IPSec Tunnel and transport Modes Essay

Computer networking security is one of the primary concerns of any network systems. In this case, protecting the data transferred between channels should be a primary concern for any entities that use networking. This article will discuss IPSec Tunnel and Transport Modes. IPsec is short for Internet Protocol Security. This is a special suite to secure the Internet protocol data transfers and communication by encrypting each packet of data stream. IPsec may also include protocols so that mutual authentication can be established between any agents during sessions of data transfers. One of the main reasons why IPsec is used is to protect the integrity of data that flows from one channel to another, say for example between a computer and a user or a computer to a server. What is IPSec transport mode? In this mode, only the payload or the data that the user transfers is encrypted for authentication (Technet Microsoft, 2005). The routing of data in this mode is intact so there is no modification possible. The transport schemes are always secured by a hash. Transport mode is commonly utilized for host-to-host transfers and communications. On the other hand, with the IPsec tunnel mode, the whole of the IP packet is encrypted and authenticated before communications happen (Technet Microsoft, 2005). It is encased into a newly generated IP packet with a new header. Usually, tunnel more is used to build a Virtual Private Network for such a network to network communications or host to network communications. The tunnel mode can be applied to any of the following: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2 (Technet Microsoft, 2005).