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Share the Wealth: Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in ServiceNow

Updated: Feb 1, 2021

In this week’s Share the Wealth video, Shayne Cooper of GlideFast and Justin Roberts of Pharicode give an overview and demonstration of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) in ServiceNow.



What is a VPN?

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. It creates a private network from a public network connection. VPNs essentially create a tunnel between your current network and a remote network. This can be used for privacy or to connect to remote applications or servers.


Why is a VPN important?

VPNs increase online safety and privacy when surfing the internet. Without a VPN, you are vulnerable to attacks from many different sources. A VPN not only protects you from attacks, but hides your internet traffic as well. Your real IP Address will be hidden, masking your actual location. Your data is encrypted while making your computer connect through the VPN. Smartphones can connect to a VPN as well; it’s not just limited to computers.


Types of VPNs


Remote Access VPNs

The most common VPNs are Remote Access VNPs. Remote Access is what you would use to connect your computer, or phone, to a work or personal network. There are 3 types of Remote Access VPNs:

  1. Self-Hosted VPN Services are on a device you are managing yourself that connects you to the network at that location.

  2. Cloud-Hosted VPN services refer to hosting the VPN service on a cloud platform like AWS or Azure.

  3. Paid VPN Services refer to hosting the VPN service on a site or application like NordVPN or PureVPN.


Site to Site VPNs

Site-to-Site VPN is primarily used for connecting corporate networks that have multiple locations.


OpenVPN or Algo — Installation


OpenVPN

OpenVPN installation can be performed on a spare Windows PC. The benefits of OpenVPN on your own equipment are that this is free server installation and free client installation on multiple devices (utilizes oVPN files). This is considered to have medium complexity.


Algo

Algo installs wherever you are. This installs to DigitalOcean, Amazon Lightsail, Amazon EC2, Microsoft Azure, Google Compute Engines, Scaleway, OpenStack, CloudStack, and Hetzner Cloud. There is an additional Cloud hosting cost.


Client Connect Solutions

In this demonstration, an OpenVPN (PiVPN) installation is performed on Raspberry PI on a Windows system. PiVPN is the simplest OpenVPN setup and configuration. For OpenVPN, Windows softwares are OpenVPN GUI and OpenVPN Connect. The Mac software is TunnelBlick. For Algo, the software is WireGuard (all platforms). For Paid Solutions, most paid VPN services offer their own software.


Alternate Hardware & Software Solutions


Hardware

  • Asus Router

  • TPLink Router

  • Ubiquiti Unified Security Gateway

  • Ubiquiti Edge Router

  • Mikrotik Router


Software

  • pfSense Community Edition

  • ClearOS Community Edition

  • Mikrotik OS

  • ZeroShell OS

 

Interested in working with experts like Shayne and Justin? Reach out to our team. We would love to learn more about your ServiceNow challenges and how we can help your organization build better solutions.

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