About PacketBrief

PacketBrief is a vendor-neutral reference on business and enterprise VPNs. We write for IT and network professionals — the people who design, run and secure the tunnels — rather than for shoppers chasing a streaming unblock.

What we cover

We focus on the architecture and networking side of VPNs: IPsec, remote-access versus site-to-site, split tunneling, SSL VPN, VPN concentrators and passthrough, the protocols underneath, and where zero trust takes over. Our anchor pieces are the business VPN guide and IPsec VPN explained; the briefs go deeper on individual topics.

Our standard

Every technical claim here is one we can point to a published standard or a vendor's own documentation for. Where a fact is genuinely uncertain or changing, we say so rather than guess. We do not run speed tests we have not performed, and we do not describe VPNs as making anyone anonymous, because they do not — a VPN shifts trust to whoever runs the gateway; it does not erase it.

How we stay independent

We carry a small number of affiliate links to business-oriented VPN providers, and we disclose them clearly — see our affiliate disclosure. Just as importantly, the options we most often recommend, such as self-hosted WireGuard, Tailscale and Mullvad, pay us nothing. If a link ever conflicts with the right technical answer, the technical answer wins.