vpns allow you to securely interconnect geographically distributed users and sites over the public internet. vpns can provide lower cost, improved reliability, and easier administration than traditional wide-area networks based on private frame relay or dial-up connections. vpns maintain the same security and management policies as a private network. with a vpn, customers, business partners, and remote users, such as telecommuters, can access enterprise computing resources securely.

    ipsec is a standard that defines vendor-independent methods of establishing a vpn. as part of its security functions, the pix firewall provides ipsec standards-based vpn capability. with ipsec, data can be transmitted across a public network without fear of observation, modification, or spoofing.

    site-to-site and remote-access vpns are the two main types of vpn, both of which are supported by the pix firewall.