What is VPN?

VPN (Virtual Private Network)

A virtual private network (VPN) is a private network that makes use of a public network (such as the Internet), while maintaining security and privacy through encryption and security procedures.

VPN's give companies an alternative to leasing an expensive, dedicated private connection from one office to another. Many businesses are using VPN on their servers to allow their employees to connect to their server from home.

The PowerElf Server Appliance has VPN built-in and uses PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) to allow Windows and Mac clients to connect to the PowerElf server from outside the office. This is perfect for employees or suppliers who need to connect to your network to retrieve and send data. PPTP provides a secure 128bit encrypted connection from a client computer to the VPN server. Not only is the data encrypted; the source and destination network addresses are as well.

More than one PowerElf II can also be configured to connect several branch offices together. This provides a safe, secure way to keep building connected over an ecrypted tunnel. This type of connection is called IPSec. While PPTP requires the client to set up their Windows® workstation, IPSec does not.