A virtual private network on the internet — VPN
What is this invention based on, the one that lets you hide data from unwanted parties while keeping the system fully operational?
A private network becomes the solution for existing internet traffic and for managing an organization. One of the key functions of such a connection is data protection. All information passing through a VPN stream becomes protected from anyone who does not have access to the network. And if they do have access but cannot authenticate inside it, all they get is an encrypted jumble of characters.
Is the protection in IPSec any good?
The traffic that passes through the secure connection is encrypted using the MD5 protocol configured in IPSec. This architecture provides standard means of protection, which are quite sufficient to keep information out of the hands of attackers and, in general, to keep it safe.
IPSec can also be used to create a channel at the network layer and tailor it to the usage requirements of a company or a specific group of people.
Reliable protection can be designed on the basis of IBM «Navigator For I». Its graphical interface is well optimized and geared toward the average user, providing convenient configuration tools.
L2TP – a virtual line
A classic among VPN protocols, L2TP can be set up over IP, ATM, X.25. The tunnel it creates is also built within IPSec. It is an inexpensive way to create your own virtual private network.
If, for example, in L2TP all IP addresses are managed by a web server, other networks allow administration in a «point-to-point» fashion: a connection between two users.
Even though this option is cheap, it can be configured quite extensively, providing good protection. On the downside: it requires setting up a corporate server.
PPTP – the most popular
This kind of secure connection is created in two scenarios: «point-to-point» and «site-to-site». A unique network connected to the internet is created for each individual PPTP setup. The protocol allows data to be compressed, encrypted and transmitted in «encapsulated» form.
This protocol is easy to detect, since the source and destination IP addresses are identical.
PPTP gained its popularity thanks to its ease of setup, but for the same reason of being so well known, these tunnels are blocked more often.
OpenVPN
A completely new kind of VPN that helps establish communication on a «point-to-point», «server-client» or «client-server» basis. The advantage of this VPN is that it is created with special software that is fairly easy to understand.
This protocol lets you build a network based on another computer by turning it into a server.
Built on OpenSSL, the protocol lets you use a wealth of available libraries and methods of protection, encryption and authentication, notable among which are a simple key code, certificate-based authentication, or entering a login / password.
Some advantages of a VPN
- If you have created your own VPN channel, all transmitted data will be encrypted;
- When using the product at corporate scale, you will not need the kind of complex maintenance a large local infrastructure requires;
- Complete anonymity when configured correctly.