Select VPN Options

Make Decisions about Remote Access (VPN)

Table 3-24. Advantages of Remote Access

Advantages	Explanation
Increased productivity	Users can access data and perform work
	tasks when out of the office
Increased employee satisfaction	Some users may be able to work more flexible
	hours or telecommute from home. Others
	escape the frustration of a long commute;
	they can focus on work rather than on
	traveling to the office.
Benefits to the environment	Telecommuting decreases traffic congestion,
	pollution, and fossil fuel consumption. You
	might even find government programs that
	offer incentives for companies that
	encourage telecommuting.

	Select VPN Options
	After you decide to establish a VPN, you must start designing your deploy-
	ment. Deploying a VPN can be a bit complicated. You have a lot of choices to
	make—from the type of VPN gateway to the exact encryption algorithms used
	to protect data. This guide focuses on the decisions with the greatest implica-
	tions on deployment; examining every detail of VPN security policies is
	beyond its scope.
	One important choice is your VPN protocol. Common ones include:
	■ IP Security (IPsec) with Internet Key Exchange (IKE)
	■ Point-to-point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP)
	■ Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP)/IPsec

N o t e	Although L2TP can be implemented without IPsec, it does not provide ade-
	quate security on its own. Therefore, this guide will consider only the L2TP/
	IPsec implementation.

In addition to selecting the VPN protocol, you need to choose various options for the selected protocol:

■Authentication method—options include:

•Digital certificate

•Password (preshared key)

■Encryption protocols and algorithms, which ensure data privacy (encryp- tion) and data integrity (hash or authentication)

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