Windows Client

Originally, the Microsoft Windows client software was developed for Remote Access Server (RAS) environments. Normally, you think of a remote access VPN as a solution that protects traffic from the user desktop to the VPN gateway at the corporate site, but Microsoft added flexibility into the design with PPTP and L2TP/IPsec to allow an intermediate device, typically an RAS, to perform this process on behalf of the client. In this situation, the client would dial into the RAS with a clear-text PPP connection, authenticate via PPP, and then request the RAS to set up a PPTP or L2TP/IPsec encrypted connection to the corporate RAS. Using this process offloads the protection process to the RAS instead of to an underpowered user PC.

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