Summary


You have a number of options available to you when it comes to enabling remote access to corporate data. Modem banks, hardware and software VPNs, native clients, and third-party clients all work with various types and levels of authentication and encryption to allow secured access to data. By allowing access to users when they are outside the office, users are able to increase their productivity.

Technologies like wireless networking offer users amazing flexibility when it comes to accessing the network while away from their office. Conference rooms no longer have to fight over available LAN jacks and facilities that require flexibility in configuration are no longer limited by static wiring. But with this improvement in accessibility comes the potential for insecurity. By treating a wireless connection like a remote access user , you can offer the same level of security and functionality with a minimal increase in management. Not unlike the OSI model, by abstracting the wireless connection to look like a remote access user to the rest of the environment, the remainder of the remote access system is totally unchanged in order to support the wireless users. This philosophy can be used in many aspects of networking to further leverage existing technologies and resources.

This chapter has shown the importance of not only controlling access to a network but also the importance of being able to carefully audit that access. By tracking user access and connection time, a clever administrator will know when it is time to expand connectivity resources. This chapter has shown how connectivity technologies can be used to save money as demand for capacity increases .

You have learned in this chapter that there are many types of authentication available to you and that each type has its own strengths and weaknesses. This chapter has shown options for configuring firewalls to support various types of VPN traffic and has offered workarounds for use with firewalls that do not natively support VPN protocols.

This chapter has shown the differences between various VPN types and has shown which types are appropriate for different situations. This gives you the knowledge you need to support mixed environments.

This chapter has discussed various implementation options and shown how to automate client configuration for protocols that are present in various flavors of Windows. This greatly simplifies the implementation of Remote Access systems and helps you to keep their project costs low.

Remote Access systems can be one of the most valuable resources available to a company. By implementing flexible and resilient failure tolerant Remote Access systems, companies can have employees who are productive whether they are on the road, at home, or in the office. Remote Access systems are also a doorway into the corporate environment and should always be protected and monitored as such.



Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Insider Solutions
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Insider Solutions
ISBN: 0672326094
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 325

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