the hotel network and your internet provider see an encrypted stream to one server and nothing about what it carries. Second, where you appear to be: every site you open sees the VPN server's IP address and country, not your own, so geographic checks treat you as a visitor from wherever the server is.
That is the whole mechanism. Everything a VPN is sold for — privacy on public Wi-Fi, hiding browsing from an ISP, reaching a service that routes by country — is one of those two effects.
What a VPN does not change
A VPN does not make you anonymous to a service you sign in to: your account identifies you regardless of the address. It does not stop malware, phishing or trackers inside a site you visit. And it moves your trust from your ISP to the VPN provider, which is why what the provider logs matters more than any other feature.
How VPNmine fits this definition
VPNmine is a free VPN service that runs its own WireGuard servers in 68 countries, with apps for Windows, Android, Android TV and Apple TV and a browser extension for Chrome, Edge, Opera and Firefox. It records which server a session used and when, and never the sites, DNS lookups or traffic content that passed through it.
Related questions
- How does a VPN work?What happens when you press connect: key exchange, encrypted tunnel, a server that forwards your traffic, and why sites see its address, not yours.
- Why should I use a VPN?The reasons a VPN earns its place: untrusted Wi-Fi, keeping browsing off your ISP's record, and appearing in another country. And the reasons that are myths.
- Is a VPN safe?A VPN is as safe as the provider behind it. What decides it: who runs the servers, what is logged, how the service makes money, and whether you can leave.
- Does a VPN hide my IP address?A VPN replaces the IP address websites see with the server's. Where that holds, where it leaks (DNS, WebRTC, IPv6), and how to check your exit address.