Virtual Private Networks: Turning the Internet Into Your Private Network

Charlie Scott is the Senior Vice President of OuterNet Connection Strategies, Inc., an Internet service provider and outsource company based in Austin, Texas and specializing in innovative and emergent technologies. At OuterNet, he helps create and implement new products for their network operations center and co-location facilities. While an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin, Charlie was a research assistant in a cognitive science lab, and planned on going to graduate school in that field. He was eventually able to get his BA in Psychology. But he always enjoyed working with computers, and his exposure to the Internet at UT deviated him enough to abandon all plans for graduate school and start working with computer networks. The next few years saw him at Texas Instruments, IBM, and Wayne-Dresser before he helped found OuterNet. Charlie has also co-authored a half-dozen Internet-related books (many with Mike and Paul), on topics ranging from electronic commerce to CGI programming. He has also completed his MCSE and is working towards other certifications. When he finds spare time, Charlie likes to write and read fiction. He also enjoys spending time with his wife, Mary, and their four beautiful felines. Paul Wolfe has done everything from driving M1A1 tanks in Desert Storm to slinging computer chips for Motorola. He now divides his time between his family and his job, as well as writing. He has written four books in the last two years, covering such topics as Windows NT Web servers, Internet commerce, VRML, and Virtual Private Networks. Paul is currently a team leader for system builds, hardware inventory, and ISDN deployment for Tivoli Systems, an IBM company. He dreams of restoring his 1986 Toyota Tercel to its former glory and racing it on the stock car circuit. Mike Erwin is the President and Chief Executive Officer of OuterNet Connection Strategies, Inc. Mike has served these posts for the last four years, during which he also worked for Apple Computer, Inc., architecting and implementing connectivity, application, scripting and development support for Apple's Worldwide Support Center. Mr. Erwin is the co-author of several other works, including the CGI Bible, Building Web Commerce Sites, and the 60 Minute Guide to VRML. Mike's technology related interests involve encryption algorithms, super computing, Distributed Operating Systems, universe game simulations, and building secondary securities markets on the Net. Before becoming completely immersed in work, Mike used to find that his hobbies included playing hearts, drinking cheap vodka, staying up until dawn, and doodling with oil paints with his left hand. Mike's current favorite things include dabbling with theoretical and particle physics, martial arts training, gambling, securities prospecting, and, of course, sleeping.