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Yes, you'll be on a different network. However, the thing about Internet Service Providers (ISP) is that they provide the physical and data link layers of connectivity infrastructure regardless. All of your data is passing through their switches, which means they can capture all of the Ethernet frames they want to regardless of whether or not you're on a Virtual Private Network (VPN). By choosing to use a VPN, you can obfuscate your data somewhat, but you're also just handing it over to a second company which can also be compromised.

I know there are frame-level services out there, but again, those frames are passing through your ISP's equipment.

I might be wrong, hence the "Opinion" in the title, and I would be glad if someone were to correct me. I've been studying networking a bit over the last few years, so I think I kind of have a grasp on how it works on the various levels.

Yes, you'll be on a different network. However, the thing about Internet Service Providers (ISP) is that they provide the physical and data link layers of connectivity infrastructure regardless. All of your data is passing through their switches, which means they can capture all of the Ethernet frames they want to regardless of whether or not you're on a Virtual Private Network (VPN). By choosing to use a VPN, you can obfuscate your data somewhat, but you're also just handing it over to a second company which can also be compromised. I know there are frame-level services out there, but again, those frames are passing through your ISP's equipment. I might be wrong, hence the "Opinion" in the title, and I would be glad if someone were to correct me. I've been studying networking a bit over the last few years, so I think I kind of have a grasp on how it works on the various levels.

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[–] [deleted] • 3 pts

When using a browser:
With a VPN - you type in a link and hit enter, rather than sending that request out, your VPN service uses your CPU to encrypt the request, redirects the address you typed to instead be sent to one of their servers from your ISP instead of to the site that you wanted, the VPN server requests the site, the VPN server receives the requested site, encrypts it, sends it back to your computer, your VPN service uses your CPU to decrypt the packets received. At no point did you send a request to the site, you sent an encrypted packet to your VPN server. At no point did you receive the site, you received an encrypted packet from your VPN. That's what your ISP will see. Without a VPN - you type in a link, it sends the naked request through your ISP directly to the server the site is on and is then sent directly back to you. That's what your ISP will see. * **

I use ExpressVPN after I received a copyright notice from my ISP for a downloaded torrent of a particular video game, which is crazy because I would never download such a thing.
Since using ExpressVPN, I've never received another copyright notice from my ISP, which makes sense because I would never break copyright laws and have nothing but the utmost respect for our corporate overlords that collectively sent over $1,000,000,000 (one billion) to BLM and antifa - and I would certainly never harm their hard-earned profits gained by engaging in any sort of activity that could be somehow interpreted as 'pirating' their mediocre, overpriced, "you made the same fucking thing last year, the year before, the year before, and the year before," woke-infested, faggot loving, shit.

*I'm not any sort of professional in the field
**If your VPN is compromised, you're potentially fucked, which is why you use a VPN that doesn't keep logs, meaning that, even if they are compromised, there's no trail whatsoever of your perfectly legal and certainly non-pirate activities.