Technological Advancements in The Field of Virtual Networks

The Internet has been around for quite some time now. However, even during the initial period when it was still new, the users, as well as the companies didn’t take long to realize that when sharing important data across numerous networks, security had to be taken seriously. And so, the earliest form of Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology was developed during the late 90s when an employee of Microsoft came up with the Peer to Peer Tunnelling Protocol (PPTP).

PPTP is an interesting and important technology that’s also often asked in interviews for IT jobs in Pakistan. It’s one of the oldest and strongest ways to create a VPN.

How does PPTP Work?

Say you are using a computer which is point A, and you have to transfer data (an email, text message, etc.) to a point B which could be a server or another PC. What PPTP does is that it creates an encrypted tunnel between the point A and point B. So, the data flows through this tunnel and no one can see it.

Just think of the process as a truck transporting goods from a city A to the city B. Now, normally, a helicopter can easily see what goods are being transported by flying above the truck (in this case the helicopter could be a hacker, or other users who are on the same hotspot network as yours, etc.). However, if there were a tunnel connecting the two cities, then the goods will be concealed under it, and no one can look at them save for the people in the cities.

The Rise of the VPNs

Even though PPTP was one of the first VPN technologies to create virtual networks, many new protocols and technologies were developed later on such as Secure Shell (SSH), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), Layer 2 Tunnelling Protocol (L2TP), etc. Today’s VPN service providers use many of these in combination to give the users the highest level of security and privacy.

More and more businesses and individuals have started realizing the importance of VPN, especially in the wake of cyberattacks that have become the fastest growing crime.

Since the mobile platform is ever-expanding and opened a huge market for the users as well the companies. Even some of best free VPN services today are available for Android and iOS too. Providers like TunnelBear, ExpressVPN, Windscribe, etc. are now allowing the people to enjoy:

Top-level privacy when browsing the Internet, downloading files, etc.
Watch location-restricted videos and websites.
Online casino games without worrying about the authorities getting involved in the same or causing interference.
Buy products from online stores, book hotels and flights, steam games, subscriptions for video streaming websites such as Netflix at the cheapest rates available by finding the countries with the lowest prices.

The Future

Generally speaking, the future of VPN is pretty bright. We have come a long way in perfecting the online security and privacy technology and created some of the nearly-unbreakable barriers that keep hackers and trackers at bay. However, there is still a lot of scope left, and as the number of VPN users is growing today, in the near-future the service will become a norm especially in offices and big corporates for whom data-security is always one of the top priorities.