VPN
The ability to access your
network from a remote location has always been useful, however this has often
involved the use of costly long-distance telephone calls or dedicated leased
lines. Now, with the proliferation of high-speed Internet connections, it is
possible to connect to your central IT resources over the Internet.
The idea is that if you have
an Internet connection at Site A and an Internet connection at Site B then you
can encrypt your data and send it to the other site using the Internet. This
does away with direct connections of any sort. However, because the Internet is
a public network encryption is absolutely vital so that people on the Net cannot
read or change your data as it passes by.
This technology is known as
a Virtual Private Network (VPN.) Essentially, it behaves like a private network
except it is running over a public network (the Internet.)
InterLinx has
excellent VPN functionality. Broadly speaking there are two types of VPN
connection you may wish to use. The first is to allow remote users to connect
their single computer (PC, Mac, laptop, PDA) to your network. Whilst the second
is to allow an entire remote site (like a branch office) to be permanently
joined to your systems. These technologies are known as PPTP and IPsec
respectively and InterLinx has full support for both of them.
In summary, if you are doing
any form of remote access you should be considering doing it with a VPN as the
cost savings are enormous.
InterLinx PPTP
services allow users to remotely access your network using their Internet
connection. In a similar fashion to dialling-in to your systems directly, users
launch a virtual dial-up connection over their Internet connection. Once
authenticated they are joined to your network at a low level and are free to
access the same resources they could if they were connected locally.
This allows for the removal
of dial-in modem banks which means cost savings for call charges, line rentals,
hardware and support charges.
Joining remote sites to your
central network is complicated to setup and expensive to run (as it requires
dedicated data circuits.) Substantial cost savings can be achieved by sending
that data between your sites in a strongly encrypted fashion via the Internet.
By installing
an InterLinx at each site you can build an encrypted connection (known as
a tunnel) between your two networks. This tunnel is then used to exchange data
as if it were a dedicated private circuit. InterLinx takes care of the
routing and firewalling providing a seamless solution.
InterLinx uses the
latest generation of encryption to ensure that your data passed securely over
the VPN and is not read or changed en-route.
Click here to read about InterLinx
Connectivity features.... |
