How to configure the network for remote working?
Remote VPN access is a great tool for secure and fast access to the resources of your home network, and at the same time watching your favorite TV series and movies provided by streaming services to Polish viewers regardless of where in the world you connect from.
Network configuration at home
Widely available and increasingly popular VPN services, enabling traveling users to m.in. changing their IP address to Polish so they can use streaming platforms as if they were still at home, they are using just a fraction of the potential of a Virtual Private Network (VPN). At the same time, the network created on their basis is not entirely private, as the entire infrastructure and connection is managed by an external company, which we place our trust in on the basis of a contract for the provision of services.
Having your own router with VPN functionality, such as the FRITZ!Box, opens up a wide range of possibilities (including Polish IP), provides real privacy, independent of third-party service providers, and on top of that, it's completely free, since the VPN server function is built into the router anyway and doesn't require monthly license fees.
Router configuration for remote operation for FRITZ!Box is very easy and does not require advanced knowledge of protocols, encryption algorithms, key exchange, etc. All you have to do is select a few options in the user-friendly Web wizard, which takes a few minutes at most.
In principle, a special network configuration as such to use VPN is not needed. Desktops, printers, laptops and phones connected to FRITZ router!Box, whether via Ethernet cables or over Wi-Fi (note: network resources cannot be accessed by devices logged into the guest network), having access to the Internet, does not require any additional settings. Stable network for remote work is maintained by the FRITZ router!Box and from its level centrally configured.
VPNs remote working and data security
Using a VPN for remote work is the most important feature of this technology. In the most common scenario, a remote computer, such as a laptop or smartphone in a hotel room in Dubai, connects locally to the Internet and then, using additional (or built-in operating system) client software, establishes an encrypted connection to a home VPN router in Warsaw. Once such a connection is established, the network environment of the remote laptop shows up the computers at home, the resources of the USB drive plugged into the router are available, and you can print greetings from under the Burj Khalifa on your home printer.
In a more elaborate connection scenario, the grandparent's VPN router in Krakow automatically connects to the router in the children's apartment in Gdansk, so you can view the grandchildren's vacation photos that were just ripped from the camera to their local NAS server.
Remote work enabled by a VPN is basically no different from local work, as all network resources are available just as if you were connecting to them locally from home.
Security of remote work
If your first thought is to work remotely security should come next. Fortunately, the IPSec and the increasingly popular WireGuard protocols used for VPN connections are highly secured by advanced encryption algorithms (AES and ChaCha20, respectively), and history has yet to record them being broken. Data sent over a VPN connection is fully encrypted and therefore inaccessible to outsiders, including government agencies, hence m.in. recent bans on the use of these technologies in some countries whose governments have dictatorial inclinations.
Using VPN, therefore, we do not have to worry excessively about how to secure the home network to which we allow remote access - everything is taken care of by the access authorization and data encryption mechanisms implemented in the router. As users, we are left to enjoy the freedom and unparalleled convenience of having our own, literally private cloud.
