Virtual Private Network

Essay by cs11University, Master'sA-, August 2004

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In today's fast paced business world, many corporations are looking towards technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. To stay ahead of competition, up-to-date information within the corporation will have to be shared and be easily accessed no matter where we are. With an ever growing and widely dispersed workforce, the need for proper network strategies is important. Networks will have to be more efficient and cost effective.

This is where Virtual Private Networks (VPN) plays an important role in providing an alternative to private networks. VPNs can be economically deployed with the same policies as the private networks. VPN enjoy the same security, management and reliability capabilities as the private networks but at a much lower cost.

In this report, I have explained what VPN is and how it works including all its essential processes. I have then analyzed a company called Wombat Media which is in dire need of a new network to connect their branch offices scattered throughout the United Kingdom and to ensure that their mobile workforce can access company data while being in foreign soil.

I then outlined some options to ensure a successful implementation of a VPN.

1.0 INTRODUCTION TO VPN

VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is a network which uses the public network's infrastructure or internet services as all or part of its Wide Area Network (WAN) backbone (Mairs, J. 2002). It can be used to economically make private connections between nodes anywhere in the world without using any cables or leased-lines, hence the word virtual in its name. The network is kept private by "tunneling" data through the public network. Therefore, even though it shares a web of cables with millions of other users, it still has all the characteristics of a private network. For example, it...