As a business grows, it might expand to multiple shops or
offices across the country and around the world. To keep things
running efficiently, the people working in those locations need
a fast, secure and reliable way to share information across
computer networks. In addition, traveling employees like
salespeople need an equally secure and reliable way to connect
to their business's computer network from remote locations. One
popular technology to accomplish these goals is a VPN (virtual
private network). A VPN is a private network that uses a public
network (usually the Internet) to connect remote sites or users
together. The VPN uses "virtual" connections routed through the
Internet from the business's private network to the remote site
or employee. By using a VPN, businesses ensure security --
anyone intercepting the encrypted data can't read it. VPN was
not the first technology to make remote connections. Several
years ago, the most common way to connect computers between
multiple offices was by using a l