What is Remote Access

In today’s non-stop business communication environment the organizations must provide the non-stop access to their network resources to their staff or members. Remote access is the ability to get access to a computer or a network from the remote location.  It can be possible with the dial-up, broadband and the wireless connections. In the enterprise organizations, the staff at the branch offices and the mobile users and teleworkers may need to access their company’s servers from their laptops.  Laptops, PDAs, smart phones, mobile device, handheld PC and the computers can be used for the remote access. 

A remote access server is a computer that is setup to access to receive the simultaneous connections from the users and provide them the required services.  It is also known as the communication server and is often associated with the firewall and a router to route the remote access requests to the other parts of the computer network. 

RAS also includes a small group of the modems that equally shared between the large numbers of connected users.  RAS servers are often setup in the ISPs to provide the simultaneous internet connections to the remote connected users.  RAS can also be used as a part of the VPN (Virtual Private Network).

Remote Access Security

Security provides the increased productivity, efficiently, time saving, easiness and the growth to the businesses. The increase in the number of the remote works demands the security solutions implementations in your network. Remote access security is the priority of many organizations. Without the proper implementations of the security on your remote servers it can be vulnerable to the hackers, spyware, adware, unauthorized access, intruders and the viruses. Insecure networks eat up the previous time of the IT staff and the budget of the organizations.

There are many options are available for the remote access security that are ideal for the small to enterprise level organizations.  The most common methods of securing the remote connection is through VPN. VPNs can be implemented in many operating systems including Windows and Linux at very low cost. There are many security protocols that can be implemented in the VPN including PPTP, L2TP and IPSec etc.  

IPsec is used as the encryption method with the PPTP and L2TP.  Many vendors including Cisco, Checkpoint, Microsoft, Juniper, Sonicwall, Symantec and Watchguard technologies provide the remote security solutions toe the enterprises. There are many hardware appliances and the software that can be used for the remote network security.  The common third party security solutions include the following.

• Kaseya
• Vigilos Enterprise Security Management
• Radmin
• Isllight
• Aventail SSL VPN Appliances