A Virtual Private Network or VPN provides internal network access to external users as if they were located within your internal network structure. If for example you have an office with mail or file servers, PCs, printers, and other networked peripherals, your office network is hidden from the rest of the Internet to keep these assets private. When you create a virtual private network using VPN software, you make these network assets available to a select group of external users. This can be an essential addition to companies with many remote users or road warriors.

A VPN system consists of a VPN server located within your network infrastructure. This server will normally have a public Internet address and perhaps some number of dial up lines for direct modem connection. The VPN server authenticates users when they connect and if they are allowed access, the server will provide mapping to the user so they have access to the internal network as if they were located in the office. The remote user is required to have a client application capable of communicating with the VPN server and this application will usually send all of it’s data to the VPN server using encryption so all data is kept private. The VPN server acts as a gatekeeper protecting both the remote user and the internal network.

Your selection of a Virtual Private Network system is largely based on the type of network you are running in your office. If you are using Microsoft based products you will probably want to use a VPN server that can use Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol PPTP. Otherwise, an IPsec based VPN will probably suffice