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Beginners
How To Guide
The Basics of Information Technology
WIDE AREA NETWORK (WAN)
What if you have a sub office? Why not include them
in your network by building a wide area network? A WAN
requires additional hardware to facilitate the secure
transmission of company information.
For example, the general manager of your regional office
may need access over a telecommunication line to the
head office for central information such as client data,
project and stock status as well as requiring the ability
to send and receive emails internally. Equally, people
at the head office will use this WAN to see and communicate
with the regional office.
For security, a firewall is required to filter data
as it passes over the public network to prevent unsolicited
access.
REMOTE ACCESS
Perhaps you want to work form home once a week but
still want to access files on a PC in the office. This
can be achieved efficiently and cost effectively. One
of the PC's in the office needs a phone line linking
into it. You dial through your home phone line directly
into that PC and the two modems establish a connection.
Once connected you have full access to all the other
PC's and hardware in the office network.
VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK
Perhaps your sales team is geographically dispersed
and need regular access to the company network to process
orders and check stock status.
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) may utilise your existing
network and public networks such as the Internet . For
example a sales representative based in the UK can Telework
from their hotel by dialling in over the Internet to
the office network in Ireland, and work away as if the
user was in the company office. With the remote connection
established, the user has access to everything that
is normally available when sitting at the desk.
To set up a VPN, additional software, hardware and security
is required. However, the savings in the long term could
far outweigh the initial costs that are incurred. For
example, a UK based employee accesses the VPN by making
a local call to an ISP and through that Internet connection
he can access the company office network and other relevant
company information. Because the UK employee is using
a VPN over the Internet , the cost of the connection
is a local call to the ISP instead of an international
call to the head office. Multiply this scenario and
the savings soon become apparent.
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