Windows XP Professional: The Missing Manual

Virtual Private Networking

If you’re a frequent traveler who regularly connects to a distant home or office by dialing direct, you must be the toast of your long-distance phone company.

Fortunately, there’s a more economical solution. Virtual private networking (VPN) is a fancy way of saying, “Your remote computer can become part of your host network, using the Internet as a connection instead of a long distance phone connection.” Yes, this does sound exactly like the direct-dialing feature described above—except this time, you don’t pay any long-distance bills, your host PC doesn’t necessarily have to have its own phone line, and (if the computers on both ends have fast connections) you’re not limited to the sluglike speeds of dial-up modems.

WORKAROUND WORKSHOPGetting a Fixed IP Address

Several of the remote-connection methods described in this chapter require that your home-base PC have a fixed IP address. An IP address is a unique number that identifies a particular computer on the Internet. (It’s made up of four numbers separated by periods.) A fixed IP address is one that’s been permanently assigned to your computer.

Furthermore, these remote-connection technologies require that you have a registered IP address (one that, behind the scenes, has been filed with a group called the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority).

A few PCs with high-speed Internet connections (cable modem, DSL) have this kind of permanent, unchanging address. But in most cases, your ISP assigns your computer ...