Overview; Vpn Tunnels; Ip Security (Ipsec) - HP ProCurve Secure Router 7203 dl Advanced Management And Configuration Manual

Virtual Private Networks

Overview

8-4
Overview
When your organization leases dedicated lines to establish a WAN, it is
guaranteed a secure, private connection. Your organization controls what
networks can access the private lines. However, leasing private lines can be
costly. When you establish a WAN through the Internet, you capitalize on pre-
existing public connections to link networks with a minimum of expense.
However, because the Internet is public, it is also insecure. You can access
your organization's networks through the Internet, but so can anyone else.
A virtual private network (VPN) addresses this problem.

VPN Tunnels

A VPN provides secure, private connections across an insecure, public net-
work, such as the Internet. A VPN achieves privacy by connecting sites
together through secure tunnels. A tunnel is a point-to-point connection
between two authorized endpoints. That is, the tunnel functions essentially as
a virtual private line. It carries data only between specified, trusted peers.
In order for a tunnel to provide the same security as a private WAN connection,
it must be able to authenticate the endpoints of the tunnel and ensure that
only data from these endpoints accesses the tunnel. It may also encrypt
confidential data to shield it from hackers. Several protocols have emerged to
meet these criteria.

IP Security (IPSec)

IPSec, which supports a variety of industry-standard authentication and
encryption protocols, is a flexible, highly secure method of establishing a VPN.
IPSec can operate in tunnel mode. That is, one or both of the endpoints of the
tunnel can be gateway devices providing IPSec for hosts on a connecting
network. The ProCurve Secure Router will be the gateway for your VPN,
which you can configure to connect to another gateway in a site-to-site VPN
or to multiple mobile users in a client-to-site VPN.