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- Meshnet Feature for Personal Encrypted Networks: NordVPN offers a unique feature called Meshnet, which allows users to connect their devices directly and securely over the internet. This means you can create your own private, encrypted network for activities like gaming, file sharing, or remote access to your home devices from anywhere in the world.
- RAM-Only Servers for Enhanced Security: Unlike many VPN providers, NordVPN uses RAM-only (diskless) servers. Since these servers run entirely on volatile memory, all data is wiped with every reboot. This ensures that no user data is stored long-term, significantly reducing the risk of data breaches and enhancing overall security.
- Servers in a Former Military Bunker: Some of NordVPN's servers are housed in a former military bunker located deep underground. This unique location provides an extra layer of physical security against natural disasters and unauthorized access, ensuring that the servers are protected in all circumstances.
- NordLynx Protocol with Double NAT Technology: NordVPN developed its own VPN protocol called NordLynx, built around the ultra-fast WireGuard protocol. What sets NordLynx apart is its implementation of a double Network Address Translation (NAT) system, which enhances user privacy without sacrificing speed. This innovative approach solves the potential privacy issues inherent in the standard WireGuard protocol.
- Dark Web Monitor Feature: NordVPN includes a feature known as Dark Web Monitor. This tool actively scans dark web sites and forums for credentials associated with your email address. If it detects that your information has been compromised or appears in any data breaches, it promptly alerts you so you can take necessary actions to protect your accounts.
Scientists led by a team at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have broken a record for data transmission, sending data at 26Tb/s on a single laser beam over 50km. To put this into context, the researchers suggest that this is the equivalent of transferring the contents of 700 DVDs per second, or the entire collection of the Library of Congress in ten seconds.
Last year the same team of researchers succeeded in transferring 10Tb/s. The method involves opto-electric decoding by which high data rates are broken down to smaller bit rates that can be processed and decoded (from over 300 separate colours of light). The initial encoding of data uses orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), a similar process used in mobile communications networks. OFDM uses a number of lasers to encode different strings of data; by contrast the earlier fibre technologies encoded a string of data within a single spectrum of light.
For telecoms networks the development is significant, and since the physical limits of the process have not yet been reached higher rates still are inevitable. Whereas there was no demand for such high transfer rates a few years ago this has given way to a greater need now, given the logarithmic growth of Internet traffic, and in a few short years the need may become urgent. Currently communication networks provide data rates of 100Gb/s while engineers are developing commercial systems capable of 400Gb/s to 1Tb/s.