Thread: Deploy a VPN Server

Typically Windows Server supports two types of VP connections: PPTP (Poi nt-to- Point Tunneling Protocol) and L2TP/IPSec. The first 'PPTP' is the simplest amongst the two and easier to setup. But as compared to L2TP/I PSec, it is less secure and hence organizations go for the second option. The reason being, for PPTP the authentication process is not done over secured connections hence credentials can be lost to hackers and thus they can have access to the VPN server. The secure connection is setup only after the authentication is done. In the case of L2TPIIPSec, before the user credentials are sent to the VPN server for authentication, a secure IPSec session is established between the client and server. Hence making it more difficult for hackers to break. Moreover L2TP/IPSec provide mutual machine authentication, where the local machine should have a certificate issued by proper
authority.



There's a new type of VPN connection introduced with Windows Server, which is also supported by Windows Vista SPI, called 'SSTP' (Secure Socket Tunneling protocol). It uses SSL HTTP connection to connect to the VPN server at your workplace. The reason behind introducing this new VPN connection is that it uses TCP port 443 which is by default open in almost all firewalls. Hence if you are in some hotel or any public place where a lot of Zports are blocked, even then you will not find any difficulty in connecting to your corporate network. And also the network administrator needn't worry about allowing a particular port in the firewall specifically for you.