An overview of VPN Concentrators - CompTIA Network+ N10-005: 4.1

VPN stands for virtual private network

and it refers to a method of creating a

private or encrypted communications path

between two devices even if those two

devices may be going over the public

Internet which anyone could have access

to anywhere in between the data path the

Virtual Private Network is a

communications path that set up where

all of the data is encrypted even if

somebody was to tap into that connection

all they would see was garbage they

would have no idea what type of

information is going back and forth

between those two devices this is often

accomplished by using something called a

VPN concentrator this is a piece of

hardware and it's designed to do a lot

of the encrypting and decrypting of

getting that information on and off of

the public network encrypting traffic

and decrypting traffic is a very CPU

intense type of application it's

something that uses a lot of CPU cycles

it's something that is very very

difficult to do over a very large scale

so it makes sense to use specialized

Hardware in very large environments you

would use something like a VPN

concentrator sometimes your environment

is relatively small and you can load up

specialized software that simply use the

built-in hardware that's in our

computers you might put your VPN

concentrator software onto a centralized

server for instance and if you're in an

environment that does not have a lot of

users having a software-based VPN

concentrator may work for you to use the

VPN concentrator you're going to need

some type of software some client

software on the workstation or on the

two devices that we'll be communicating

with each other

this software is something that may come

with the concentrator it may be a third

party piece of software that you have to

install or your operating system itself

may have the software built into it to

allow communications to that VPN

concentrator it simply depends on the

method that you're using to communicate

and the type of concentrator that you're

using from the end users perspective

using a VPN concentrator is pretty

simple you might be out at a coffee shop

and then you realize you need access to

a file that's inside of your network

back at

corporate and it's something that you

don't have access to when you're out in

public it's also very sensitive data so

you don't want anybody seeing that

information you would start the VPN

software on your workstation and it

creates what we call an encrypted tunnel

back to the VPN concentrator all of the

communication going back and forth

between those two connections is

completely encrypted the VPN

concentrator takes that information

decrypts it and then passes it off into

the internal network everything on the

internal network is obviously not

encrypted because that's your local

network there's no need to encrypt

within your building and this is the

process that takes place as the non

encrypted in the clear data is sent out

to the concentrator the concentrator

then encrypts it and sends it across the

public Internet to your local computer

and the local computer client software

will decrypt that information and

present it to you on the screen or save

the file to your hard drive when you're

finished with the connection you turn

off your client software it severs the

connection to that concentrator and now

you're using the network normally again

if you have a lot of mobile devices you

have a laptop you're traveling

constantly and you'll find that using a

VPN connection with a VPN concentrator

is going to ensure that all of your

communication is absolutely secure