Examining VPN Protocols

PPTP and L2TP are the communication standards used to manage tunnels and encapsulate private data. Data traveling through a tunnel must also be encrypted to be a VPN connection. Windows Server 2003 includes both PPTP and L2TP tunneling protocols.

To establish a tunnel, both the tunnel client and tunnel server must be using the same tunneling protocol. Tunneling technology can be based on either a Layer 2 or Layer 3 tunneling protocol that corresponds to the Open System Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model. Layer 2 protocols correspond to the Data-link layer and use frames as their unit of exchange. PPTP and L2TP are Layer 2 tunneling protocols that encapsulate the payload in a PPP frame before it is sent across the Internet. ...

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