Designing Internet Remote Access Connectivity(Management Services)

Lesson 4	Designing Internet and remote access connectivity
Objective	Define network services that help manage access to the Internet and support remote users.

Designing Internet and Remote Access Connectivity

For users on private networks, you will need to design a way to connect them to your network. Connectivity is key to network extensibility. In the past, most corporate networks lived within the confines of their own network infrastructure. However, the days of the isolated network are over. Companies require real-time processing of information and intelligence, and this requires high-speed connections between networks. To meet these interconnectivity demands, Windows 2000 provides integrated LAN and WAN connectivity services.

Remote access

Remote access solutions enable employees to connect to a corporate network from any telephone line in the world. A remote access solution can be implemented by having employees call via a modem band at the home office by dialing an 800 number. A better solution is to take advantage of the Windows 2000 RRAS^[1] services Virtual Private Networking (VPN) capabilities. With VPNs, remote employees can dial-in to a local Internet Service Provider (ISP) and connect to the corporate network over the Internet. This obviates the cost of direct dial-in solutions via modems.
Windows 2000's Internet and Remote Access Service outstrip those available with Windows NT 4.0. VPNs are highly secure, as they take advantage of NAT and L2TP and IPSec technologies. RRAS Clients can also have access controlled via RAS policies, giving the administrator granular control over RAS access to the corporate network.
In your network designs, you will include the routing services to connect private networking segments within a geographic location or between locations over public networks, such as the Internet. This will enable remote users to connect to the private network by using authenticated and encrypted connections. The remote-access below describes those routing and remote access features.

VPNs: Virtual Private Networks. Virtual network connections established over public networks that allow for authentication and encryption of data. VPNs use tunneling technology and private network communications take place inside the encrypted tunnel over the public network.
NAT: NAT enables private IP addresses to be translated into public IP addresses for traffic to and from the Internet.

Remote Access Services
Note that these services are not directed to an organization of any particular size. Your organization may or may not use a service such as NAT.
In the next lesson, you will learn to define tasks involved in creating an integrated networking services design.

[1] RRAS: The Routing and Remote Access Service. A collection of network services relating to routing and remote access that are brought together into a single Microsoft Management Console.