By Eric Gregory and Molly Shakeri

Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to connect to the Internet will help make certain that your data communications are kept private from any prying eyes. The encryption technology used by a VPN system ensures that even if someone can see your communication, they will be unable to understand it.

There are two important opportunities to utilize a VPN connection for your university computer use:

• when connecting to the university wireless network
• when connecting to university network resources from home or while traveling

How does the VPN system work? When using the Internet, many times your data is sent in the clear, which means that anyone along the path can intercept and read it. Similarly, when using a wireless network, signals are broadcast through the air using antennae, and anyone within the radius of an antenna’s signal can intercept the communications. However, a VPN makes use of encryption techniques to establish a secure tunnel across a public network between two endpoints, usually a computer and a device called a concentrator. When you transmit and receive data through the secure tunnel, no one else on the public network can understand the data that you are transferring. For your computer, a software client is needed in order to establish the secure tunnel to the concentrator.

When it comes to your data, it is better to be safe than sorry. The university has deployed a VPN concentrator on the campus network for your use and also provides the client software your computer will need in order to connect to the VPN concentrator. You can download the free client software from the OIT Help Desk Web site at www.helpdesk.umd.edu/topics/applications/vpn.