So I recently purchased a VPN and decided to not to live a life in ignorance and teach myself all the details behind how a VPN actually works (arguably I should have done this in reverse orders hehe).
I believe I understand the “big lines” in that a VPN works as a middleman in that when I send and receive information through the internet it is transmitted via a VPN server (with a different IP address) with the information being encrypted so that neither my ISP nor potential hackers can access my information. However, I have couple of questions regarding this that I cant seem to fathom on my own. Hopefully my descriptions make sense :`)
Firstly, whenever I connect to the internet I send my information to my router and then on to the “internet” (which I believe is roughly defined as all the wires that make it possible for servers to connect to clients from all over the world) . This means that even though I am using a VPN I need to send an initial signal to the VPN server and so my ISP should be able to tell that a signal is sent from one place (my computer) to another (the VPN server) since the signal goes via my router. I get that this information is encrypted, but is it not the case that I am now accessing the internet from my original IP address? How is my identity then protected? Is this irrelevant because the information I am sending is encrypted and thus hidden?
Secondly, I have heard a lot of talk about the VPN tunnelling protocol/system which I loosely understand as a defense system that protects the information you transmit. As far as I have gathered the tunnelling protocol is split into a primary and secondary defense system with the secondary being the encryption. What I see little to no information about is the primary defense system AKA the “tunnel” itself. Can someone enlighten me on what the “primary defense system” of a VPN tunnel is?