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I'm on a college campus, will a VPN be able to hide torrenting activity from a network admin? Just wondering really how VPN works.

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    Just a note: we're all assuming you're VPNing to a network that's not controlled by the college. If you're VPNing into a network the college set up, this won't help. :-)
    – ceejayoz
    Mar 1, 2010 at 4:33
  • Haha yeah its not a vpn setup by the college :P
    – defn
    Mar 1, 2010 at 6:40

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A VPN will encrypt your traffic, but if you are trying to use a torrent to download something to your current location, network admins might still see a large amount of outbound data compared to other computers.

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  • K, so they will be able to see alot of ingoing/outgoing traffic.. but its all encrypted so they won't be able to tell whats in the packets correct?
    – defn
    Mar 1, 2010 at 3:36
  • Right -- there's no hiding the volume of traffic, but the contents should be hidden.
    – Chris_K
    Mar 1, 2010 at 5:26
  • Kk cool, yeah im using wireshark now to see what the admins see.. interesting :p
    – defn
    Mar 1, 2010 at 5:43
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Yes, a VPN should "hide" your vpned traffic, as it's basically encapsulated and secured and passed along to the VPN host. It also allows you to avoid your ISP's traffic shaping.

There is a much more detailed explanation on VPNs from Wikipedia.

You may also want to look at Tor.

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  • Thanks :) I wouldn't use Tor for that though. (cause they ask ppl not to)
    – defn
    Mar 1, 2010 at 3:35

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