What Is a VPN? How Is It Different From an Antivirus?

VPN. What exactly are they? We've heard a lot about VPNs in the last few months, especially as we all work from home. A friend may have sent you a link to a movie and told you to "use a VPN to watch it because it is blocked in India." Or that paranoid friend of yours has been urging you to use a VPN for all your online activity lately, because "everyone is watching us!"

Sure, okay, but what is this VPN they're talking about? What does? We have tried to use some simple analogies so that you can have a practical understanding of what a VPN is and why you should consider using it.

VPN: Virtual Private Network

Let's start with the name itself: VPN stands for Virtual Private Network (VPN). Private networks are exactly what it says: a network established between two computers/devices that is "private" in the strictest sense, that is, no one from the outside looking in can access the crimson and know the content of the data/information shared between them. two computers/devices.

A "virtual" private crimson creates a private network between a computer and everything online, virtually. Hence the name: Virtual Private Network (VPN). We'll go into more detail on how it works later, but essentially, a digital private purple allows you to access the World-wide-web privately, which means that it maintains your anonymity and your usage, browsing history, or any other identifying information. it will not be tracked. since everything will be encrypted.

VPN Benefits

VPNs offer many benefits. They are summarized below:

• Enhanced Security - When the united states of America VPN, you are using the Internet through another connection, which means that your connection details (IP address, location, passwords, etc.) remain hidden. This substantially reduces the risk of being attacked.
• Data Encryption - Your data is fully encrypted when you use a VPN. This is a great feature as it means that even if threat actors can access your data, they can hardly do anything with it because it is encrypted. This is one of the key reasons why you should use a VPN when Wi-Fi in a public place, i.e. an airport or coffee shop.
• Secure Data Sharing - Data can be securely shared over a VPN and this is why VPNs are increasingly being used in remote work environments. The ongoing pandemic has prompted many workplaces to get employees to connect to corporate networks in VPN, ensuring the sanctity of data.

VPN vs Antivirus: Why You Should Use Both

Now, let's stop for a moment. We've been talking about VPN for so long, but you might be wondering if it's the same as an antivirus. Let's get into that too: an antivirus is a fundamentally different product than a VPN. Think of it as a protective shield that keeps your computer/device free from all kinds of external threats. It does this in many ways, such as regular scanning, anti-malware protection. Protegent360's Antivirus has powerful features like Anti-Malware, Anti-Ransomware, and Firewall Safety to keep you safe from all kinds of threats.

If an antivirus is a protective shield, VPN offers you the cloak of anonymity by keeping your connection to the outside world private. For the best security, it is a good idea to invest in both a powerful antivirus and a powerful VPN. In that way, the antivirus blocks all incoming threats while all external connections are routed through the VPN and kept safe.