VPN tunnel
compound.compound. a secure and private connection between your device and another network over the internet. It acts like a protected pipe that keeps your data safe from people trying to see what you are doing online.
compound. an encrypted link between a local device and a remote server that encapsulates data packets to ensure privacy and security over public networks. It functions by wrapping data in an additional layer of encryption, making the traffic invisible to external observers.
I use a VPN tunnel to access my office files from home.
To protect his sensitive banking information while using public Wi-Fi, he established a VPN tunnel to his provider's server.
The network administrator configured a site-to-site VPN tunnel to allow the branch offices to communicate securely without exposing internal traffic to the open internet.
A compound term formed from the initialism VPN, standing for Virtual Private Network, and the noun tunnel. The latter is a metaphorical application of the civil engineering term, adopted by network engineers to describe the encapsulation of one data packet within another.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Often used with the verbs 'establish', 'create', or 'set up'.
Last updated July 22, 2026