What
is a VPN?
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. A VPN is
two or more private networks or computers connected in a secure
way, via a public network such as the Internet.
Who
would use a VPN and why?
Anyone that want to connect to their business network
from a remote location might want a VPN. Any business with more
that one office might want to link those offices together over a
VPN link.
Until the emergence of VPN technologies companies
wish to link offices in a secure manner would have to have resorted
to an expensive WAN (Wide Area Network) solution. Due to the insecure
nature of the Internet, it has not been considered safe for transferring
sensitive business information, which might include bank account
details, passwords and confidential internal documents.
Due to the strong encryption and authentication provided
by modern VPN protocols, many businesses, large and small are now
adopting VPNs as their preferred means of connecting branch offices.
Which
applications work over a VPN link?
Any network application that uses TCP/IP or IPX can
work over a VPN link. In other words, all modern network applications.
So, network file sharing, printer sharing, networked databases,
Netmeeting, Email etc. will all work over a VPN connection.
Which
VPN Protocols are supported?
FireRack supports IPSEC, PPTP and L2TP VPN protocols.
Our IPSEC implementation is a modified version of FreeS/WAN and
supports X.509, Preshared Keys and FreeSwan's RSA authentication
methods. Our PPTP and L2TP protocols support Microsoft's MS-CHAP
authentication in addition to normal PAP/CHAP authentication.
What
systems does the FireRack VPN interoperate with?
Any other VPN capable device supporting the same
protocols and authentication methods. Specifically FireRack has
been tested with
| PPTP |
IPSEC |
| Microsoft Windows 95 |
Microsoft Windows 2000 |
| Microsoft Windows 98 |
Microsoft Windows XP |
| Microsoft Windows 98 SE |
Windows 98 with PGPnet |
| Microsoft Windows ME |
NAI PGPnet |
| Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 |
Open BSD IPsec |
| Microsoft Windows 2000 |
IRE Safenet SoftPK |
| Microsoft Windows XP |
Cisco IPsec |
| Linux PPTP Client |
Any device using FreeS/WAN |
Does FireRack's IPSEC work
over NAT?
Yes. Our IPSEC has been patched to support NAT. This
feature is new and is a departure from the original IPSEC standard.
As yet we have only tested connectivity between FireRack firewalls
traversing NAT, although there are other firewalls that support
this standard.
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