Wireguard is a hot, modern contender in VPN protocols.
Its philosophy is different, which makes it better suited for specific types of situation.
Let’s take a look at what makes it unique, and what its strengths and drawbacks are.
Yatri Trivedi / How-To Geek
What is Wireguard?
Wireguardis a lean, fast, and modern VPN protocol.
It’s for good reason, too, because WireGuard takes a different approach than other VPN implementations.
It’s also much leaner, at only 4,000 lines of code.
Wireguard has a user-space program that’s very fast, but it also has kernel support.
Wireguard’s security philosophy is also different.
Wireguard is built to be less flexibleeach version is based around specific algorithms and processes.
If there’s a mismatch between two devices in the data pipe, they will not connect.
This means that system administrators mainly just need to ensure things are updated regularly.
There’s a variety of other differences between Wireguard’s implementation and traditional VPNs as well.
There’s a lot of depth once you start to get more technical.
What Can I Use Wireguard For?
Yatri Trivedi / How-To Geek
Wireguard has a variety of use cases that are fairly different from traditional VPNs.
Wireguard shines when you want to create a direct internal web link between different computers in different places.
Each computeror nodebasically creates its own connection and route to every other computer in your Wireguard data pipe.
It doesn’t rely on routing traffic through a central server when used this way.
This is what we call a mesh online grid.
Think ofmesh wireless networks, but for the layout of your nodes.
Most Wireguard providers also default to a"split-tunneling" key in of configuration.
Traditional VPN servers and clients both need to be configured specifically to allow this.
One other aspect that’s worth mentioning is that Wireguard also works well with spotty connections.
OpenVPN and other older protocols don’t always do well when the connection isn’t stable.
Or, they can drop data.
Wireguard tends to work much more reliably in these situations.
Does Wireguard Have Any Disadvantages?
These are complexity and privacy concerns which differ from those you find with traditional VPN services.
Working with Wireguard directly can be a pain.
Generating these configurations might be a little complex for beginners.
you could configure a Wireguard server and use it like a regular VPN provider as well.
That can get complicated quickly and you probably will prefer a traditional VPN service.
Wireguard is also easier to block than OpenVPN-based services.
For example,Netmakermakes it easy to add and remove nodes, as well as addDNSentries for each.
Popularity and adoption mean that you have more tutorials and people to ask when you run into issues.
Wireguard stores the IP address information so you can operate.
This is usually temporary, but the fact remains that it’s a potential risk.
Should You Use Wireguard?
Wireguard is a fast and efficient alternative to traditional VPN services.
This is especially true if you want split-tunnelling alongside any of those.
It also works well with devices that disconnect and reconnect frequently, such as mobile devices or traveling laptops.
However, its complexity, approach to security, and questions of privacy might be deal-breakers for you.
