Re: Can IPSec connect 2 VPN Clients or is ALWAYS an IPSec server needed ?

From: Richard E. Silverman (res_at_qoxp.net)
Date: 07/25/05 

Date: 25 Jul 2005 16:00:15 -0400

>>>>> "PM" == Peter Meister <pmeister2@lycos.com> writes:

    PM> As the subject already asked: Do I always need an IPSec server to
    PM> establish an IPsec connection or is something like an ad-hoc
    PM> (similar to WLAN) IP-sec connection between two clients possible?

Note this has nothing to do with SSH and does not belong in this
newsgroup.

IPSec itself is a symmetric protocol; there is no such thing as an "IPSec
server," and it allows two peer nodes to protect their communication in
either or both directions.

However, certain uses of IPSec may imply or require a client-server
relationship. Rather than protecting communication end-to-end, it is more
common these days to see IPSec used as part of a VPN setup, either
directly using tunnel mode, or indirectly using some kind of encapsulation
(e.g. L2TP). In this case, the remote node is a client of some sort of
communication server or gateway (e.g. a Cisco VPN Concentrator). In this
case, the VPN client software may be specialized and not useful for
peer-to-peer IPSec. 

-- 
  Richard Silverman
  res@qoxp.net

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