The AltaVista tunnel: Using the Internet to extend corporate networks

The public Internet has become a low-cost connection medium for joining remote employees or offices to a private intranet and for permitting impromptu high-speed connections between business partners. This connectivity is offset by a significant loss in security. The AltaVista Tunnel, a DIGITAL product, offers secure network-level routing over Internet connections by combining two well-known networking technologies: tunneling and secure channels. This paper discusses the design and implementation of the AltaVista Tunnel and describes our experience in deploying the product within DIGITAL. The public Internet is fast becoming a ubiquitous an