Virtual private network explained for the layman

Virtual private network  A VPN allows users to connect to a private network from anywhere through a secured tunnel. E.G working from home, you might set up a VPN to your office so that your traffic can not be snooped on and secrets stolen.
VPNs can also be used to link together two networks such as branch offices or a cloud network to head office.

It is very easy to do and Windows provides a simple self-help dialogue.  The secure tunnel that results will encrypt all the data that passes between your computer and the others on this network as well as ensuring that only you can connect via the VPN.

The “Explained series” is planned to build into a trustworthy collection of explanations and commentaries that can be trusted to tell the story straight without any bias and attempt to make the subjects accessible to the layman. The latter is not always easy as some of these terms refer to genuinely complex subject matter, while others are simply too vague to pin down (there’s another word for that). There is also a limit to how far I can go in explaining every term when there are a lot of them, so I have to sometimes rely on your initiative to right click the offending word and look it up.
If you want an answer on something and you can’t find it easily, please use the comments section to just ask and I will appreciate not having to research the next topic.