WireGuard
A modern VPN protocol, around 4,000 lines of code, designed to be small enough to audit properly.
Glossary
VPN protocol
The set of rules governing how the tunnel is established and how data is encrypted inside it.
Why it matters
It determines speed, reliability on hostile networks, battery use on mobile, and how quickly the connection recovers when you change networks.
What most explanations leave out
The practical choice today is WireGuard for speed and OpenVPN for compatibility on restrictive networks. IKEv2 survives because it reconnects well when switching between mobile data and Wi-Fi. Anything older than these is a legacy option that should not be a default.
Related terms
OpenVPN
The long-established open-source VPN protocol, slower than WireGuard but more configurable and more widely supported.
Obfuscation
Disguising VPN traffic so it resembles ordinary encrypted web traffic to a system inspecting the connection.
Referenced from
Terms are defined here because they appear in our scoring rubric or in provider reviews, not to fill a glossary.