How does the VPN client work?
The VPN client is a “shim” client. It inserts itself below your computer’s native TCP/IP stack and intercepts all network traffic received or transmitted, encrypting and authenticating the data on the fly. What level of encryption does the VPN server provide? The default client software for the VPN server uses Triple-DES 168-bit encryption. Other algorithms used in the VPN transactions are ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload), SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm), and Diffie-Hellman 1024-bit Group 2 key exchange. Current estimates are that it would take on the order of two to three years to crack data being sent over a VPN connection, and even then only for a single session.
