11.6. The Last Word

In this chapter, you've looked at a variety of different networking systems and techniques. DHCP combines with DNS to provide an automatic and self-managing way to provide IP services to your network. VPNs allow your remote users to use their client machines as if they were directly connected to a remote network, and IPSec offers a way to compensate for the lack of security built directly into the IP protocol. And finally, NAQC is a great way to assess the integrity and quality of remote client machines before they have a chance to potentially infect your network with malicious software.

In the next chapter, you'll see how you can scale your network services using software to provide load balancing and fault tolerance.