How VPN actually works in this case

[matiasht]

Hi, I have a question, when you get access to a VPN, lets say for example, y connect to the VPN of my office through the internet, Im gonna get an IP from the office network and will be able to see shares, and intranet sites and all of that stuff.

But howcome if I wanna surpass country restrictions on Youtube for instance, I can join or sign up for VPNs offered online and have access to those videos, for example if you live in China and sign up for a VPN all the traffic would be generated as if you were phsysically located in that VPN region, that doesnt happen on a regular VPN set up by my office where I can connect to, so what would be the difference between those?

 

[why_wolf]

when on a VPN your exit IP will be whatever the VPN has set up. So if your office is in China but you are in say the UK it will appear as if you are browsing the internet from China. That's how you bypass the geofencening restrictions on youtube and other sites.

There are different kinds of VPN though. Some may only allow you access to files on the company server but not allow you to reroute your general internet browsing though the company to 3rd party sites.

 

[matiasht]

Ok, to be honest I did not know that, so let's say I connect to my office VPN within the same country, if the feature is enabled, I should be able to access the Internet with their own external IP address instead of mine at home, correct?

 

[why_wolf]

Pretty much yes assuming they allow it on their end and you have the VPN set up correctly on your end.

 

[matiasht]

so there must be some feature to use it as a proxy when you set it up, I have set up Server 2008 R2 VPN before and I don't recall any option to enable/disable that

 

[DeadlyDays]

If you understand what a LAN is and what WAN is, a VPN is easy to understand.

VPN makes it appear as if you are on a remote LAN through a tunnel created across a WAN. So for all purposes, after you create a VPN connection, you are on the LAN of the network you VPN to. There is no difference for the machines on the network between you being VPN'd on the network, and you physically being at that location plugged in with an Ethernet cable. The only device that'd know would be the server that manages the VPN connection.

of course there is longer ping times because you aren't actually physically there. But that is how it works.

That would be a simplified explanation.

 

[matiasht]

Yeah but as far as Im understanding here then once you connect to the VPN is like you no longer belong to the real network, as you can bypass country restrictions on youtube for example

 

[0xBahaa]

Yeah but as far as Im understanding here then once you connect to the VPN is like you no longer belong to the real network, as you can bypass country restrictions on youtube for example

Pretty much yea.
The traffic will go as follows:
Home --> Office --> youtube (for example)
so, the youtube servers see the Office's IP, not your home's. That's how geo-restrictions are bypassed.

 

[matiasht]

Ok, that makes sense, what about connecting to two different VPNs at the same time, is that possible?

 

[0xBahaa]

Ok, that makes sense, what about connecting to two different VPNs at the same time, is that possible?

It's theoretically possible, and could be done in many ways, but it requires some tuning and isn't practical at all (in my opinion).
I haven't met anyone in practical life that does that except for maybe "demonstration purposes" or so. One VPN should already provide the required anonymity.