Remote access is the ability to get access to a computer or a network from a distant location. Employees in branch offices, telecommuters, and people who are traveling may need access to your company's network. Remote access is achieved using a dedicated line between a computer or a remote local area network and the central or main corporate local area network.
You can use Defender to authenticate your employees, business partners, and customers, whether they are local, remote, or mobile. Whether they require access through VPN to remote access applications, wireless access points, network operating systems, intranets, extranets, Web servers, or applications, Defender’s strong two-factor authentication ensures that only authorized users are granted access.
The Defender remote access environment includes the following components:
- Remote Access Server A remote access server is the computer and associated software that is set up to handle users seeking remote access to your company’s network. The remote access server usually includes or is associated with a firewall server to ensure security and a router that can forward the remote access request to another part of the corporate network. A remote access server may also be used as part of a virtual private network (VPN).
- Virtual Private Network (VPN) A VPN is an extension of a private network that encompasses links across shared or public networks like the Internet. VPN connections leverage the IP connectivity of the Internet using a combination of tunneling and encryption to securely connect two remote points, such as a remote worker and their office base.
- Network Access Server (NAS) The Network Access Server (NAS) acts as a gateway to guard access to a protected resource. This can be anything from a telephone network, to printers, to the Internet. The user connects to the NAS. The NAS then connects to another resource asking whether the user's supplied credentials are valid. Based on that answer the NAS then allows or disallows access to the protected resource. The NAS contains no information about which users can connect or which credentials are valid. The NAS simply sends the credentials supplied by the user to a resource which does know how to process the credentials.
- Defender EAP Agent Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) is a general protocol for authentication that also supports multiple authentication methods, such as token cards, Kerberos, one-time passwords, certificates, public key authentication and smart cards. Defender utilizes the EAP protocol to integrate its two-factor authentication into the existing user authentication process.
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