Small Business Guides

What Is VPN and Why Your Small Business Need One

You see, in today's world, security is a big concern. Thousands and even millions of dollars can be lost because of a security breach. When you have top secret or confidential information stolen, or if you have someone breaking into your computer system and deleting important information, you have a lot to lose.

So in order to prevent that from happening, innovative developers have come up with a solution known as VPN (Virtual Private Servers). A VPN is meant to protect your system, as well as your network from being compromised. In other words, you don't want anyone to have unauthorized access to your system or network. That will help keep your data safe as you work.

How VPN works

Here is a brief primer on how VPN works. When you surf the Internet, you are actually on a public network. That means that if your system is not protected whatsoever, anyone with malicious intent can create all sorts of problems for you. Some of these problems include spyware, viruses, intrusion attacks, etc.

To prevent that from happening, you can install additional hardware or software. When you install new hardware that acts as an active Firewall, that may help to stop many of the attacks. Some people prefer to do it with software, and that's where VPN comes in.

VPN is short for Virtual Private Network. What happens is that you will be setting up a private tunnel that others will have difficulty locating. In other words, to the outside world, you appear as anonymous. You do this by connecting to another server, and this server acts as your connection to the public network. When you connect to the Internet this way, you are actually on a Private Network. This is a much more secure way to surf the Internet. And the solution is known as VPN.

Benefits of a VPN

As you can imagine, there are many benefits for using a VPN. You enjoy a lot of security and privacy. For example, if you are surfing from a wireless hotspot, your user names and passwords may be sniffed by sniffers on the network. Sniffer software intercepts data transmitted over the network, and that's how your user names and passwords can be captured. But when you connect through a VPN, there is no such risk.

Also, because you are surfing in a private network, you remain anonymous. Some websites log your IP address automatically, especially those that require form submissions. When you are in a private network, your IP address cannot be tracked. This means that you get more privacy as you surf.

How to Get a VPN

Is it difficult to set up a VPN? The answer is no, if you know where to look. If you have technical person in your company, you can set up one by yourself, which involves installing VPN software on a server and creating VPN accounts etc. 

Alternatively, you can purchase VPN services from VPN providers. These days you can find many different VPN service providers. They provide VPN services for many different purposes. For example, there are some VPN companies specializing in VPNs for China. To find a good VPN companies, you can do a Google search and also read online reviews. There are some well-known VPN services that you can consider: NordVPN, PureVPN, ExpressVPN, VyprVPN etc. 

Professional VPN service providers will be able to setup a VPN account for you. When you want to go online, simply login to your VPN account and start surfing. Things have really changed in the past few years, with companies being forced to deal with worldwide markets and offices in different locations across the globe. With segments of modern businesses often spread out across different locations, the most important technology is the virtual private network. VPNs allow companies to maintain internal communications that are fast, safe, and reliable. Modern VPN technology and equipment give businesses the opportunity to do this inexpensively. Without the reliable communication capabilities of a VPN, companies wouldn't run so well