Virtual Private Networking (VPN)

     SE Service & Consulting Corp. will install all hardware and do all hardware configuration to get your VPN infrastructure ready for implementation and will provide continued support of that system in the event that it needs updating,  increased capacity, or just plain troubleshooting.

     By now, the Internet is ubiquitous. Conventional wisdom says it's the best way to open up your business to the world. But even if you find the relative low cost and ease of use of the Internet appealing, its lack of security may leave you leery. So what can you do if you just want to give company insiders and a few select business partners and customers easy and relatively secure remote access to company data via the Internet? You can set up a virtual private network.

     Virtual Private Networking technology provides the medium to use the public Internet backbone as an appropriate channel for private data communication. With encryption and encapsulation technology, a VPN essentially carves out a private passageway through the Internet. VPNs will allow remote offices, company road warriors, and even business partners or customers to use the Internet, rather than pricey private lines, to reach company networks.

      By replacing expensive private network bandwidth with relatively low-cost bandwidth, your company can slash operating costs and simplify communications. You don't need to have 800 lines, run modem pools, or pick up long-distance charges; employees and business partners simply place local or toll-free calls to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to make the connection. Setting up VPNs also allows you to reduce in-house network management responsibilities. You'll be able to turn much of the remote communications burden over to ISP's.

     You can also use VPNs to link remote LANs together or give traveling staffers, work-at-home employees, and business partners a simple way to reach past company firewalls and tap into company resources. Virtual private networks are flexible. They are point-to-multipoint connections, rather than point-to-point links. They can be set up or closed down at the network administrator's will, making them ideal for short-term projects.

Businesses will cut costs with a VPN

Cheaper than leased lines

There's a realization that the public, packet-based network is far more cost-effective than a leased network because you can share the fixed cost among many organizations using the circuit. The public network provides greater scalability and leverage at a lower cost.
     

     A typical T1 leased line between a corporation and a local Internet service provider costs $400 to $500 per month. However, because T1 charges mount as distance increases, a T1 connection running across the country can cost thousands of dollars each month.

At a glance Virtual Private Networks

Advantages

Much cheaper for connecting WANs than 800 numbers or dedicated T1 lines

Provides encryption and authentication services for a fairly good measure of privacy

Maintenance of the WAN-to-WAN connection is left to Internet Service providers

Highly flexible; can be set up and taken down very easily

How VPN Tunneling Technology Works

      Virtual private networks may be new, but the tunneling technology they're based on is well established. Tunneling is a way to transfer data between two similar networks over an intermediate network. Also called "encapsulation," tunneling encloses one type of data packet into the packet of another protocol, in this case TCP/IP. VPN tunneling adds another dimension to the tunneling procedure--before encapsulation takes place, the packets are encrypted so the data is unreadable to outsiders. The encapsulated packets travel through the Internet until they reach their destination, then the packets are separated and returned to their original format. Authentication technology is employed to make sure the client has authorization to contact the server.

     Several firewall providers include virtual private networks as a security feature. A firewall, which can be software for a host system or a router, or combination of software and hardware devices, checks, limits, and logs network access. For additional security, a firewall can encrypt data at a site before shipping it out over the Internet. The receiving site, which must have a matching encryption scheme, can decrypt the data.