In the last two decades, the world has changed a lot. Everybody is thinking to expand the business globally. Until few days back these people were using the Leased Lines for maintaining the WAN. Now as the popularity of the internet is increasing, business see to it for increasing their networks. Intranet was the first in this series. These are the password-protected sites, which can be used by and for the company employees. Now days, many of the companies are opting for VPN as a communication between remote office and employees.
A virtual private network (VPN) is a system that consists of two or more networks, which are connected via telecommunications infrastructure like internet. A virtual private network uses authentication protocol and encrypted tunnel, which transmits the data securely between the networks. As the data is transmitted through the internet, it is not seen to the public. Therefore, an individual seems to be directly connected to the network. A small program runs in remote computer.
A VPN uses the public network e.g. Internet to get connected with the remote sites. VPN do not use the real-world connection e.g. leased line. A VPN uses the “Virtual” connection between the company’s network and the remote employee or site, which is routed through internet.
Benefits of a VPN for a company:
• It extends connectivity.
• It improves security.
• It reduces costs as compared to traditional WAN.
• It reduces transmission time and cost.
• It improves the productivity.
• It simplifies the network technology.
• It will provide an opportunity for global networking.
• It will also provide us the telecommuter support.
• It will provide us the networking capacity with broadband.
• It will give us faster returns as compared to traditional WAN system.
Types of VPN:
There are two types of VPN, namely, remote access VPN and Site to Site VPN.
Remote access VPN: This is also called as virtual private dial up network (VPDN). Here “user to LAN” connection is used. By using this connection, employees of the company can communicate with the network from remote locations. Here is enterprise service provider (ESP) that sets up NAS i.e. network access server, which provides desktop software to the clients for their computers.
Site to site VPN
Site to site VPN is of two types.
Intranet based: If company has one or more remote locations they can use intranet VPN that connects LAN to LAN.
Extranet based: If one company wants relationship with the other company they can use extranet VPN.
VPN Technologies:
Security, Scalability, Reliability, Network Management and Policy Management are the some of the important features, which are needed to be incorporated in the VPN.
To develop your own VPN you have to put certain components which may depend on the type of the VPN (i.e. Site to site VPN or Remote Access VPN). The various components required to be included are-
• For each individual remote user, Desktop software client is required.
• The hardware such as VPN concentrator or Firewall.
• A VPN Server.
• A Network Access Server (NAS) which is used by the service provider.
• VPN Network-Management Center.
• VPN Policy-Management Center.
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