Beginner's Guide to VPN Encryption Protocols (2024)

FAQs

What encryption protocol is used for VPN? ›

AES (advanced encryption standard) is a symmetric encryption algorithm that uses 128-, 192-, or 256-bit keys, making it significantly more secure than its predecessors. It is the gold standard of encryption used by high-end services, including NordVPN.

VPN stands for "Virtual Private Network" and describes the opportunity to establish a protected network connection when using public networks. VPNs encrypt your internet traffic and disguise your online identity. This makes it more difficult for third parties to track your activities online and steal data.

The 3 most common VPN protocols are OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, and IKEv2/IPsec.

The best VPNs typically use AES-256 to encrypt user data. Public-key encryption: Symmetric encryption has one flaw — in order for the two sides to understand one another, they must share the cipher key.

Firstly, you do a handshake — a VPN client and a VPN server start communicating by exchanging asymmetric keys. Two encryption keys get made: public and private. The public one only encrypts data and is sent to the other party. They then use your supplied public key to encrypt data so only you can decrypt it.

A VPN, which stands for virtual private network, establishes a digital connection between your computer and a remote server owned by a VPN provider, creating a point-to-point tunnel that encrypts your personal data, masks your IP address, and lets you sidestep website blocks and firewalls on the internet.

First, you turn the VPN software on through a button inside the app. The software will connect your computer to a VPN server, which will act as an intermediary between your computer and any servers you want to access. Many VPN providers let you select the country or city of the server so you can browse local content.

TCP is more reliable, but there are many uses where UDP is preferred and this is usually the default protocol on most VPN services.

In our 2024 speed tests, NordVPN solidified itself as the fastest VPN, edging out both Surfshark and ExpressVPN with an average speed loss of just 11.1%. Using its NordLynx VPN protocol, we measured an average internet speed loss of just 3.2% with Windows and 12.6% on MacOS.

Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) works with L2TP in the form of L2TP/IPSec. IPSec provides both authentication and encryption for data passing through L2TP tunnels. This results in a much more robust way to send data securely across the web. IPSec uses the AES cipher to encrypt data.

What is the strongest encryption network? ›

WEP, WPA, WPA2, and the latest WPA3 are the four types of wireless network security protocols, each with increasing levels of security. While WPA2, which uses AES encryption, is commonly used, WPA3 provides additional security features such as stronger encryption and attack defense.

IPsec and SSL/TLS function at different layers of the OSI model, but both can be used for VPNs.

IPsec VPN uses the Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocol for key management and authentication. IKE uses the Diffie-Hellman algorithm to generate a shared secret key that is used to encrypt traffic between two hosts. SSL VPN uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt traffic.