What is VPN?

The university I go to recommends we connect to their VPN when using wireless internet. What does a VPN do?

• What does a VPN protect me from? Does it keep people from accessing my laptop's hard drive and files when I'm connected to the school's wireless Internet? Does it keep people from seeing what I am doing on my laptop, what websites I'm on, my passwords, the music I'm listening to, etc? I'm also able to connect to the VPN when I'm at home using my own Internet or any other WIFI spot as well, does it even work when I'm not using the school's internet?

• Answer:

  What does a VPN protect me from? VPN gives extremely secure connections between private networks linked through the Internet. It allows remote computers to act as though they were on the same secure, local network Does it keep people from accessing my laptop's hard drive and files when I'm connected to the school's wireless Internet? Depends on the schools vpn, policies, but your firewall, OS security, etc is what allows/prevents this. Does it keep people from seeing what I am doing on my laptop, what websites I'm on, my passwords, the music I'm listening to, etc? That is not what VPN if for, but they may have a proxy server or some other type of monitoring that would track this, I would look in their policy guide. I'm also able to connect to the VPN when I'm at home using my own Internet or any other WIFI spot as well, does it even work when I'm not using the school's internet? Yes, VPN is just a secure way to connect to another network.