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I have a general understanding of VPNs and how they work. However, I am not sure of how the initial request is seen by my ISP? For example say I am connected to an OpenVPN provider, what happens when I open my browser and type www.yahoo.com

Does it happen like this?

  • Request goes through my ISP, destination IP is set to my OpenVPN server.
  • OpenVPN server receives request, encrypts it and forwards it to www.yahoo.com using it's own IP.
  • www.yahoo.com receives request and sends back response to OpenVPN server.
  • OpenVPN server encrypts response and forwards it to my IP.
  • Response goes through my ISP and finally arrives to my machine.

In the above scenario, my ISP can notice that all my traffic goes to the same server. Does it work this way?

Alaa Masoud
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1 Answers1

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my ISP can notice that all my traffic goes to the same server

Even better the ISP can know that you use a VPN and WHAT technology you use - because this is information that is deductible from the packet stream (kown ports etc.).

So, yes, ISP's can see that a VPN is in place.

TomTom
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    The ISP can definitely see all this. Depending on your local laws it might not be legal for them to look though. PS: the ISP that provides connectivity to the OpenVPN box can see all the unencrypted traffic, so you might just be moving the problem to a different part of the internet... – Sander Steffann Jul 12 '13 at 19:53
  • And, depending on how DNS is configured, your ISP or DNS provider can tell what sites you're visiting because DNS may not be sent over the VPN (unless you configured it to do so). – EightBitTony Jul 12 '13 at 21:02