Site-To-Site Virtual
Private Network
A site-to-site VPN allows different
offices in multiple fixed locations to establish secure connections with each
other over public network such as the internet. An example would be accessing
the school server from home or somewhere else other than the school.
Site-to-site VPN extends the company’s network, making the computer resources
from one location available to employees at other locations. There are so many
companies that need a site-to-site VPN because they are a growing
company/corporation with dozens of branch offices around the world.
It is important to know that there
are two types of site-to-site VPNs:
1) Intranet-Based &
2) Extranet-Based.
Firstly, Intranet-Based is when a
company has one or more remote locations that they wish to join in a single
private network, they can create an intranet VPN to connect each separate LAN
to a single WAN.
However, Extranet-Based is when a
company has a close relationship with another company, it can build an extranet
VPN that connects those companies LANs. This extranet VPN lets the corporations
to work alongside each other in a safe, secured network environment while
denying access to their own separate intranets.
Remote-access VPN
A remote-access VPN allows
individual users to establish secure connections with a remote computer
network. Those users can access the secure resources on that particular network
as if they were directly plugged in to the network’s servers. An example of a
company that would need a remote-access VPN is a large firm with hundreds of
salespeople in the field. There are two components needed in remote-access VPN.
They are:
1) Network Access Server (NAS)
2) A client software
Firstly, it’s a NAS that user
connects to form the Internet in order to use a VPN. NAS will need the user to
provide valid credentials to sign in to the VPN. NAS uses its own authentication
process or a separate authentication server running on the network.
The other component need is client
software. Those employees who want to use the VPN from their computers will require
software on those computers that can establish and also maintain a connection
to the VPN.
