Read the Part 1 of my out-of-frustration series? No? Read it first before you come back here otherwise their is no point in reading the stuff here which will have zero meaning for you. I’m serious, guys!
The world of VPN has been full of bad (with some good) services which have left the end user confused and unsatisfied. At the end of the day it is high amount of self research that helps an individual attain nirvana with VPN services. With this series of articles I am trying my best to ease off the pain involved in attaining nirvana by giving some quick tips and explaining all forms of VPN that you will someday stumble upon.
Refer to Part 1 for an explanation on SSL and MPLS.
IPSec
We have already discussed a lot about IPsec Protocol for VPN services so I won’t kill much time here. Basically, IPSec sets up a tunnel from the remote site thus securing any format of data transfer. This makes it easy for you to connect to any form of application (web apps or anything else) through this tunnel and stay secured.
IPSec is one of the tried and tested VPN protocols that has satisfied users for past many years. IPSec will always look at a client installed in your machine for him to work successfully. The client software is usually free unless you end up using a custom software provided by your vendor. This will cost you some bucks.
Golden Tip: IPSec will protect you from multiple hack attacks like man-in-the-middle attack, Replay, and Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack. Could be worth a shot due to its high end security features.
NOTE: If you have non-IP data then you might have to think about configuring GRE tunnels separately and run IPSec on them so as to support multicast traffic.
Hybrids
Well, this should be mentioned at the end but I wanted to leave this quick note. Hybrid VPN services are examples of multiple VPN types bundled into one so as to provide features of all in one package. You will have to do your research with the respective hybrid VPN service that you come across.
One such example is combining the features of IPSec and SSL so as to provided double security for its users.
Please be aware that in case of hybrid VPN services the service providers might provide client based custom software to accomplish the task but this might burn a hole in your market. Again, do your research!
We aren’t done yet!
We are closing in but still their is the wrap up that needs to be completed. Hold on to your seats as I will wrap up the week with my (almost) final article on VPN services!
