A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a difficult notion to understand or, once understood, to clarify.

In trying to describe what a nation-crossing VPN does, I lately resorted to the metaphor of having the windows of one replaced so that they offer a view of a nation that was different than the one in which they are really situated.

VPNs accelerate all your network requests through a bonded and (generally) encrypted tunnel which terminates at a server physically positioned in the target state, and that is where all your browsing will soon be understood to be done from.

While using a VPN, your ISP sees just one encrypted connection, and does not have any access to some of your browsing activity. The ISP is most likely to understand that it is a VPN connection, regardless of the encryption, as it’s charged with delivering the network packets above a variety of interfaces which are usually used by VPN services to the VPN supplier. But that is all the ISP can understand about a VPN-user’s task.
Consider the cable connecting your personal computer to the world wide web is most likely about six feet long, less or more – if you are using Wifi, since your router has to run a wire into the wall.

Now picture (assuming you’re in the UK) that the cable is 3000 miles long and does not begin connecting to the net until it reaches, say, New York.