A VPN creates a secure tunnel through which the data is sent and received by your system. In other words, all the data that your device sends and receives remains encrypted. This is the reason why organizations provide a VPN connection to their employees for internet surfing. Because a VPN encrypts your data and sends it through a secure VPN server, you may experience slow internet speed in some cases. If there are a lot of users connected to the same VPN server, the load on the VPN server increases due to which the internet speed slows down. VPN Split Tunneling is the solution to this problem. In this article, we will discuss what a VPN Split Tunneling is and what its advantages and disadvantages are.
What is VPN Split Tunneling?
VPN Split Tunneling provides you with more control over your VPN connection. If you enable the VPN Split Tunneling, some of your internet traffic is sent through the VPN tunnel and the rest of your internet traffic is sent through an open or regular internet connection. The VPN Split Tunneling gives you a facility to select which internet traffic you want to send through the encrypted tunnel (VPN).
How does the VPN Split Tunneling work?
Let’s understand how the VPN Split Tunneling works. As described above, the VPN provides you with two connections at the same time, one encrypted and the other unencrypted. You can use the encrypted connection for the websites where you have to enter your confidential or sensitive information, such as banking websites. For other trusted websites, where you do not need to enter your sensitive information, like watching videos on YouTube, downloading software or files from trusted websites, etc., you can use your regular connection. On the other hand, if your VPN connection does not support the split tunneling feature, everything that you surf on the internet has to travel through the VPN secure tunnel, which in turn slows down your internet speed. If you do not want to experience slow internet speed, you have to disconnect your system from the VPN for regular internet surfing and connect your system to the VPN when you are making online transactions, accessing your organization’s server, etc.
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Is VPN Split Tunneling good or bad?
Above, we have discussed what VPN Split Tunneling is and how it works. Now, let’s talk about its advantages and disadvantages. If you are wondering about whether you have to use VP Split Tunneling or not, the pros and cons of VPN Split Tunneling described below will help you make your decision.
Pros of VPN Split Tunneling
Following are some advantages of VPN Split Tunneling:
Cons of VPN Split Tunneling
Following are some disadvantages of VPN Split Tunneling: Read: Should Cookies be Enabled or Disabled in my Browser?
Should I use Split Tunneling on VPN?
It depends on you. If you have installed high-end security software on your system that provides the same security measures as your organization, you need not use VPN Split Tunneling. On the other hand, if you do not have such software, you need to use VPN Split Tunneling for the traffic that is going to your organization’s server.
Why do we use split tunneling?
VPN Split Tunneling is used when a user wants to use an encrypted secure network and an open network at the same time. Organizations use VPNs to secure their data from hackers. When we surf the internet, our data is transferred over the internet in the form of packets. The more packets a VPN server receives, the slower the speed of the internet connection is. If an employee uses the organization’s VPN to surf everything over the internet, it will decrease the internet speed. Hence, in order to save the bandwidth, organizations provide the split tunneling feature to their employees so that they could use VPN only for the organization’s work and regular internet connection for other tasks.
Closing Words
VPN Tunneling is a good way to keep your sensitive data secure while surfing the internet without slowing down your internet speed. But if online security and privacy are your main concern, you should avoid using VPN Split Tunneling and use a VPN connection for all your internet traffic. By doing so, you have to compromise internet speeds but your data remains secure while surfing the internet. That’s it. Read next: Best Cybersecurity Practices for Small Business.
