The UT VPN service is implemented to enable UT affiliates who are away from campus to access university resources securely by encrypting the user's internet connection. Because the VPN server is hosted on-campus, the user's computer appears over the internet to be located in Austin, Texas regardless of where the user is physically located. To reduce the burden on UT's infrastructure, the VPN is configured to create what is called a 'split tunnel' connection. What this means is only traffic bound for UT will be encrypted over the VPN. Any other network traffic will be sent over the user's standard, non-encrypted internet connection, and will appear on a network to be located locally (rather than in Austin, Texas). In short, the VPN does not 'trick' third-party websites into thinking the user is in country other than the one they are actually in, for the purpose of bypassing regional content restrictions. |