What is the difference between a router and hub or switch?

A router is a more sophisticated network device than either a switch or a hub. Like hubs and switches, network routers are typically small, box-like pieces of equipment that multiple computers can connect to. Each feature’s a number of "port’s" the front or back that provide the connection points for these computers, a connection for electric power and a number of LED lights to display device status. While routers, hubs and switches all share similar physical appearance, routers differ substantially in their inner workings.

Traditional routers are designed to join multiple area networks (LANs and WANs). On the Internet or on a large corporate network, for example, routers serve as intermediate destinations for network traffic. These routers receive TCP/IP packets, look inside each packet to identify the source and target IP addresses and then forward these packets as needed to ensure the data reaches its final destination.

Routers for home networks (often called broadband routers) also can join multiple networks. These routers are designed specifically to join the home (LAN) to the Internet (WAN) for the purpose of Internet connection sharing. In contrast, neither hubs nor switches are capable of joining multiple networks or sharing an Internet connection. A home network with only hubs and switches must designate one computer as the gateway to the Internet, and that device must possess two network adapters for sharing, one for the home LAN and one for the Internet WAN. With a router, all home computers connect to the router equally, and it performs the equivalent gateway functions.

Additionally, broadband routers contain several features beyond those of traditional routers. Broadband routers provide DHCP server and proxy support, for example. Most of these routers also offer integrated firewalls. Finally, wired Ethernet broadband routers typically incorporate a built-in Ethernet switch. These routers allow several hubs or switches to be connected to them, as a means to expand the local network to accommodate more Ethernet devices.

In home networking, hubs and switches technically exist only for wired networks. Wi-Fi wireless routers incorporate a built-in access point that is roughly equivalent to a wired switch.

How Virtual Private Networks Work

Introduction to How Virtual Private Networks Work

The world has changed a lot in the last couple of decades. Instead of simply dealing with local or regional concerns, many businesses now have to think about global markets and logistics. Many companies have facilities spread out across the country or around the world, and there is one thing that all of them need: A way to maintain fast, secure and reliable communications wherever their offices are.

Until fairly recently, this has meant the use of leased lines to maintain a wide area network (WAN). Leased lines, ranging from ISDN (integrated services digital network, 128 Kbps) to OC3 (Optical Carrier-3, 155 Mbps) fibre, provided a company with a way to expand its private network beyond its immediate geographic area. A WAN had obvious advantages over a public network like the Internet when it came to reliability, performance and security. But maintaining a WAN, particularly when using leased lines, can become quite expensive and often rises in cost as the distance between the offices increases.

As the popularity of the Internet grew, businesses turned to it as a means of extending their own networks. First came intranets, which are password-protected sites designed for use only by company employees. Now, many companies are creating their own VPN (virtual private network) to accommodate the needs of remote employees and distant offices.

Basically, a VPN is a private network that uses a public network (usually the Internet) to connect remote sites or users together. Instead of using a dedicated, real-world connection such as leased line, a VPN uses "virtual" connections routed through the Internet from the company's private network to the remote site or employee. In this article, you will gain a fundamental understanding of VPNs, and learn about basic VPN components, technologies, tunnelling and security.

Virtual private networks help distant colleagues work together, much like desktop sharing. Click here to learn more.

What Makes a VPN?

A well-designed VPN can greatly benefit a company. For example, it can:

• Extend geographic connectivity
• Improve security
• Reduce operational costs versus traditional WAN
• Reduce transit time and transportation costs for remote users
• Improve productivity
• Simplify network topology
• Provide global networking opportunities
• Provide telecommuter support
• Provide broadband networking compatibility
• Provide faster ROI (return on investment) than traditional WAN

What features are needed in a well-designed VPN? It should incorporate:

• Security
• Reliability
• Scalability
• Network management
• Policy management

There are three types of VPN. In the next couple of sections, we'll describe them in detail.

Remote-Access VPN

There are two common types of VPN. Remote-access, also called a virtual private dial-up network (VPDN), is a user-to-LAN connection used by a company that has employees who need to connect to the private network from various remote locations. Typically, a corporation that wishes to set up a large remote-access VPN will outsource to an enterprise service provider (ESP). The ESP sets up a network access server (NAS) and provides the remote users with desktop client software for their computers. The telecommuters can then dial a toll-free number to reach the NAS and use their VPN client software to access the corporate network.

A good example of a company that needs a remote-access VPN would be a large firm with hundreds of sales people in the field. Remote-access VPNs permit secure, encrypted connections between a company's private network and remote users through a third-party service provider.

Site-to-Site VPN

Through the use of dedicated equipment and large-scale encryption, a company can connect multiple fixed sites over a public network such as the Internet. Site-to-site VPNs can be one of two types:

• Intranet-based - If a company has one or more remote locations that they wish to join in a single private network, they can create an intranet VPN to connect LAN to LAN.
• Extranet-based - When a company has a close relationship with another company (for example, a partner, supplier or customer), they can build an extranet VPN that connects LAN to LAN, and that allows all of the various companies to work in a shared environment.

Analogy: Each LAN is an Island

Imagine that you live on an island in a huge ocean. There are thousands of other islands all around you, some very close and others farther away. The normal wa­y to travel is to take a ferry from your island to whichever island you wish to visit. Of course, travelling on a ferry means that you have almost no privacy. Anything you do can be seen by someone else.

Let's say that each island represents a private LAN and the ocean is the Internet. Travelling by ferry is like connecting to a Web server or other device through the Internet. You have no control over the wires and routers that make up the Internet, just like you have no control over the other people on the ferry. This leaves you susceptible to security issues if you are trying to connect between two private networks using a public resource.

Continuing with our analogy, your island decides to build a bridge to another island so that there is easier, more secure and direct way for people to travel between the two. It is expensive to build and maintain the bridge, even though the island you are connecting with is very close. But the need for a reliable, secure path is so great that you do it anyway. Your island would like to connect to a second island that is much farther away but decides that the cost are simply too much to bear.

This is very much like having a leased line. The bridges (leased lines) are separate from the ocean (Internet), yet are able to connect the islands (LANs). Many companies have chosen this route because of the need for security and reliability in connecting their remote offices. However, if the offices are very far apart, the cost can be prohibitively high - just like trying to build a bridge that spans a great distance.

So how does VPN fit in? Using our analogy, we could give each inhabitant of our islands a small submarine. Let's assume that your submarine has some amazing properties:

• It's fast.
• It's easy to take with you wherever you go.
• It's able to completely hide you from any other boats or submarines.
• It's dependable.
• It costs little to add additional submarines to your fleet once the first is purchased.

Although they are travelling in the ocean along with other traffic, the inhabitants of our two islands could travel back and forth whenever they wanted to with privacy and security. That's essentially how a VPN works. Each remote member of your network can communicate in a secure and reliable manner using the Internet as the medium to connect to the private LAN. A VPN can grow to accommodate more users and different locations much easier than a leased line. In fact, scalability is a major advantage that VPNs have over typical leased lines. Unlike with leased lines, where the cost increases in proportion to the distances involved, the geographic locations of each office matter little in the creation of a VPN.

VPN Security: Firewalls

A well-des­igned VPN uses several methods for keeping your connection and data secure:

• Firewalls
• Encryption
• IPSec
• AAA Server

In the following sections, we'll discuss each of these security methods. We'll start with the firewall.

A firewall provides a strong barrier between your private network and the Internet. You can set firewalls to restrict the number of open ports, what types of packets are passed through and which protocols are allowed through. Some VPN products, such as Cisco's 1700 routers, can be upgraded to include firewall capabilities by running the appropriate Cisco IOS on them. You should already have a good firewall in place before you implement a VPN, but a firewall can also be used to terminate the VPN sessions.

Eon Network achieves its 100th Enterprise/SMB customer

Eon Networks Pvt Ltd, a leading provider of IT Infrastructure solutions and services to domestic customers, today announced its milestone in achieving its 100th Enterprise/SMB customer in a short span of 1 Year since the inception of Eon Networks. In the face of fierce competition Eon Networks has shown a tremendous growth rate and exceeded the objectives set for its first year. Eon Networks has achieved the feat due to the level of commitment, service, efficient technical team, good hands on exposure on latest technologies, well defined support & delivery mechanism and its competitive pricing policy.

We boast of our Alliance portfolio with the top-tier technology providers like Cisco, D-Link, 3Com, IBM, HP, Microsoft, Symantec, Trend, McAfee, Checkpoint, Cyberoam & SonicWall. Our unique solution-based methodology has enabled us to effectively address the business needs of our clients, optimize the returns on their IT investments, mitigate risk, and focus on growth and profitability.

The vast range of technology solutions which we have provided to our clients in such a short span of time ranges from providing Network Security, Storage, Routing & Switching, and Wireless Network across various verticals like Enterprise & SMBs in the IT, ITES, Construction, Educational, Financial & Consultancy industries.

Here is a list of our selected clientele across various verticals:
ITES: Data world and Rapid process solution.
Government: Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission and Employees Saving and Insurance Corporation.
Insurance: Bajaj Capital.
Educational Institutions: BRCM college of Engineering and Technology and International College of Financial Planning.
Manufacturing: Hindustan Glass and Orient Tiles.
Telecom: Airtel.

Eon Networks specializes in delivering complex network solutions that leverage our technical expertise, extensive experience and broad services offering. Our consultative approach includes a comprehensive delivery methodology and relentless focus on complete customer satisfaction. Our clients trust us to plan, build, and operate their secure converged networks providing them with considerable competitive advantage.

We deliver business driven technology solutions that enable our clients to gain competitive advantage, make their business more responsive to market opportunities and threats, improve productivity and reduce information technology costs.

Eon Networks also takes this opportunity to announce inclusion of some more services in its portfolio like Backup and Data Management so as to be a single interface for its customer for all their IT related .