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Chapter 2: Planning your Wireless Network
What is a VPN?
Wireless-G VPN Broadband Router
a secure connection that, in effect, operates as if you were directly connected to your local network. Virtual
Private Networking can be used to create secure networks linking a central office with branch offices,
telecommuters, and/or professionals on the road (travelers can connect to a VPN Router using any computer with
VPN client software that supports IPSec, such as SSH Sentinel.)
There are two basic ways to create a VPN connection:
•VPN Router to VPN Router
•Computer (using VPN client software that supports IPSec) to VPN Router
The VPN Router creates a “tunnel” or channel between two endpoints, so that data transmissions between them
are secure. A computer with VPN client software that supports IPSec can be one of the two endpoints. Any
computer with the built-in IPSec Security Manager (Microsoft 2000 and XP ) allows the VPN Router to create a
VPN tunnel using IPSec (refer to “Appendix C: Configuring IPSec between a Windows 2000 or XP PC and the VPN
Router”). Other versions of Microsoft operating systems require additional, third-party VPN client software
applications that support IPSec to be installed.
VPN Router to VPN Router
An example of a VPN Router-to-VPN Router VPN would be as follows. (See Figure 2-2.) At home, a telecommuter
uses his VPN Router for his always-on Internet connection. His router is configured with his office's VPN settings.
When he connects to his office's router, the two routers create a VPN tunnel, encrypting and decrypting data. As
VPNs utilize the Internet, distance is not a factor. Using the VPN, the telecommuter now has a secure connection
to the central office's network, as if he were physically connected.
IMPORTANT: You must have at least one VPN
Router on one end of the VPN tunnel. At the other
end of the VPN tunnel, you must have a second
VPN Router or a computer with VPN client
software that supports IPSec.
Figure 2-2:
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