Fortnightly News Letter From IT Desk
Vol. II. Issue–XIII. Technology that gears movement of Cargo. Oct 15, 2002
What is a VPN? .. Explaining Virtual Private Networks …
For years, voice, data, and just about all softwaredefined network services were called "virtual private
networks" by the telephone companies. The current
generation of VPNs, however, is a more advanced
combination of tunneling, encryption, authentication
and access control technologies and services used to
carry traffic over the Internet, a managed IP
network or a provider's backbone.
The traffic reaches these backbones using any
combination of access technologies, including
T1, frame relay, ISDN, ATM or simple dial
access. The client sends a stream of encrypted
Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) packets to a
remote server or router, except instead of going
across a dedicated line (as in the case of WANs), the
packets go across a tunnel over a shared
network. Using this VPN model, packets headed
towards the remote network will reach a tunnelinitiating device, which can be anything from an
extranet router to a PC with VPN-enabled dial-up
software. The tunnel initiator communicates with a
VPN terminator, or a tunnel switch, to agree on an
encryption scheme. The tunnel initiator then
encrypts
the
package
for
security
before
transmitting to the terminator, which decrypts the
packet and delivers it to the appropriate destination
on the network.
VPN technology can be used for site-to-site
connectivity as well, which would allow a branch
office with multiple access lines get rid of the
data line, and move traffic over the existing
Internet access connection. Since many sites use
multiple lines, this can be a very useful application,
and it can be deployed without adding additional
equipment or software.
VPNs can also reduce costs by eliminating the need for long-distance
telephone charges to obtain remote access, as client need only call
into the service provider's nearest access point.
Privacy and protection of data is of utmost importance when
deploying services over the Internet, where it can be vulnerable to
attacks or illegal entry. Secure IP-VPNs are networks that are secured
by encryption and authentication, and layered on an existing IP
network. In response to security issues, the Internet Engineering
Task Force (ietf.org) has developed the IP Security (IPSec)
protocol suite, a set of IP extensions that offer strong data
authentication and privacy guarantees. Although security features
differ from product to product, most IP-VPN providers generally
private network tunneling through the IP backbone, data encryption,
authentication proxying,, firewall, and spam filtering.
VPN products fall into three broad categories: hardware-based
systems, firewall-based systems, and standalone application
packages. Most hardware-based VPNs are encrypting routers,
which are considered secure and simple to use, as they are the
nearest things to "plug-and-play" equipment available. However, they
may not be as flexible as software-based systems, which are ideal
in situations where both endpoints of a VPN are not controlled by the
same organization, which is typical for business partnerships or when
client support is required. Firewall-based VPNs are considered
among the most secure, as they take advantage of the firewall's
existing security mechanisms. However, if the firewall is already
loaded, performance issues may pop up.
However, as the VPN market continues to rapidly evolve, the
lines between different VPN architectures are increasingly blurred;
many hardware vendors have included software clients to their
product offerings, and extended their server capabilities to include the
security features found in software- or firewall-based VPNs.
Similarly, some standalone products have added support for
hardware-based encryptors to boost their performance.
VPN allows two or more private networks to be
connected over a publicly accessed network similar
to wide area networks (WAN) or a securely
encrypted tunnel, but the key feature of VPNs is
that they are able to use public networks like the
Internet rather than rely on expensive, private
leased lines. At they same time, VPNs have the
same security and encryption features as a
private network, while taking the advantage of the
economies of scale and remote accessibility of large
public networks.
A VPN is an especially effective means of
exchanging critical information for employees
working remotely in branch offices, at home, or on
the road. It can securely deliver information
between vendors, suppliers, and business
partners, who may have a huge physical distance
between them.
Any Queries should be forwarded to Editor: Swastika Johorey
Phone: 0124-6381603(5 lines), Fax:0124-6381611, Email: [email protected]
Your Attention Please
 Ensure that your branch has proper earthing for the power supply, and all machines should be connected
through properly working UPS.
o Heartiest Congratulations to Ahmedabad
for HAT_TRICK in sending DBR data first of
all Region for the third time in a row i.e. This
month again AHRO, whole region has sent the
DBR to corporate before any other region like
the previous two months.
o Panjim, Rajkot, Pondicherry, Mangalore
and Kolhapur was the first five Controllings
in sending the DBR for the month of Sep 02.
All should try to become first five and try to
send last day DBR of the month on the same
day.
o CBS has still not started on daily basis in
most of the controllings Please ensure that
daily CBS must be prepared at all
locations with immediate effect i.e. on
10th of the month CBS of 10th must be
prepared.
o It has been observed that problems are not reported
from field to corporate.
o It has been observed
that most of the
mails
with
attachment of files
are sent, as Cc.
Please don’t do like
this,
send
the
attachment only to concern person and Cc must be sent
without attachment for info only.
o VSAT are not being used effectively as well as efficiently.
o Chat must be used more frequently then telephone
wherever possible.
o The scheduled Time for sending data through FTP is
not followed due to which bandwidth is choke. So kindly
follow the scheduling given below.
o Any kind of problems/query should be directed to
[email protected] and [email protected].
o POD/DWB/challan/DBR data should be sent regularly
and should be taken on priority basis. If there is some
problem faced in this regard, please let us know
immediately so that it can be solved.
Tight Spot: Missing data and mismatch in MBR at
o Data to be sent through FTP only, and according to
your time schedule
Steps to be followed for MBR Processing
o POD de-centralization has started. Please ensure
that the modified xps2.exe sent to you, is implemented
at all your branches so that the POD data of the
whole region is available at
the regions. When you export
the pod data it makes files
for corporate, all booking
stations
and
booking
region as well as the delivery region.
o Please make sure that the problems faced in the
software should be reported immediately and solved
with proper follow up with the corporate.
o Please ensure to implement the latest Software sent
to you from corporate.
Corporate.
Solution: MBR Processing at regions.
o Create dir for all accounting centres.
o Copy
the
respective
files
to
the
directories
o Now merge the different files and keep it
in xprocess dir.
o Now index the xprocess dir run (XPSD),
run XPS5 (reconcile TBB files), RUN xps6
(bill reconciliation) and if unmatch list is
coming then clear it and then run XPS7
(all options related to MBR) and print the
MBR and tally it with the hardcopy of the
accounting centres.
o Send the MBRFILE, AMBRFILE and all the
other merged files to XCRP.
o Any kind of problem /query should be sent to
[email protected]
The scheduled Time for sending data through FTP to reduce the data traffic is as follows.
Check your
Time
Region and its Controlling
TCI
XPS
AHRO, BBRO
XARO, XKRO
BNRO, CARO
XBRO, XCRO
DLRO, HYRO
XDRO
MDRO, VNRO XPRO
Time
11:00AM TO 12:00PM
12:00PM TO 1:00 PM
3:00PM TO 4:00PM
4:00PM TO 5:00PM
Note:  Please ask all of your
controllings to strictly
follow the same as it chocks
the bandwidth and reducing
the speed of data transfer.
 Anybody missing this
scheduled should do it after
6:30 PM.
Internet terms
Packet: A chunk of data. The TCP/IP protocol
breaks large data files into smaller "packets" for
transmission. When the data reaches its destination,
the protocol makes sure that all packets have arrived
without error.
Page: An HTML document, or Web site.
PING: Ping - a program for determining if another
computer is presently connected to the Internet.
Pixel: Short for picture element - the smallest unit of resolution
on a monitor. Commonly used as a unit of measurement.
Plug-In: A small application, which extends the built in
capabilities of your Web browser. Examples include
Macromedia's
Shockwave,
providing
animation,
and
RealAudio, offering streamed sound files over the Internet.
Compared to helpers, the multimedia files do not need to be
downloaded before shown or played.
Any Queries should be forwarded to Editor: Swastika Johorey
Phone: 0124-6381603(5 lines), Fax:0124-6381611, Email: [email protected]