Chapter 6. Remote Access Service

Tell me, Mr. Anderson, what good is a phone call when you are unable to speak?

Agent Smith, The Matrix

Up until this point, we have examined a variety of ways to communicate over a network using TCP/IP and the Windows networking APIs. One topic we have not yet covered is how a device can use a modem (or other type of serial connection) to dial into a network from a remote location and use the available network resources, rather than being local and using a network card. Once a connection is established, you can use WinInet, Winsock, and the other Windows networking functions as if you were directly connected to the LAN. This is known as the Remote Access Service (RAS).