ShopperTrak is a provider of people counter technology and foot traffic analysis that improve retail profitability.
In addition, traveling employees like salespeople need an equally secure and reliable way to connect to their business's computer network from remote locations. One popular technology to accomplish these goals is a VPN (virtual private network). A VPN is a private network that uses a public network (usually the Internet) to connect remote sites or users together. The VPN uses virtual connections routed through the Internet from the business's private network to the remote site or employee. By using a VPN, businesses ensure security -- anyone intercepting the encrypted data can't read it. VPN was not the first technology to make remote connections. Several years ago, the most common way to connect computers between multiple offices was by using a leased line.
When a VPN client establishes a VPN connection, a virtual interface is created on the VPN client that represents the interface connected to the VPN server. The virtual interface on the VPN client is connected to the virtual interface on the VPN server, creating the point-to-point VPN connection. The virtual interfaces of the VPN client and the VPN server must be assigned IP addresses. The assignment of these addresses is done by the VPN server.