A virtual private network (VPN) is a private network often used by companies or organizations, to communicate confidentially while the rest of the world remains blissfully unaware.

VPN traffic can be carried over a public networking infrastructure (Internet) or over a service provider's private network with a defined Service Level Agreement between the VPN customer and the VPN service provider. While this is fine for those of us with access to the VPN, the trouble comes when your VPN access is denied either because we shouldn’t be accessing it from home or due to more routine cleanups. But often times, we need this info or we need to access sites outside our VPN at work for work or not. So what do we do?

A VPN can send data such as voice, data or video, or a combination of these media, across encrypted private channels from the network to either another within the network or usually, depending on the security levels, to a public destination. But when you send information back to that VPN you have no idea whether or not the information was received or whether it was screened and flagged as undeliverable.

If you’re talking about VPN tunnel mode data, this is the passing of data through a public network in such a way that routing in the public network is unaware that the transmission is part of a private network. Tunneling is generally done by taking the private network data within the public network so that the tunneled data is not available to anyone examining the transmitted. Tunneling allows the use of public areas of the Internet to carry data on behalf of users as though they had access to a 'private network', hence the name.

If you’re trying to access your desk work from home, there are ways to breech the code of your network. You need a few things like your ISP address, user name, password, and to know your way around a computer.

If you’re trying to break out of the work system, that’s a little bit tougher. If for no other reason than during the daytime, security is higher and you’re probably being watched. If there is any other way for you to get the info without hacking out, I’d suggest it in lieu of losing your job. If it’s for work that you need to do this, I’d talk to you IT guy, unless you really know your way around your computer and you’re really certain you won’t be fired.

While the whole episode may seem silly to some, there is great private data being transported all the time that requires the encryption and safety of a VPN. And while you may not think much of the information you push around on your desktop from 9-5, your company certainly does if they’ve installed a VPN.