In the case of VPNs, TAP is used to carry Ethernet frames and for bridging and TUN is used to carry IP packets (routing).
#HOW TO INSTALL TAP DEVICE FOR IPVANISH DRIVERS#
Without the drivers for these virtual devices, data encrypted by a VPN client would not be able to move from the client to the networking stack. How TUN/TAP drivers work to provide a VPN connection?īoth TUN and TAP devices are used by VPN clients for the purposes of establishing the tunnel. The benefit of TAP devices is that despite being virtual they operate and behave just like real network adapters, and they can transport any network protocols (IPv4, IPv6, Netalk, IPX, etc) and Ethernet frames. TAP interfaces work at layer two of the networking stack (the data-link layer) and are necessary if you want to transport non-IP based traffic and if you want to bridge. What's more, because TUN devices are at layer three, they can only be used for routing (not for bridging). This allows a VPN to encrypt your data before forwarding it onto the VPN server through the tunnel.īecause TUN works at layer three of the networking stack, it deals exclusively in network protocol packets (IPv4 and IPv6 packets).
They are commonly used by VPN clients to establish a connection between the client and the OS networking stack. TUN devices are virtual point-to-point connections that work at layer three (the IP level) of the networking stack. VPN clients that provide OpenVPN primarily make use of TUN devices – which is why the installation phase for an OpenVPN client usually includes the installation of a TUN/TAP driver.īelow, we will take a closer look at both of these virtual interfaces to explain what each device does, and how it permits a VPN connection to occur.
This permits the operating system to inject packets into the regular networking stack as needed – resulting in data being passed back and forth as if physical network devices were in use.Īlthough very similar, Tun and Tap devices are designed to achieve different things within the kernel. The advantage of TUN/TAP is that user-space applications, such as VPN clients, can interact with those devices as if they were real. Unlike regular network devices in a system (physical devices routing packets around via ethernet cables), TUN/TAP is a completely virtual interface that simulates those physical connections within the operating system's kernel (the part of the operating system that is always active in your device's memory and has complete control over everything in the system).įor faster, more secure data tranfers over VPN TUN/TAP devices are virtual interfaces used by VPN clients to establish virtual instances of physical networking connections.Īlthough slightly different from each other (because they work at different network layers), both TUN and TAP devices function to pass data from one host to another.
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