Remote Access Servers
The RAS is the contact point between the remote user and the network. The remote user may be
connecting to the network through a virtual private network. VPNs offer the same level of privacy available
over a private network to data travelling over a common medium, like the Internet. It does this by a strong
form of data encryption called "encapsulation." When a VPN is in operation, it is the responsibility of the
RAS to strip away the encapsulation by a process called "decapsulation."
Internet Authentication Service
The Internet Authentication Service is a proprietary network server belonging to Microsoft. The IAS is a
side server, not directly in the path of any connection. It only communicates with the RAS. When a client
computer requests a connection to the network, the RAS has to check that computer's credentials. Those
details are held on the IAS server. The RAS contacts the IAS server with the user name of the applying
user to get authentication details.
RADIUS
IAS servers follow the Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service, or RADIUS, protocol. It specifies the
three responsibilities of a RADIUS server as AAA: authentication, authorization and accounting. Following
the RADIUS protocol, the IAS server keeps track of connection times and can limit users access to
certain facilities of the network according to different levels of subscription. RADIUS servers, like IAS, only
apply to dial-up connections.
What is VPN and how does it work?
Through Virtual Private Network workers to securely connect to corporate networks in order to access
corporate resources when away from the office.
Normally, when you connect to the internet you first connect to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), which
then connects you to any websites (or other internet resources) that you wish to visit. All your internet traffic
passes through your ISP’s servers, and can be viewed by your ISP.
When using VPN you connect to a server run by your VPN provider (a “VPN server”) via an encrypted
connection (sometimes referred to as a “VPN tunnel”). This means that all data traveling between your
computer and the VPN server is encrypted so that only you and the VPN server can “see” it.
What is the difference between network operating system and server operating system?
The term network operating system is generally reserved for software that enhances a basic operating
system by adding networking features. Novell Netware, Artisoft's LANtastic, Microsoft Windows Server,
and Windows NT are examples of a NOS.
A server operating system, also called a server OS, is an operating system specifically designed to run on
servers, which are specialized computers that operate within a client/server architecture to serve the
requests of client computers on the network
Difference between FAT and NTFS
Difference between MSI and EXE files?
MSI files are database files, used by Windows Installer. They contain information about an application
which is divided into features and components, and every component may hold files, registry data,
shortcuts etc.
Windows Installer is pretty new, especially the newest version (3.0). Often installations that use MSI still
come with an EXE (e.g. SETUP.EXE). This EXE is a so-called 'bootstrapper'. It doesn't perform the
installation, it simply checks if the correct version of Windows Installer is present on the system, if not it
launched the MSI Redistributable (MsiInstA.exe or MsiInstW.exe depending on the platform) and then
launches MSIEXEC.EXE on the MSI file. In certain cases (especially Internet downloads), the MSI file
and MSI redistributable are packed inside that EXE file, so you don't see they're there.
