VPN and SSH: Which method is more secure?

TipsMake.com - Both VPN and SSH allow network traffic to be transmitted through a secure connection. They have similarities but there are also differences. If you're wondering which technique to use, the article will help you understand how each technology works.

A typical SSH tunnel is like a 'poor' VPN (poorman VPN) because the protocol can also provide some of the same features as VPN without the complicated server setup process. However, SSH still has some limitations.

VPN

VPN or virtual private network, used to connect private networks over public networks. A typical case of using VPN as a business may have a private network with shared data, networked printers and other important things on it. Some employees may travel and often have to access these resources remotely. However, businesses do not want to disclose important company resources publicly on the Internet. Instead, businesses can set up a VPN server so that remote employees can connect to the corporate VPN. When an employee is connected to a VPN server, their computer becomes part of an enterprise network. They can access data and other resources like having a physical connection directly to the local network.

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The VPN client connects to the VPN server through the Internet and transmits the entire network traffic through a secure connection, meaning that competitors cannot interfere with connecting and view sensitive business information. feel. Depending on the VPN, all network traffic is sent through VPN or only some traffic can be sent (however, usually all network traffic is set up through VPN). If all browsing traffic is transmitted through the VPN, the people between the VPN client and the VPN server cannot interfere with the browsing traffic. This provides information protection when using public Wi-Fi networks and allows users to geographically access restricted services, such as employees who can bypass Internet censorship. If they are working from a web censorship country. For websites that employees access via VPN, web traffic will return to the VPN client as if originating from the VPN server.

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Another important thing is, VPN works much at the operating system level rather than the application level. In other words, when a user establishes a VPN connection, the operating system can route all network traffic through it from all applications (although this may vary from VPN to VPN, depending on how VPN is configured). They will not have to configure each application separately.

SSH

SSH or secure shell is not only designed to forward network traffic. Often SSH is used to securely receive data and use a remote terminal session, but SSH also has other functions. SSH also uses a highly secure encryption method and users can set up an SSH client into a SOCKS proxy. Then, we can configure the application on the computer such as a web browser to use SOCKS proxy. The traffic goes into the SOCKS proxy running on the local system and the SSH client forwards it over an SSH connection. This process is called SSH Tunneling. It works similar to web browsing via VPN, web traffic returns as if it came from SSH server. Traffic transmitted between the computer and SSH server is encrypted so users can browse the web through a secure encrypted connection as with VPN.

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However, an SSH tunnel does not bring as much benefit as a VPN connection. Unlike VPN, users must configure each application to use the proxy tunnel of the SSH tunnel. With VPN, all traffic will be sent through VPN but this is not necessarily true with an SSH tunnel. The operating system will behave as if the user is on the remote network in case of using VPN, meaning that connecting shared data on Windows will be easy. This is relatively more difficult with an SSH tunnel.

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Which technique is more secure?

If you are worried about which technology is more secure to apply to the business, the obvious answer is VPN. You can push the entire network traffic on the system through it. However, if you only want a secure encrypted connection to surf the web from public Wi-Fi networks in cafes and airports . then both VPN and SSH are possible because they all have a secure encryption method. High honey.

In another aspect, new users can easily connect to a VPN, but setting up a VPN server is more complicated. SSH on the other hand is a simpler setting. In fact, many people will have a SSH server for them to access remotely. If you have access to a SSH server, setting up a SSH tunnel is much simpler than setting up a VPN server. For this reason SSH is called a 'poor' VPN.

Businesses that are expecting more powerful network technology will want to invest in VPNs. On the other hand, SSH tunnel is an easy way to encrypt traffic for single users with SSH server access. And its security encryption method is as good as VPN.

VPN will be the perfect solution for businesses looking for a secure network technique while SSH is suitable for individual users with SSH server access. However, both techniques use encryption methods with very high data security.