Virtual Private Networks

Historically, only large companies could afford secure networks, which they created from expensive leased lines. Smaller folks had to make do with the relatively untrusted Internet. Nowadays, even large companies have to go outside their private nets, because so many people telecommute or log in while they're on the road. How do you provide a low-cost, secure electronic network for your organization?

The solution is a virtual private network: a collection of technologies that creates secure connections or "tunnels" over regular Internet lines—connections that can be easily used by anybody logging in from anywhere. A number of products now exist to help you develop that solution.

This book tells you how to plan and build a VPN. It starts with general concerns like costs, configuration, and how a VPN fits in with other networking technologies like firewalls. It continues with detailed descriptions of how to install and use VPN technologies that are available for Windows NT and Unix, such as PPTP and L2TP, Altavista Tunnel, Cisco PIX, and the secure shell (SSH).

New features in the second edition include SSH, which is a popular VPN solution for Unix systems, and an expanded description of the IPSec standard, for which several vendors have announced support.

Topics include:

• How the VPN compares to other available networking technologies
• Introduction to encryption, firewalls, the IPSec standard, and other technologies that let VPNs work
• Point to Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) and L2TP
• The Altavista Tunnel
• The Cisco PIX Firewall
• Secure Shell (SSH)
• Maintenance and troubleshooting

Provide a low-cost, secure electronic network for your organization. With 228 pages of instruction, this concise text teaches you how to build and plan a virtual private network. It examines PPTP, Cisco PIX Firewalls, SSH and the IPSec standard. It also explores practical issues, such as cost and configuration.

This book explains how to plan and build a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a collection of technologies that creates secure connections or "tunnels" over regular Internet lines. The book discusses costs, configuration, and how to install and use VPN technologies that are available for Windows NT and UNIX.

Booknews

A guide to setting up systems that can utilize the Internet to access and send information from one network to another, yet remain secure from unauthorized viewers. Four specific solutions are treated, including Layer 2 tunneling through PPTP or L2TP, the Cisco PIX firewall, the AltaVista Tunnel, and Secure Shell. The authors also discuss basics on how VPNs work, how much they cost, and when to use them. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Mike Erwin CISSP is a founder of Symbiot, Inc., an information security company specializing in computer crime, forensics, and threat modeling. Prior to Symbiot, he thwarted spam at an ISP and data center company he founded in 1994, and prior to that was an Internet services manager at Apple Computer. He has given conference presentations on a variety of topics, including how to stop a spammer.

Charlie Scott is an Information Security Analyst for the City of Austin, where he helps maintain the City's network security infrastructure and helps analyze intrusion detection data. He has nearly ten years of experience in the Internet industry and has been an avid user of open source security software that entire time. Charlie is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and a Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP).

Bert Hayes is a Security Technical Analyst for the State of Texas, where he maintains network security for a medium sized agency. In Bert's ten years of IT industry experience, he has done everything from managing a corporate IT shop during a successful IPO to performing white hat penetration tests for corporate and government offices. He has long been a proponent of open source solutions, and is a Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE).

Paul Wolfe is an independent information security consultant and author, specializing in open source security.

Paul Wolfe is an independent information security consultant and author. Before going freelance, he spent eight years in the data center industry (the source and destination of much spam), where he implemented secure electronic commerce and e-mail systems for small to mid-sized companies. Paul has performed information security work for Fortune 500 companies, law enforcement, and government.