How a VPN Works

A visual guide into how a VPN works with helpful use cases.
Get more more info about NordVPN's offerings: nordvpn.com/animagraffs
PATREON
Help me keep making videos:
/ animagraffs
PRIVATE WORK
Need 3D illustration and animation? Let's chat:
animagraffs.com/contact/
LICENSE Animagraffs' work for your own purposes
animagraffs.com/licensing/
WEBSITE
See more explanations of how things work:
animagraffs.com/
SOFTWARE USED
I use Blender 3D to create these models. It's free and open source, and the community is amazing:
www.blender.org/
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:25 Normal browsing / IP addresses
0:41 Packets
1:15 ISP
1:37 DNS Lookup
2:18 ISP logs
3:02 VPN
4:11 Useful scenarios
4:22 Secure connection
4:51 Privacy
5:45 Bypassing Bocks
6:03 Location Restricted Content
6:20 Limitations / Logs
6:44 VPN Legality and Blocking
7:05 Obfuscated Servers
7:19 Privacy vs. Anonymity
7:34 Broswer Fingerprinting
7:52 Deep Packet Inspection
8:15 OpSec
8:31 Conclusion

[@animagraffs]

Get more more info about NordVPN's offerings: nordvpn.com/animagraffs - Worth repeating: NordVPN agreed to allow me full control over all research and visuals. I firmly believe if more companies fund publicly available, objective research we're all better for it. My research has not been tampered with in any way, period. If you came here to comment as such, I know you didn't actually watch the video.

[@__redacted__]

How does one verify a VPN does not store logs?

[@evilquaint]

@@__redacted__ That's the neat part. You can't.

[@animagraffs]

You're accepting a degree of risk when trusting anyone. Some VPNs have had outside audits from trustworthy companies to verify their internal practices, including whether they store information about you in any way that could reveal your identity. The hard-boiled techies online go straight for the extreme use cases and I get it. Once you know a thing really well, you tend to beat others over the head with it. Also, the VPN space in general has earned a lot of healthy scorn. On the hard-boiled side of things, yeah, there's no way to actually verify to 100% certainty. I accept a manageable risk every time I drive my car. I'm still happy with car usage even so, though I can't make it 100% safe. Not everyone is trying to theoretically evade the CIA, and not every VPN is keeping records. It's neither extreme, and for many users, VPNs are a really useful tool.

[@KingKong-xp6so]

@@animagraffs Dude your videos are stolen by someone else. Can you make a copyright strike?

[@animagraffs]

@@KingKong-xp6so KZbin notifies me of copies they find. What's the link?

[@Whytho2000]

Finally a clear explanation of what a VPN does. I was especially intrigued about how ISPs can "guess" what kind of data is coming from the VPN. Amazing!!

[@ersinyilmaz89]

Sometimes they don't need ISP they own crypto and security companies that you pay extra to be secure :) i.e. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crypto_AG

[@Dr.Kay_R]

Even I can guess what goes from VPN. ( •́ ͜ʖ •̀ )

[@skylineuk1485]

Pattern matching usually. For example if they see a large constant flow it’s nearly always video media, short bursts of a set size will be audio etc. once you a ripped movie say “The Avengers” is 1.1134GB in size encrypted you can just have a rough guess with connection profiles that someone is downloading that ripped movie.

[@hoodio]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYengnilmpuNjbs

[@wkzehy3670]

The most hilarious part is "VPN server doesn't keep your logs!" Yeah, right.

[@eegw1199]

This type of quality, information and effort for a channel with 200k subs is absurd. You deserve 5M+

[@randallvargas4457]

I'm only 1 min 34 seconds into this but wanted to say: Your content is endlessly gorgeous and informative. 200k subs is a joke compared to what you'll have in no time. Thank you!

[@manuelg4867]

looks like they doubled their subs in 7 months after this comment.

[@nemozheng939]

now almost trippled.

[@januarysson5633]

In March of 2023 more than tripled.

[@michaeljava8736]

Bro, I am a software developer. And even i didnt fully understand what VPNs did. Your explanation and the graphics helped me understand the key thing VPNs do. Not using your ISP to directly access the internet. Using your ISP just to get to the VPN provider. Now your ISP doesnt even know your meta data (what website you go to). And your ISP can not censor internet. I am saving the link to this video to my computer networks folder.

[@romeocharlie1]

Minor corrections at 4:15. Your data is only encrypted from your device to the VPN service. It is not encrypted between the VPN service and the destination. That traffic is done in the clear. Also, the VPN does not do the DNS lookup on its own. That must be done at your device. The VPN service may host the DNS itself, or you can make the DNS request through the VPN. You still have to tell the VPN service where you want to go (that means resolving to an IP address) before you can traverse the tunnel.

[@fonkbadonk5370]

*Your

[@radzhyg.6082]

Was waiting for this answer. Everyone talks about secure tunnel but no one mentions that it is only with your vpn server but not finial distention.

[@gokturkbuyuktuna8557]

If the website uses https protocol as mentioned in the video shouldn't it be encrypted as well?

[@r000tbeer]

Nice video explanation but needs some corrections: *Your home router external IP is live on the Internet - your ISP does not NAT it (in most cases). Doing NAT at the ISP level would be EXTREMELY CPU intensive and would break connectivity for numerous applications. *DNS is an abbreviation for "Domain" Name System, not "Dynamic" Name System. You can host your own DNS servers or use an external provider, ie. Google. Yes, your ISP can still see your external queries unless you are doing DNS over TLS. *The VPN tunnel is between you and the VPN provider. It is not end to end. *Logging is very VPN provider dependent. Thank you for pointing out browser fingerprinting! Lots of people believe VPNs are a one size fits all solution to Internet anonymity and it is simply not so.

[@MythOfEchelon]

As a former senior IT / network engineer and a current senior information security engineer of over 10 years, I was interested to watch this. To be fair, it's fairly accurate for the most part and covers some unexpected things like fingerprinting, but I have noted some corrections for those who want to know. (I've skipping over some simple and unimportant ones that were probably for the sake of simplicity.) 1. They're called Domain Name System / name servers, not Dynamic Name Servers. Dynamic DNS is a thing, though. 2. When a client is using a VPN, it always makes DNS lookup requests itself. It's forward web proxies where the proxy-aware app delegates that and the service itself does so. However, some VPN services do host DNS servers and offer protection by configuring your client to send DNS requests to them instead. 3. A fake Wi-Fi network attack is known as Evil Twin. A honeypot is used to trick attackers into thinking they're on a real system so that they divulge information about themselves, such as their intent or Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs). 4. ISPs can't (usually) see your GPS location, but they can look up your public IP address' geolocation. 5. Geolocation is not defined by a country's physical borders. It's defined by the public IP subnet that's been assigned to that country and organisation and tracked in a database. Also, I'm skeptical about the claim that Deep Packet Inspection can determine the content of encrypted packets. Network Traffic Analysis perhaps.

[@GururajBN]

After watching a few videos of Animagrafs, it seems that the superlative quality of graphics and unhurried and lucid narration are the hallmarks. My grateful thanks.

[@aravindavarmadantuluri7014]

This is the best VPN ad I have ever seen.

[@Analyst987]

Hi guys! First of all, i would like to thank the trainer of those animated videos. It's really great, as i could understand very and deeply about VPN in a matter of very few minutes, when i went through pages to try to understand VPN clearly. He did a very great job and at the same time so clear even for novice in computer studies to understand what is VPN. Thank you very much. You deserve more than our like ! Keep it up. Please, i will appreciate more if you could provide us some more videos about network protocols and also if possible some videos about Cyber security fundamentals. Thank you, all the best !

[@christianhumer3084]

You should correct your Video: VPN Provider -are- might not collect data. Your Data has to go out somewhere (otherwise, it would be just HTTPS) to get visible. It´s more like a Tunnel: You can pass certain blockades and safe from spying from the Air, but you can still be seen when entering the tunnel, or leaving it. Also someone with access to cameras in (in front of) the tunnel (VPN Provider, the VPN Providers ISP, Governments, Hackers..) may see you. It also doesn´t save you from burglers or disguised Officers since you are communicating with them openly.

[@manthanpanchal3279]

The efforts put in making this video are on another level

[@Kidgod000]

Your visuals are amazingly informative and relatable... freaking love your channel now

[@dextermorgan4570]

JON this is really great content. Please don't mind those comments that say you're doing this for nord. You deserve whatever you're getting for giving us such good animated videos that makes it easier for us to understand how things work. I think you don't have to reply to those few comments they know very little about how the world works. Please keep doing this. Your channel is going to grow.

[@LuizVieiraPintoNeto]

Hello there Jake. I've been waiting for your upload. As always, insanely animated writen and done.

[@viviannoriega706]

Keep the videos coming!!. they help explain things in a easy way and i like how u show visual aswell 👍

[@vuyisanimbulawa4788]

You just gain another subscriber, I'm an IT Network Engineer student 🇿🇦

[@NikhilYadav-mj6wj]

You almost just explained the whole Internet. Great video!

[@edilier06]

Yes!!!!! I can’t never find a video that explains VPN well. Thank you! 🙌🏼💜

[@m1kmain]

this is probably one of the best explanations i have came across. Great video!

[@shinobishabby5955]

Damn! More IT vids should be made like this to make it easier for students learning. Love it, Animagraffs!

[@rgarlinyc]

Another masterpiece, my understanding has grown in leaps and bounds - thanks a ton!

[@trumpsupporter3485]

These videos make my brain smile. I'm 100% a visual learner. Thank you!

[@DragonsHalloweenBall]

Amazing work! Thank you for putting this together.

[@AlejandroRamirez-le2vv]

"VPNs do not keep logs of what you do" that's what most people assume but you need to look at each country regulations of the VPN service you're using and what country you're connecting to. Plus you're just transferring your trust of your data from your ISP to the VPN service provider

[@LegendsOfKansheer]

This is awesome Jake! Thanks for teaching me this today

[@wormworm3800]

Very nice presentation, well structured and styled.

[@wakeupuk3860]

Another superb video, having just watched your Trafalgar, decided to see what else you had done and found this absolute gem as well. After teaching IT to kids, I went on to become a Microsoft Certified Trainer and delivered quite a few TCP/IP week long courses, certainly could have done with this animation as oppose the very bad ones Microsoft came up with for me to present to paying students. Often found Teckies knew how to set up their DHCP, DNS and IIS server because they had been shown what IPs and subnet masks were and assigned to them by the IANA but had difficulty comprehending the OSI 7 layer model and it's packeting make up. Having been out of the industry for 10 years, I now find a woeful ignorance of the most basic TCP/IP concepts by ISP and VPN support staff, who generally just tell you to try another protocol. This video in my opinion should be enforced watching several times by those who purport to provide VPN technical support, especially a company called SurfShark

[@K0ALA.]

Your videos are so informing for us normal people. Thank you

[@iheckinloveurmom]

subbed, what an informative content with the visual is superb

[@AdamSmith-ej3cw]

What I find amazing about all of this is that it happens at the speed of light. All of the world’s information at your fingertips instantly. Imagine the possibilities if we used this technology for more than looking at cat videos

[@ExtremCoxer]

We do though

[@-sturmfalke-]

Well not where I live... These websites might travel the last few kilometers per bus.

[@SoCalRhetor]

The was really neat. Thanks, Jake, for your narration and visuals.

[@yessenpothaya1528]

Clear and direct information. Good job 💯

[@elijahf]

Excellent visual and explanation

[@TwistersSK8]

I can't believe how good your content is. AMAZING JOB. Thank you!

[@michaelgallias2651]

Virtually the best explanation in youtube! Another great video! Please don't stop making videos.

[@Romualdomgn84]

Thank you for explanation how does VPN work! Keep up doing the great work!

[@cristianmorar5558]

Superb work !

[@vonaudio5435]

beautiful presentation. like the engine video, makes the subject understandable at a high level.

[@someshmahajan7903]

The best video I've found on KZbin ❤

[@ravikiran4785]

Amazing info! keep it coming

[@spacestar4047]

Thanks! One of the best channel

[@alexandrecheval6800]

Clear, simple and thorough information. I just love it and I am amazed by your animation skills and your vulgarization! Please make more !! :)

[@mihoang4458]

Well done, JON. Will you do an animation of the processes that convert solid waste ?

[@amirmokhtari5053]

Thank you, it was useful

[@mascar1lha]

This is why I still use the tube. Great content

[@TazTrucking]

Love you animations; I’m a tactile learner so this is amaze

[@ryuua4252]

nice explanation

[@Jellos22]

Your videos are awesome 👏

[@zaidkidwai7831]

Great video!

[@user-db3zv2de4q]

Love your videos bro

[@wither8517]

this is the most convenient ad ever made!

[@jackofnotrades007]

Do a similar video on tor. Will be cool to watch.

[@josepha4685]

Hi Jake, You content is absolutely amazing. Thanks for the good work. I would love if you can make a video on how the car cooling system works. Thanks in advance.😊

[@scottd9448]

Great videos! Keep it up.

[@seetsamolapo5600]

- the VPN software encrypts your data before it leaves your device, its already scrambled when reaching your router - from there your router forwards tge packet to your ISP which forwards the cipher text to your VPN server - the VPN handles the dns look up process/resolution

[@johndewey6358]

Good job. Some VPN service providers do not keep logs and some do. So it is incorrect to say the VPN providers do not keep logs (you may want to update the video)..

[@ludwigh3712]

Super Animation 👍💪🏽

[@mikesmith1678]

Amazing content! I have a question: Can a destination site detect that IP address of VPN is used instead of your real IP address? Or is it impossible to detect it?

[@thedirtybubble9613]

A VPN uses Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol with the IPsec security suite to secure the layer 3 internet layer. It uses AES encryption to encrypt the packets on top of the data. In essence, it is definitely "secure" from eavesdroppers including your ISP.

[@MythOfEchelon]

Depends on the VPN and its configuration.

[@refinededusoft]

This is amazing demonstration...i knew fairly little about vpns. thank you Animagraffs. But i do have one question. Does the router/wifi-hotspot see your browsed activities?

[@carrythezero]

"dns looks for closest ip for the website" this is incorrect. That assumes CDN. Dns will only look for the single ip configured to hostname

[@MythOfEchelon]

Correct.

[@matthewzamat3331]

Awesome!

[@dyslexicsteak897]

This is great! Much better than the "military grade" buzzwords going around.

[@ae-editor]

great video 👍

[@HugoTron]

Thanks a lot.

[@choi.3042]

Wow. That’s such a work. Keep it up!

[@calexander230]

great video

[@huzaifahashmy2158]

I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS

[@EastFame]

next suggestion - how stock/forex exchanges work? how they are able to show the same price across all exchanges with little variations instantly?

[@allibababoo]

Awesome video

[@apeknow125]

GREAT!

[@glrasshopper]

This isn't an dis on Animagraffs; he puts together great education videos. This is a major dis on "VPN" providers. What they provide are NOT VPNs, they may use VPNs principles to do what they do, but the service they actually provide is a secure connection to an anonymizing proxy. Real VPNs, in simple terms, bury one network connection inside another (usually encrypted) in a way that allows two or more sites to form a single private network, regardless of physical location limitations.

[@animagraffs]

The whole VPN space has this surrounding air of insecurity. I limit my work to knowable principles, because actually confirming what's going on at a big VPN company seems impossible. And people discussing VPNs are divided about every single part of the process.

[@glrasshopper]

@@animagraffs Yeah, I understand your approach to this. You cannot be an expert in everything, but you do put an amazing level of detail into your videos. But I have tertiary degree in computing, and 20+ years of experience in the computing industry. So, I do know what I'm talking about here. It just pisses me off to see all these "VPN" provides misleading the public all the time over what VPNs really are.

[@pouyaomidi2823]

thank you for fantastic Channel ! I have a question, my question is not about just the browser, it is about software I use on my pc , it means whole PC as device ! for example Adobe Apps, if I use VPN , it can protect my IP and Adobe don't get my real IP info? today all software try to call home! it means they try to connect to the Company which the create the Software, when it happen and you have VPN , it can prevent real IP address? Thanks sir !

[@imleomad]

vpns something we iranian use always . tnx for explaining the hople process

[@Ali-ys9nh]

very good

[@RA2009.]

Do you know all this stuff or do you think of something cool and research it. Your videos are really cool, i like how you visualise it.

[@alexanderauld7046]

if you made a video explaining all the systems of an ordinary car to help people pass ASE exams; you would recieve so much profit. The videos are great

[@andrepipo4542]

So basicaly, instead of your ISP stealing your data, it's your vpn provider

[@ManeelxAkosAdor]

Nice video but I still don't understand how the first ISP server reroutes the traffic to the VPN server to make the rest. How does it work?

[@treboRobert817]

Are packets sent from your Home router to the ISP's servers? Or is it sent to ISP routers or switches via local loop? Also, what about NAT on your Home Router?

[@Finlay_Mitchell]

I don't think NAT is really relevant, I think he avoided it as it's just additional complexity, so he just left it at how your router has one IP for all your devices.

[@workspilot.]

I would appreciate if you could make a video on the fuel cell used in automobiles.

[@xx3868]

Question on hidden ISP address IF the site you are connected through a VPN uses cookies and can see your computers details like windows 7, Java ect in order to communicate back and forth Yes? So why doesant the packets ect see your REAL address? and only the fake one from the VPN servers? Can a site or hacker get your real address whos might be hacked into the site thus avoiding outside encrypted tunnel man in the middle hack?

[@workspilot.]

Could you make a video regarding the engineering of Bluetooth?

[@PushyPawn]

These video's end more abruptly than Janet Jackson songs.

[@mandarbhabal6471]

What you said about china it's true we can't use whatsApp facebook in China without vpn

[@ladfromkarak9300]

does the isp know what data we have ordered to our device?

[@armautocad3d10]

Please make video on How computer works full deep info , and how codes works on hardware software

[@horseheadbutt]

you described a man in the middle attack, not a honey pot.

[@MythOfEchelon]

A specific type of MITM attack, yes. Evil Twin.

[@shiniminion]

Kindly make a more videos for networking protocols like DNS, DHCP, difference between FTP & HTTPS and HTTP, and more it's usefull for students like me.....

[@Marcos-Osca]

I like your channel its very informative, especially this one about VPN's but theres problem with it & quite frankly it gets my neck hair up, on the first & second world map every land mass is there except Australia, why isn't it there? Contra to popular belief Australia ISN'T the size of Gilligan's island Australia is BIGGER than the lower 48 of the USA infact the top third of Australia is well into canada. In future do you think this could be rectified. Thank you for understanding.

[@OptimalGraphix]

Can you do how a steam locomotive works???

[@DEM1GOD7]

wouldn't the VPN server un-encrypt the packet when it gets it then send it to the destinations and then re-encrypt it before sending it to your ISP. how else would the destinations understand what the packet is if it was still full encrypted

[@naggotfigger3934]

So how can we battle that last situation?

[@jayg1438]

your videos are tremendous. Are you or your brother engineers?

[@takumi2023]

You guys should end on and that's how blank works so we know how the video ends. The ends are kinda abrupt.

[@sobinthomas]

Which vpn is good for rotating ip for android? Can you suggest with your experience.

[@mandakhg6568]

Regarding with anonymity, I beg you to briefly mention Tor network.

[@animagraffs]

The quest for true anonymity is so deep, and falls outside the scope of a discussion on VPNs alone. In my research I saw that apparently even Tor connection points may be tampered with by state actors. Truly motivated folks were talking about using entirely separate computers for some activity, since even the operating system can give up tiny details about identity. It's a really deep rabbit hole to achieve actual anonymity, if it's possible at all.

[@nocap4739]

@@animagraffs linux master race

[@FirstnameLastname-fn6ik]

I don't have an education in this kind of stuff so this might not make sense, but wouldn't the VPN be more secure if their servers were between you and the ISP in this process, rather than between the ISP and your destination? Because if the data goes from your house to the ISP, people can still snoop and know where you are roughly physically located, right?

[@animagraffs]

At each stage of the journey, data is wrapped in new container packets. I showed some of that process -- where your router hides which device in your home sent the request from the outside world. When your VPN gets your data and sends it through their servers, it gets wrapped in a new packet that doesn't have openly visible GPS location from the original request. Only the new GPS location of your VPN server. My mockup is a bit limited to show this process, but that's what's actually happening at each stage.

[@FirstnameLastname-fn6ik]

@@animagraffs Thanks! So when you say your router hides which device in your home sent the request, it is still apparent that the request came from your router/home, right? It seems like with the setup shown, the ISP knows that you requested something from somewhere, whereas if the VPN server came in between you and the ISP, all the ISP would know is that someone requested some specific content. At a glance it sounds to me like it'd be more private for your identity to be hidden rather than the thing you're searching for.

[@MythOfEchelon]

That's basically impossible. ISPs exist to connect you to the Internet and VPN providers are on the Internet. That's kind of like saying why don't you just move the supermarket to your house so you don't have to use roads.