VPN creation?

[StanDamen]

For you people that have been around a bit longer than me.

When was VPN created as a technology/did it start being used?

I have been hearing different possibilities and I was wondering of any of the experts here know the answer

[Jennifer Halim]

If you are enquiring about IPSec VPN, the RFC for ESP is dated back in November 1998:

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2406

Same for IKE (standard was definited back in 1998):

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Key_Exchange

[StanDamen]

I am unaware of what the first type of VPN like technology was.

I have read somwhere that it could be the creation of the PPP protocol, which i've heard is from 1994?

Or was IPSec VPN the first real VPN type.

[Jennifer Halim · Accepted solution]

PPTP is a remote access VPN, and it's developed by Microsoft (so VPN connection is from client's PC to a gateway device):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point-to-Point_Tunneling_Protocol

IPSec can be done in 2 flavours, ie:

1) LAN-to-LAN tunnel - VPN is terminated between 2 gateways

2) Remote access VPN - similar to PPTP, but IPSec is the underlying technology.