3.1.4 - Identify the technologies required to provide a VPN.

Question 1

What is a VPN?

Answer 1

VPNs use the internet to allow people to log into a network remotely and access its resources, but encrypts the connection to thwart eavesdroppers. If your company sets you up with a VPN, you can access your corporate intranet, file servers or email from home or a coffee shop - just as if you were using it in your office. This makes VPNs a popular way to support remote workers, especially in fields where privacy is paramount, such as health care.

Question 2

What is encryption?

Answer 2

Encryption is the process of encoding data so that only a computer with the right decoder will be able to read and use it.

Question 3

What is tunnelling?

Answer 3

Tunnelling involves establishing and maintaining a logical network connection (that may contain intermediate hops). On this connection, packets constructed in a specific VPN protocol format are encapsulated within some other base or carrier protocol, then transmitted between VPN client and server, and finally de-encapsulated on the receiving side. In a VPN, the computers at each end of the tunnel encrypt the data entering the tunnel and decrypt it at the other end.