Vpn As A T-1 Circuit Alternative

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VPN as a T-1 Circuit Alternative

Today's business environments demand employees to be connected to corporate intranet resources from remote offices or while traveling. High bandwidth internet connections have made long-distance dial-up connections obsolete and have given birth to a newer technology called the Virtual Private Network (VPN) which can be characterized by a client server approach and is a form of a Wide Area Network (WAN). "VPN clients authenticate users, encrypt data, and otherwise manage sessions with VPN servers utilizing a technique called tunneling" (Mitchell, n.d.a).

What is a VPN?

A VPN is a "communications network tunneled through another network and dedicated for a specific network" (Wikipedia, 2007). A traditional VPN uses the internet (public communication) to communicate directly with a single network (private communication).

Science fiction buffs may also relate a VPN to a wormhole due to its tunneling characteristics between the client and the server.

The term VPN was originally introduced by telecom companies. "The main feature of a telephone VPN is that it can provide users from an organization which uses a public provider's telephone service instead of its own private PBX with something very close to PBX (Private Branch Exchange) functionality" (Olifer, 2007).

Why use a VPN?

VPN solutions become attractive when the need to provide secured long distance access to a private network arises. The traditional method of accomplishing this was to install a high-speed digital link such as a T-1 (or fractional T-1) between the locations or use a remote access server (RAS), or modem pools, incurring long-distance telephone fees.

A dedicated point-to-point communication line such as a T-1 can offer...

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...About.com web site at http://compnetworking.about.com/od/vpn/g/bldef_vpn.htm

Mitchell, Bradley. (n.d.b) Q. What are the advantages and benefits of a VPN? Retrieved October 6, 2007, from About.com web site from http://compnetworking.about.com/od/vpn/f/vpn_benefits.htm

Mitchell, Bradley. (n.d.c) What is a VPN? Retrieved October 5, 2007, from About.com web site from http://compnetworking.about.com/od/vpn/a/what_is_a_vpn.htm

Olifer, Victor. (2007). Different flavours of VPN: Technology and applications. Retrieved October, 2007 from JNT Association web site at: http://www.ja.net/development/vpn/different-flavours-of-vpn-web.pdf

T-1 Shopper. (2007). Arizona T1 connection information. Retrieved October 5, 2007, from http://www.t1shopper.com/us/az/Arizona.shtml

Wikipedia. (2007). Virtual private network. Retrieved October 5, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VPN

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