A VPN (Virtual Private Network) refers to a secure network connection that uses the Internet, or other public network, to transmit and receive encrypted data. VPNs fall into 2 categories, remote access VPNs and site-to-site VPNs.

The data is typically encrypted using different tunneling protocols such as L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol) and PPTP (Point to Point Tunneling Protocol) in which the encrypted data is encapsulated in Internet wrappers before it is transmitted.

When the data is received at its destination the Internet wrapper is stripped off and the data decrypted.

A typical use of a site-to-site VPN would be to create a private WAN without the need to lease dedicated lines. A remote access VPN can be used to provide travelling employees with a secure connection to company software and data.

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