How to tunnel my laptop on a school network?
Introduction
There are many ways to accomplish this, but one of the simplest and most effective is to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network). A VPN allows you to create an encrypted connection from your laptop to another computer elsewhere on the internet. This second computer will connect back with the school network as if it were your laptop.
The result is that all traffic between your device and the school’s network will be encrypted so that only you can see what you’re doing. Furthermore, by connecting through a remote server, anyone snooping on either end of the connection won’t be able to tell who or where you really are.
What is a tunnel and how to use it?
A tunnel is a type of virtual private network that allows a user to browse the Internet anonymously from a remote location. A tunnel is different from a proxy because it encrypts all of the data moving between the client and the server. A tunnel can be set up from a home computer to an office server, or it can be used to connect to a VPN. A VPN is a network of computers that are all connected via the public internet to allow visitors secure access to internal databases or other resources at the office.
A tunnel is used to bypass or defeat network monitoring, censorship, and restrictions. It can be used to gain access to websites that are blocked by national firewalls. An example of this type of filtering would be an employer blocking social networking sites during the workday so employees are not distracted from their tasks at hand. Many countries filter content that they believe is inappropriate or harmful to citizens.
To “tunnel” is to send data over a network in a manner that provides confidentiality and integrity. In the case of VPNs, this is done by encrypting all of the traffic from your computer to a remote server, hiding it within another stream of data. Once it reaches its destination, the rest happens just as normal: any encrypted data becomes unreadable, and the remote network can send back a reply.
How to create a tunnel on your home network or school network?
To create a tunnel on your home network or school network you can use two ways:
1) VPN tunnels
2) TUNTAP tunnels
VPN tunnels are the most common form of a tunnel. The term VPN means “Virtual Private Network” and it works by creating an encrypted connection between your computer at school/home and another computer somewhere else on the Internet, called a server. All data that goes through this virtual tunnel is encrypted so nobody can see what you are doing or what you are transferring. Your computer at school/home acts as if it is directly connected to the Internet when in fact it is communicating with another computer over an encrypted channel. OpenVPN is the most common VPN tunnel software that can be used on Linux, but there are other ways of creating a VPN connection using other open-source or proprietary protocols like PPTP.
TUNTAP tunnels can be used to create secure connections between your computer and the Internet, but only if the other end of the connection is also using Linux or BSD. It allows userspace programs (i.e. BitTorrent clients etc.) to act as an Ethernet bridge i.e., it forwards packets between a physical network and a virtual network. A user-level program that uses the TUN/TAP driver to exchange packets between a TUN/TAP device and another program on the same machine is called a TUNTAP Stream. This might be used for example with SSH to create a secure connection from your laptop back home after work or to download torrents while at work after your upload limit has reached. Because TUNTAP tunnels use the kernel drivers for networking, they are generally faster than VPN connections that go through userland applications. Because of this speed advantage, some people on school networks prefer to tunnel their traffic using TUNTAP tunnels instead of VPN tunnels.
What are the pros and cons of using a tunnel?
The pros to using a tunnel are that it hides your traffic from the intrusion of malware, intruders, or hackers. You can also bypass firewalls by using a tunnel. The cons to using an encrypted tunnel are that the computer hosting the proxy may be used for things other than web browsing. This could include hacking into other people’s computers without their knowledge because it appears as if they are browsing the internet. Another potential con to using a tunnel is that it can slow down your internet connection speed.
Why are tunnels frowned upon by some schools?
Tunnels are frowned upon by schools nationwide because of the amount of bandwidth they use. The schools often have limited bandwidth, and it can’t be shared with any other devices on their network. Tunnels also cause many problems with the school’s firewall; for instance, they may not be able to detect if someone is using a tunnel or not. Schools can track programs using their network, and if they find out that you are tunneling, they will be able to detect this very easily. There may be stricter firewall settings and packet inspections, and this will prevent you from using a tunnel successfully.
Conclusion
A tunnel is a type of virtual private network or VPN. A VPN allows you to use the Internet in a secure fashion. Your computer appears to be connected directly to the network via your local ISP, but it is actually connected to a private network. Thus, you can do things like access to the network’s shared drives and printers. This also keeps your browsing habits secure, as no one but you can see what websites you visit. When connecting to the network at school it is very important especially when there are multiple computers on the same connection because it might cause extra money due to that some sites may be blocked or many people using it at once.
