Virtual private network: A secure connection between two parts of a private network that uses a public network such as the Internet to reduce costs.

VPNs create secure connections to your Local or Wide Area office network for far less than dedicated lines.

VPNs

• Creates a secure connection to your business network for branch offices and telecommuters.
• Costs as much as 70 percent less than traditional dial-up and modem access.
• Can run over a variety of networks, including the Internet.

A VPN is a secure connection between two segments of a network, with one end being your office's network gateway (an entrance to the network, such as a router), and the other end being your PC or a gateway to another network, say, in a remote office. Those two segments connect over a public network, usually the Internet.

A VPN requires two technologies to create such a secure connection: tunneling and encryption.

VPNs use one of three technologies to create a tunnel: PPTP, L2TP, and the newest standard, Internet Protocol Security (also known as IPSec).
While the tunnel creates the network, encryption makes it private, scrambling data so that only those who have the right digital key can decode it.

And ADVANTAGES

• Extend geographic connectivity
• Improve security
• Reduce operational costs versus traditional WAN