<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >But really, what IS a VPN?</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.76b+ "><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="VPN HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Theory" HREF="theory.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="What is a VPN?" HREF="x189.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="So how does it work?" HREF="x195.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="sect1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >VPN HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="x189.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Chapter 2. Theory</TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="x195.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="sect1" ><H1 CLASS="sect1" ><A NAME="AEN192">2.2. But really, what IS a VPN?</H1 ><P > There are several answers to that question. It really depends on your network layout. The most common configuration is to have a single main internal network with remote nodes using VPN to gain full access to the central net. The remote nodes are commonly remote offices or employees working from home. You can also link two small (or large) networks to form an even larger single network. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="x189.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="x195.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >What is a VPN?</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="theory.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >So how does it work?</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >