Site to Site VPN vs Remote Access VPN

Clickbait: Saying no to VPN is like saying yes to a privacy breach

You may have heard the word ‘VPN’ getting thrown around quite a bit, either in your office or on your device. As our lives become more intertwined online, VPNs have gained more importance than ever before. A VPN is a Virtual Private Network that hides your IP address, browsing activity, and even personal data.

Personal data can get misused if it ends up in the hands of a hacker. In fact, your own Internet Service Provider may collect data to sell to companies without your knowledge.

We bet you don’t appreciate those never-ending calls you get from banks about credit cards and home loans which you instantaneously hang up on and lead you to question, “how did they get my number?”. Well, now you know why one may need to use a VPN.

What is a Site-to-Site VPN?

Site-to-site VPNs are connections between two Local Area Networks. Local Area Networks (or LAN, for short) are connected in a remote physical location. For example, the several devices connected to your home Wi-Fi, a single router, would be called your home LAN.

Site-to-site VPNs are connections between two LANs encrypted end to end. This creates a shared network or central hub through which you can access hosted resources. Site-to-site VPNs are highly worthwhile for organizations that thrive on several in-house resources such as email servers, company data, etc.

What is a Remote Access VPN?

Remote access VPN is similar to a site-to-site VPN. It lets you access your enterprise’s corporate data center or other essential files even if you’re nowhere near your workplace. This is because a remote access VPN connects you to specific host net works. However, this connection is temporary. Traffic travels from the user’s computer to the target while being encrypted by the VPN software. Once it reaches its target, the VPN software also decrypts it. This process of encrypting and decrypting continues until the session lasts and the necessary work is done.

Even though this connection is temporary, it does require NAS (Network Access Server) or VPN gateway for authentication.

What is the difference?

The main difference between a Site-to-site VPN and a remote Access VPN, is mainly how the SMB protocol is approached. The Service Message Block (SMB) is a network protocol that connects with secure remote devices and servers. Without this protocol, you won’t be able to access, share, or edit files on the same server.

Suppose you’re a start-up where employees work primarily from home. You’d invest in remote access VPN giving your employees access to the central server for short amounts of time when necessary.

On the other hand, suppose you’re an organization whose employees work collaboratively on the same server, roughly in the same local area. In that case, a Site-to-site VPN is for you. Let’s say each team is in charge of a specific part of a project (planning, editing, and final output). On a site-to-site VPN, each device connected gets access to the internal network, no sign-in needed!

Take your security up a level with Uplevel!

Losing our privacy has become practically unavoidable as our lives become more digitized with each day. When it comes to managing a business with several clients on board, it’s only professional to safeguard your client’s data as if it were your own.

Thankfully, things will always remain right for you with Uplevel Systems by your side. Uplevel Systems support an expansive range of VPN settings for all your security needs. Whether it’s single access, remote access, or site-to-site VPN, at Uplevel Systems, you can invest in VPN plans that fit your needs anytime, anywhere.

About Uplevel Systems

Uplevel Systems, as a small business IT infrastructure managed service provider, enables any of these options. Uplevel’s subscription offering is the most popular with SMBs, but some prefer Uplevel’s new equipment purchase program and use a CapEx model.