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To: blankmind who wrote (1024)	1/23/1998 11:31:00 AM
From: username	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1629

SALES PER EMPLOYEE Message 3238485

To: blankmind who wrote (1024)	1/23/1998 7:22:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 1629

Secret agent WAN VPNs protect remote access on the Internet by turning data into shared secrets By Al Berg The Internet is a vast collection of computer networks linking almost every major--and not so major--business center on the planet, but companies have historically shunned it as a way to link offices. They've chosen more expensive dedicated networks because the Internet's performance has been capricious and its security unreliable. Although the Internet's unpredictable performance is still a barrier to using it as a WAN for many mission-critical applications, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) take the fear out of sending sensitive corporate data over the Internet, a notoriously publicnetwork. In a VPN configuration, the clients and servers that compose the virtual network are connected to the Internet in the usual ways: with dial-up modems, ISDN lines, or dedicated access lines. Each node on this "network within a network" encrypts the data it sends to other virtual network locations. As the encrypted data traverses the Internet, eavesdroppers see a nonsensical data stream and cannot read the contents. Corporations are attracted to VPNs because accessing the Internet is significantly less expensive than using traditional dedicated access lines. In a study conducted by Intel Corp., a 128Kbps frame-relay link would cost the Hillsboro, Ore.-based company $3,168.75 per month as opposed to $888 per month for a link to the Internet. For this single site, a VPN would offer a cost savings of approximately $27,000 every year. VPNs can be used to link sites together or to enable mobile clients in the field, such as laptop-toting salespeople, to access the computers at headquarters from any location with a dial-up Internet connection. When two sites are linked in a VPN configuration, each site must have a VPN-aware router, firewall, or VPN access device installed. In the latter scenario, the road warrior's laptop is equipped with a piece of VPN client software that knows the addresses and associated encryption keys for the hosts back at the office. The VPN's encryption keys are shared by clients and servers. These "shared secrets" permit the computers on the VPN to encrypt data so that it can be read only by other members of the same virtual networks.

To: blankmind who wrote (1024)	1/23/1998 7:29:00 PM
From: Maverick	Respond to of 1629

Secret WAN, Part IV If your VPN will link sites outside the United States and Canada, you'll soon become familiar with the maze of rules known as ITAR, the International Trafficking in Arms Regulations. The U.S. government views strong encryption software as a strategic weapon and has placed limits on its export. Most vendors offer U.S.-only versions of their products, featuring the strongest encryption software, and exportable versions that use weaker algorithms. If your VPN is international, ask your vendor if you need to use the software's international version in your U.S. and Canadian sites to communicate with sites in the rest of the world. While VPNs make sending sensitive data over the Internet possible, they do not address the medium's potential performance problems. Unlike a corporate WAN, your organization has very little control over the availability and performance of the global Internet. In extreme cases, external events ranging from router failures to clumsy backhoe operators could disrupt your VPN operations for extended periods. Less drastic problems such as degraded performance could also interfere with your users' and sites' access. Therefore, you must have a contingency plan to cover any disruption. Having direct site-to-site and client-to-headquarters dial-backup facilities on standby is one way to decrease the impact of an Internet brownout on your virtual network. You can also insulate your VPN by dodging the Internet in favor of VPN-specific services. These provide public shared data networks but are separate from the Internet. Each VPN service is controlled by a single vendor, so they're built specifically to support the needs of the vendor's known customer universe. VPN vendors include such familiar names as ANS (http://www.ans.com); AT&T Corp. (http://www.att.com); PSINet (Sprint Corp.) (http://www.si.net); and UUNET Technologies Inc. (http://www.us.uu.net). Outsourcing your VPN to a carrier offers benefits other than performance. VPN vendors can provide network-management and monitoring services to remove the burden of monitoring the network from your MIS department. The VPN-specific services can also provide more security than the Internet, because the user population is more limited and known to the vendor.