VPN
Virtual Private Network (VPN)
Ideacom’s Network Products Group can design, install
and maintain nearly every level – regardless of size
or sophistication – VPN solution. The electronics our
personnel design into VPN solutions accommodate entry level
two-point (LAN-to-LAN) or simple branch office remote users,
to Enterprise level multi-point campuses – internal and
external, remote telecommuters and work-from-home employee
environments.
The following information will help in better understanding
what a VPN is and how it works.
VPN – defined
A term that is short for virtual private network, a network that is constructed by using public wires to connect
remote computers. For example, there are a number of
systems that enable you to create networks using the
Internet as the medium for transporting data. These systems
use encryption and other security mechanisms to ensure
that only authorized users can access the network and
that the data cannot be intercepted.
Internet – defined
The Internet is a global network connecting millions
of computers. Today, more than 100 countries are
linked into exchanges of data, news and opinions.
Unlike online services, which are centrally controlled,
the Internet is decentralized by design. Each Internet
computer, called a host, is independent. Its operators
can choose which Internet services to use and which
local services to make available to the global Internet
community. Remarkably, this anarchy by design works
exceedingly well.
There are a variety of ways to access the Internet.
Most online services, such as America Online, offer
access to some Internet services. It is also possible
to gain access through a commercial Internet Service
Provider (ISP).
The
Internet is not synonymous with World
Wide Web.
World
Wide Web – defined
A system of Internet servers that support specially
formatted documents. The documents are formatted
in a markup language called HTML (HyperText Markup
Language)
that supports links to other documents, as well
as graphics, audio, and video files. This means you
can jump from one document to another simply by
clicking
on hot spots. Not all Internet servers are part
of the World Wide Web.
There are several applications called Web browsers
that make it easy to access the World Wide Web;
Two of the most popular being Netscape Navigator
and
Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
World
Wide Web is not synonymous with the
Internet.
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The Difference Between the Internet
and the World Wide Web
Many people use the terms Internet and World
Wide Web (a.k.a.
the Web) interchangeably, but in fact the two terms are not
synonymous. The Internet and the Web are two separate but related
things.
The Internet is a massive network of networks,
a networking infrastructure. It connects millions of computers
together
globally, forming a network in which any computer can communicate
with any other computer as long as they are both connected
to the Internet. Information that travels over the Internet
does so via a variety of languages known as protocols.
The World
Wide Web, or simply Web, is a way of accessing
information over the medium of the Internet. It is an information-sharing
model that is built on top of the Internet. The Web uses
the
HTTP protocol, only one of the languages spoken over the
Internet, to transmit data. Web services, which use HTTP
to allow applications
to communicate in order to exchange business logic, use
the Web to share information. The Web also utilizes
browsers,
such as Internet Explorer or Netscape, to access Web documents
called
Web pages that are linked to each other via hyperlinks.
Web documents also contain graphics, sounds, text and
video.
The Web is just one of the ways that information can be
disseminated over the Internet. The Internet, not the
Web, is also used
for e-mail, which relies on SMTP, Usenet news groups,
instant messaging and FTP. So the Web is just a portion
of the
Internet, albeit a large portion, but the two terms are
not synonymous
and should not be confused.
