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VPN definition (Re: can vpn's extended to mobility)

2000-09-29 01:40:02
At 09:42 26/09/2000 -0700, Paul Hoffman / VPNC wrote:
At 4:09 AM +0200 9/24/00, Fred Baker wrote:
A VPN is, by my definition, any case where one overlays the global Internet with another private Internet using tunneling. Tunneling procedures today include MPLS, IPSEC, IP/IP, GRE/IP, and probably several others.

Others might have a very different definition of VPN. The "P" in "VPN" stands for "privacy", which requires encryption. Without a lower layer of encryption, it is trivial for someone to snoop on your MPLS or IP/IP or GRE/IP tunnel.

VPN is on my list of "bleep" terms - when I hear a statement involving it, I mentally replace it by "bleep" and see if I can still see what the author is trying to say.

Other terms on the list include "scalable", "agent", "hostname" and "metadata".
When I have to use those terms, I try to include somewhere in context the sentence "the term XXX, as used in this context, means...".

I can't tell which VPN definition the original question referred to.

            Harald
--
Harald Tveit Alvestrand, alvestrand(_at_)cisco(_dot_)com
+47 41 44 29 94
Personal email: Harald(_at_)Alvestrand(_dot_)no



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