When you're first connecting to a network inside of Windows,
you could choose to perform this connection from the Control
Panel under the Network and Sharing Center.
There is an option there to setup
a new connection or network, and you have the option
to connect to the internet, connect to a new network,
or connect to a workplace using dial-up or VPN.
This will take you through a step-by-step wizard that
gives you all of the questions you need
to answer to be able to connect to these many different kinds
of network types.
One of the network devices you may connect to
is a VPN concentrator.
This type of network connection creates an encrypted tunnel
between your Windows device and a VPN concentrator that's
somewhere else on the network.
Usually, this VPN concentrator will
be something at a corporate office or main location,
and you'll be connecting to that device using
a portable device or a laptop somewhere else
out on the internet.
Normally, your corporate resources
are on a private internal network
that's behind a firewall.
And if you're out on the internet at a coffee shop,
you would not normally have direct access
to any of those resources.
But by using a VPN connection, you
can create an encrypted tunnel between your device and a VPN
concentrator.
This means if somebody at the coffee shop
was able to look at the packets going
over the wireless network, they would
see that you're communicating to the VPN concentrator,
but all of that information would be encrypted
and they would have no idea what information was being sent.
Once, that information arrives at the VPN concentrator
the concentrator decrypts that data
and sends it into your corporate network.
The corporate devices are able to communicate back to you
over this tunnel by sending that traffic to the VPN
concentrator, which will then encrypt it,
send it down to your laptop, and your laptop
will then decrypt it and make it available to you.
When you're configuring this VPN connection in Windows,
you can use the built-in VPN client
that comes with the operating system.
You have options here to add the internet address,
the destination name, and then you
could choose to use a smart card for authentication.
So if your desktop or laptop computer
has a slot that you can use to slide in a smart card,
you can provide your username your password, and then
this multi-factor authentication.
The password would be something you know.
The smart card would be something that you have.
Some laptops might even include a fingerprint reader, which
would be something you are.
Once this VPN configuration has been created,
you can then connect to the VPN using the network status icon
at the bottom of the screen.
Provide your credentials, and now you
have an encrypted tunnel to your VPN concentrator.
If you're a traditional computer user,
you're probably not using a dial-up modem any longer.
But if you're a system administrator,
these dial-up connections can be very
convenient ways to connect to a remote network
when the primary network connection may not
be available.
The configuration settings for dial-up
are relatively straightforward, since this
is a point-to-point connection.
You would provide username and password credentials.
You would be able to put in the phone number
that you would dial, and then you'd
be able to connect or disconnect from this dial-up connection
using the network status icon at the bottom of the screen.
A common network connection at work and at home
is a wireless connection.
For this connection, you would provide
a network name, which would be the SSID, or Service Set ID
name.
You would need to provide the security type, which
in many cases is WPA-2 or WPA-2 Enterprise, if you're
in a business.
And then you need to provide encryption types, such as TKIP
or AES.
If this wireless network is at home,
you'll probably provide a security key.
This is a pre-shared key that is used
across all of the devices that are on your home network.
If this is a system at work that's using WPA-2 Enterprise,
then it's using an authentication method called
802.1X authentication.
This integrates your wireless access point
to the same authentication credentials
you use for everything else in your network.
This way you don't have a pre-shared key
that's shared with everybody else on the network.
Instead, each individual uses their normal username
and password to gain access to the wireless network.
It's also common to have wired network connections using
an ethernet connection that plugs directly into your laptop
or desktop computer.
Usually, you would plug-in and use this ethernet connection,
but you might also have simultaneously
running, a wireless connection or wireless WAN connection.
Windows is smart enough to know which
connection is the fastest, and it uses that connection
by default.
Windows also provides a way to setup an alternate connection,
in case a DHCP server is not available.
If you look under the Properties for the IP Version 4 Protocol,
you'll see that the general configuration is set up
to obtain an IP address automatically or use
the following IP address manually.
You also, in this window, have the Alternate Configuration
tab, which normally is setup to provide an automatic private IP
address or an APIPA address.
Or if a DHCP server is not available,
you could tell Windows to configure a manual IP address
subnet mask, default gateway and other IP Version 4
configuration details.
If you're a mobile user who isn't often near an 802.11
wireless network, you may choose to have connectivity
through wireless WAN connectivity.
This works in conjunction with a mobile phone provider
to provide internet access over the cellular frequencies.
This is usually accomplished by installing a wireless WAN
adapter.
You can install this into laptops and mobile devices.
And there are usually antenna wires
that you can connect to that adapter as well.
If your laptop doesn't have one of these wireless WAN adapters,
you may be able to use your mobile phone to provide
wireless WAN connectivity.
You would commonly connect to your phone over USB 802.11
wireless or Bluetooth to be able to tether or use your phone
as a wireless hotspot.
If you're using a built-in adapter,
there may be specialized software
that you also have to install to be able to enable that network
connection and allow connectivity
for all of your applications.