[clueless]

I've never really understood why VPNs are used. I know it stands for Virtual Private Network, but in simple terms how does it work and what is it used for?

[Administrator]

It's used to allow secure remote access to a network. The second paragraph from the Wikipedia article sums it up nicely:

    It encapsulates data transfers between two or more networked devices which are not on the same private network so as to keep the transferred data private from other devices on one or more intervening local or wide area networks.

It effectively makes the remote machine part of host network for access to resources and other machines on that network. So you can use the company e-mail, intranet and printers for example.

Today it is normally being used to bypass blocked websites by users with a censored and filtered internet connection.

Find out more on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network

[provpndude]

VPN's have a number of uses: I will list what I think are the most common ones:

1) Keep your internet secure, even when using unsecured wifi connections
2) Keepy your internet usage anonymous (you access the internet through your vpn's ip address, not your own)
3) To anonymize your IP address specifically for bittorrent or other p2p usage
4) To access websites or web services that are specific to certain locations. For example, you can only stream netflix from a U.S. IP address, so if you want to subscribe to netflix streaming from outside the U.S. you need a vpn.
5) To keep your ISP from monitoring your internet usage

There's a good article on why everyone should have a vpn here:
http://vpntestdrive.com/why-you-need-a-vpn/

[Anugo]

VPN is needed for hiding your browsing activities from hackers and ISPs.
If you want to go through any geo-blocked websites, then you can use a VPN service
In order to keep yourself safe while downloading a torrent file, one must make a use of VPN services.
To know more, follow this article - https://goo.gl/xUhSuW

[Emma_Parker]

VPN can be used for multiple purpose like unblocking geo restricted content, for digital privacy and security, if you want to surf internet anonymously, you can use it through VPN and for more detail you can go through with these links

https://www.purevpn.com/blog/anonymous-surfing/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network