Virtual private network (VPN) helps you to establish a secure network connection when using public networks. VPNs encrypt your internet traffic and hide your identity in the internet. This makes the location invisible and makes it more difficult for third parties to track your activities in the internet and steal data. A VPN connection is also secure against external attacks from bad actors in the internet as only you can access the data in the encrypted VPN tunnel.

VPNs create tunnels that allow users and systems to connect securely over a public network, as if they were connecting over a local area network (LAN). To set up a VPN tunnel, you need a pair of devices that can authenticate each other and encrypt the flow of information between them. The devices can be a pair of Palo Alto Networks firewalls, or a Palo Alto Networks firewall along with a VPN-capable device from another vendor.

There are many different types of VPNs, and one among them is the most common site-to-site VPN.

A site-to-site VPN is a private network that hides the private intranets and allow users of these secure networks to access each other's resources. Many organizations use site-to-site VPN for their business needs to connect two or more locations. For example, a site-to-site VPN would allow a company’s headquarters at one geographical location to connect with a smaller branch at another geographical location. Site-to-site VPNs enhance the security and efficiency of organizational networks.

This guide helps you to understand the basics of site-to-site VPN, how to configure, monitor and troubleshoot the site-to-site VPN connections.