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What is a VPN?
by
Charlie Baerwald
VPN
software is the stuff that starts before you log on to your computer,
and provides a “Connect” button at the bottom left of your screen
(mainly for desktop computer users). In Windows Vista, changes to the
Operating System will require that we connect the VPN after logging in.
You may
ask: “What is VPN software and why do I need it? What does it do? Is
it slowing down my computer?
VPN
stands for Virtual Private Network.
Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org)
defines it as “a communications network tunneled through another
network”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vpn
Some of
you have noticed that without the “Extension VPN” software running (yes
you CAN log on to the computer without “connecting” first), you can’t
get email, or the S:(Share) drive, or your Q: and R: drives. It really
depends on the county you’re in, and more specifically the network
provider that your county employs. Some network providers, for security
reasons, block some of the ports for the Microsoft (MS)
Networking protocol, which is a
protocol necessary for many Microsoft products to communicate over the
network, like Outlook email, and File and Printer Sharing.
Why is
it more secure to block Microsoft (MS) Networking? Microsoft software
is the most common of all, and people with malicious or opportunistic
intent try to find ways to hack into the types of software that return
the biggest results. In an effort to reduce the amount of network
intrusions, the ports that allow MS Networking are blocked. For those
counties whose providers block MS Networking, we use VPN software to
tunnel through the existing network to the campus network, and through
that VPN tunnel comes Outlook email and File and Printer Sharing. Note
that some county service providers DO allow MS Networking, and
technically, in those counties, VPN software is not necessary. It does
however provide an added layer of network security, so we often
recommend it’s use anyway.
Now,
sometimes you have VPN software running, and you still can’t get to your
one or more network drives and/or email, or the connection is painfully
slow. Why?! The VPN connection can be described as a phone line:
sometimes you get a bad connection, and you have to hang up and redial
in order to get a good one. VPN software sometimes needs to be
disconnected and reconnected for it to work properly. One easy way to
do this is to double click the yellow padlock in your System Tray
(bottom right of your screen), click the Disconnect button on the top
left of the window, and when it’s disconnected, click the same button to
re-connect. The VPN window will disappear when the connection is made,
and the yellow padlock will reappear in the locked position in the
System Tray.
Other
times, you disconnect and reconnect till you’re blue in the face, and
your computer remains painfully slow. Computer slowness can be due to
many things, like viruses (check
Quarantine for viruses or threats and remove them if present!),
network overload because someone is downloading or uploading a big file;
maybe there are too many people on the network during that time of day,
or you’re just using an old, slow computer.
A common
cause, if you notice that things are slow WITH VPN software running, but
speedy WITHOUT it running, is that there is some corruption in the VPN
software and/or the other networking software on your computer. This
corruption is often caused by adware or viruses that have infected the
computer, and other times it’s just due to normal errors that get
introduced into a computer system over time (that’s one reason why we
like to rebuild computer software every now and then – it cleans them up
and eliminates the errors, as well as any residuals from infections.
The Windows Vista deployment will accomplish this for all of our
computers). The solution is to uninstall the VPN software, clean the
basic networking software (sometimes referred to as the network or
protocol stack), then reinstall VPN software. That takes care of it 9
times out of 10 (the 10th
time we rebuild the computer software from scratch).
If you’re curious about which
resources require VPN software in your county, try disconnecting, and
see if you still get email, and can access your Q:, R:, and S: drives.
Back
Last Revised:
08/04/08
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