Planning for Dial-Up and Virtual Private Networking

To use Dial-Up Networking to connect to the Internet or a remote network, you need the following hardware:

• One or more compatible modems or ISDN devices, as described in Chapter 21, "Modems and Communications Tools."
• Enough available hard disk space to install Dial-Up Networking. Currently, about 2 to 3 MB of free disk space are required to install the client and server portions of Dial-Up Networking.

In most cases, you will need the same hardware to use virtual private networking to connect to a remote network through the Internet. If you will be connecting to a remote network through a VPN server on your corporate network and you will never make a dial-up connection, you will not need a modem or ISDN device, but you will need a network adapter that is physically connected to the LAN.

To use a Dial-Up Networking client to connect to the network, you need to decide the following:

• The kind of remote access server remote users will connect to. For example, a Windows 98 dial-up server allows only 1 remote connection at a time, whereas a Windows NT Server 3.5 or later remote access server allows 256 connections. Depending on the size and needs of your network, you might configure a Windows 98 dial-up client to connect to a Windows NT Server 3.5 or later remote access server or another remote access server. For a list of the types of remote access servers that a Windows 98 dial-up client can be configured to connect to, see "Dial-Up Client" earlier in this chapter.
• The type of connection protocol your dial-up client will use to connect to the remote access server. Windows 98 provides support for PPP, RAS for Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and Windows NT 3.1, NetWare Connect 1.0 and 1.1, and SLIP. The dial-up client and the remote access server must both be running the same connection protocol. For a complete list of protocol types, see "Connection Protocols" earlier in this chapter.
• The kind of network protocol to install on the dial-up client to connect the client to the network. Windows 98 dial-up clients support IPX/SPX, TCP/IP, and Microsoft NetBEUI protocols. For more information about network protocols and Dial-Up Networking, see "Local Area Network Protocols" earlier in this chapter.

If you want to add a Windows 98 dial-up server to your network, you need to decide the following:

• Which computers on the network will function as Windows 98 dial-up servers.
• Whether you want to connect the client to the network and what kind of network protocol you need to install on the dial-up server. Windows 98 dial-up servers support only the IPX/SPX and Microsoft NetBEUI protocols; to use TCP/IP to connect the client to the network, you must use a Windows NT Server instead of a Windows 98 dial-up server.
• The level of security you need for dial-up servers. You can enable either user-level or share-level security on a Windows 98 dial-up server. For more information, see "Configuring Security Options for a Windows 98 Dial-Up Server" later in this chapter.