VPN Virtual Private Network
An encrypted tunnel that swaps your visible IP address for one belonging to a server you trust.
A Virtual Private Network: an encrypted tunnel between a client and a server you trust. Traffic enters at the client, travels through the tunnel to the server, and exits to the wider internet wearing the server's IP address. The original use-case was extending a corporate LAN over the public internet; the modern consumer use-case is moving the visible source of one's traffic to a network the user controls.
A VPS makes a far better VPN than a subscription does.
The consumer-VPN industry is built on a paradox. The brands that spend the most on television advertising are, by an almost mathematical necessity, the brands with the largest user pool sharing the smallest IP space — which means their exit IPs are pre-flagged on every captcha vendor's reputation list before you even subscribe. You pay €12 a month to be classified as suspicious by every login form on the web.
A VPS-hosted VPN inverts the trade-off. You rent a small node — €4 to €6 a month — set up WireGuard, and you have a dedicated IP address that belongs to you and the four devices you point at it. No shared pool, no abuse-driven blacklists, no opaque "no-log" policy that you have no way of verifying. The logging policy is whatever you configure on the VPS, which is to say, none if you want none.
This page exists so that "VPN" is grounded as a category before you encounter the WireGuard-specific glossary entry, the WireGuard guide and the WireGuard use-case page. Pick the protocol and the deployment shape on those pages; come back here whenever you need the underlying definition.
The pages that lean on this term.
The questions people actually ask.
Does a VPN make me anonymous?
No. A VPN shifts which network operator sees your traffic — from your home ISP or your café's Wi-Fi to whoever runs the VPN endpoint. If that endpoint is a commercial VPN service you signed up for with a credit card, "anonymous" is the wrong word. If it is a VPS you control, paid for in cryptocurrency, the picture is better but still not anonymous in the Tor sense: the destination site sees your VPS IP every time, which over time builds a recognisable fingerprint.
Is a self-hosted VPN better than a commercial one?
It depends on the threat model. A self-hosted VPN on a VPS gives you a dedicated IP address that is not shared with thousands of other users, full control over the logging policy and zero subscription bundle. A commercial VPN gives you blended traffic in a shared IP pool, which provides a different kind of plausible-deniability story but means every captcha gauntlet on the web treats your IP as suspicious by default.
What protocols do modern VPNs use?
WireGuard for new deployments — it is fast, small and modern. OpenVPN for compatibility with corporate networks and legacy clients. IPsec/IKEv2 for native iOS and macOS clients without third-party software. PPTP and L2TP/IPsec are obsolete and should not be deployed.
Can I run a VPN on a NordBastion VPS?
Yes — it is one of the most common reasons people buy a small entry-tier plan from us. The dedicated WireGuard guide and the WireGuard use-case page walk through the exact setup.