Cisco Systems OL-5490-01 manual VPN Client Overview

Chapter 1 Understanding the VPN Client

VPN Client Overview

VPN Client Overview

The VPN Client works with a Cisco VPN device to create a secure connection, called a tunnel, between your computer and a private network. It uses Internet Key Exchange (IKE) and Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) tunneling protocols to establish and manage the secure connection.

The steps used to establish a VPN connection can include:

•Negotiating tunnel parameters (addresses, algorithms, lifetime)

•Establishing VPN tunnels according to the parameters

•Authenticating users (from usernames, group names and passwords, and X.509 digital certificates.)

•Establishing user access rights (hours of access, connection time, allowed destinations, allowed protocols)

•Managing security keys for encryption and decryption

•Authenticating, encrypting, and decrypting data through the tunnel

For example, to use a remote PC to read e-mail at your organization, the connection process might be similar to the following:

Step 1 Connect to the Internet.

Step 2 Start the VPN Client.

Step 3 Establish a secure connection through the Internet to your organization’s private network.

Step 4 When you open your e-mail

•The Cisco VPN device

–Uses IPSec to encrypt the e-mail message

–Transmits the message through the tunnel to your VPN Client

•The VPN Client

–Decrypts the message so you can read it on your remote PC

–Uses IPSec to process and return the message to the private network through the Cisco VPN device.

VPN Client User Guide for Mac OS X

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