A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a security concept to create a secure communication channel between hosts over another (public) network connection.

There are multiple software packages available to set up a VPN between two or more hosts. Some implement internet standards, for example strongSwan for RFC4301 IPsec, others implement subsets of standards (e.g. OpenVPN). They all use the client–server model and methods usually are incompatible with each other.

The Category:VPN providers contains instructions for commercial VPN providers.