It did calm down. Sleep helps with so many ailments.
VPN stands for “Virtual Private Network”. It basically reroutes your internet data from your computer to other servers before sending it on it’s destination. Pretend your internet is actual paper. To connect to Free Republic, you send a request to California asking JimRob to send the information on FR to you so you can read it. It goes from your computer to your server, which acts like a mailbox, and gets picked up from there and sent to FR’s servers, their mailboxes, and JimRob sends you the information you requested. He can see that you are in Canada when you asked for the information. This is done very fast on the internet. But the picture is basically what happens.
When you use a VPN, the request for information doesn’t go directly to JimRob in California. It is picked up by your VPN company first and goes to their servers, “mail box”, before sending it on. JimRob then just sends his replies back to the VPN which sends it on to you. It appears to to JimRob that you are wherever the VPN’s servers are.
Of course, no physical paper requests are being sent. You can’t see this routing. But a VPN changes that routing to make it appear as if you are somewhere where you aren’t. People in China do this to get around the censors of the Chinese government. I did it to register on Truth Social. I also do it to watch Auburn University sports live.
We use one when traveling, as well.