Which VPN is right for you?

A VPN or Virtual Private Network is basically an encrypted connection established between two or multiple devices with the help of a public network. Read about the different kinds of VPNs so that you can get an understanding about which one is right for you.

Client VPNs

A client VPN is established between a remote network and a single user. Typically, an application is used for making the VPN connection. It is the user who manually initiates the VPN client in most cases. An authentication is given with a password and username. An encrypted tunnel is created by the client between the remote network and the user’s computer. Ultimately, the user can use the remote network through the encrypted tunnel.
Mobile operating systems, Windows and Mac typically have VPN client built-in.

DMVPN

A DMVPN or Dynamic Multipoint VPN isn’t really a protocol. Rather it is technique that uses different protocols. You require one or more than one central hub routers; however the remote routers could use the dynamic IPs. Also, more could be added and you don’t need to change configuration of the hub or any spoke router.

You can utilize DMVPN for connecting remote sites and a large-sized corporate network all across the web with the help of a standard router setup which is hands-off once it is completed.

Site-to-Site VPN

Site-to-Site VPN is often also referred to as S2SVPN. This is a connection established between two websites. It is used for encrypting the entire traffic between subnets (two or more). There are essentially two kinds of S2SVPN: Routed (where traffic gets routed through an encrypted tunnel and reaches the distant VPN peer) and Policy-based (an ACL is triggered by interesting traffic which is encrypted and then transported to the distant VPN peer).
There is slight issue with policy-based VPNs- the crypto access lists will demand maintenance so as to match the changing requirements of the business.

Although Site-to-Site VPNs are usually standards-based, vendors commonly implement these standards differently.

SLVPN

The SLVPN is similar to the client VPN in its functioning. But here is the key difference: a remote client will not require preconfigured software because the browser plays the role of VPN software. It is important for the browser to aid active content, either through a plug-in or directly. The traffic gets tunneled over SSL and reaches the SSLVPN router.