How VPN providers can provide security protection in general

[Ellicott]

I am just curious that how a VPN provider can provide security in general. For example, I am in Seattle, WA and want to connect sportstoy.com in New York, the VPN provider's server located in Boston. Therefore data transfer between Seattle and Boston is well protected, but data are not protected between Boston and New York.

There are always some miles in between where there is no protection. Do I understand the basic mechanism correctly?

 

[RMerlin]

That's pretty much it. VPNs will encrypt the data between you and their server. Anything between their server and the remote website isn't encrypted, and is subject to interception/snooping/forging/etc...

The physical location doesn't mean much. Even if both are in the same city, routing can potentially have the traffic live a city, go through an exchange, then get re-routed back into that city. It's all about peering agreements.

 

[Ellicott]

Thank you RMerlin for confirmation.