Digging tunnels from one point to another, in order to prevent users from being exposed to the wilderness of the internet, is what VPNs do.
Virtual Private Networks as people call them, extends a private network across a public network to allow users send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.
This way, users using VPNs can benefit from the functionality, security, and management of the private network.
NordVPN is one of the largest VPN provider. And here, it has introduced 'NordLynx', in which its VPN is upgraded to be powered by the promising WireGuard VPN protocol.
It's using the simpler protocol that NordLynx should be faster than if it uses other contemporary protocols like OpenVPN, IPSec, and more.
NordVPN that conducted 256,886 speed tests found that “when a user connects to a nearby VPN server and downloads content that’s served from a content delivery network (CDN) within a few thousand miles/kilometers, they can expect up to twice higher download and upload speed.”
On its blog post, NordVPN said that:
"There’s no question, it’s a perfect match for NordVPN."
NordLynx technology has been deployed across all NordVPN's VPN products offered on different platforms including Windows, iOS, Android, and Linux.
To use this NordLynx VPN, users just need to update their NordVPN app to a newer version.
The protocol NordLynx uses can then be chosen manually from the Settings menu.
According to Daniel Markuson, a NordVPN digital privacy expert, NordLynx is the most significant technological improvement ever due to the fact that it is powered by WireGuard.
WireGuard is newer than others in the competition, but "faster than the current leading VPN protocols, such as OpenVPN and IPSec."
While speed is what customers will certainly notice at first, NordVPN also bolstered NordLynx's WIreGuard protocol using its own custom double Network Address Translation (NAT) to ensure better user privacy.
Using NAT, users are assigned a dynamic local IP address that remains assigned only while the session is active. This way, user authentication is done with the help of a secure external database to ensure that personally identifiable user data is stored on any of the VPN servers.
NordVPN saw WireGuard potential earlier than most others, and started working on adopting the protocol in since July 2019.
With the update, NordVPN supports three different VPN protocols: IKEv2/IPsec, OpenVPN, and the WireGuard-powered NordLynx.