All posts tagged Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess

Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess Video Training Course Now Available

I’m pleased to announce that my Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess video training course is now available from TrainSignal! The course covers planning, installing, and configuring DirectAccess in Windows Server 2012 in a variety of different deployment scenarios. Here’s the course outline:

Lesson 1 – Introduction
Lesson 2 – DirectAccess Overview
Lesson 3 – Planning for DirectAccess
Lesson 4 – Configuring DirectAccess (Simplified Deployment)
Lesson 5 – Configuring DirectAccess (Complex Deployment)
Lesson 6 – Configuring DirectAccess (Multi-site Deployment)
Lesson 7 – Enabling Support for Windows 7 DirectAccess Clients
Lesson 8 – Enabling High Availability with Network Load Balancing
Lesson 9 – DirectAccess Monitoring and Reporting
Lesson 10 – DirectAccess Troubleshooting
Lesson 11 – Enabling Legacy Remote Access VPN

Special thanks goes to my friend and fellow MVP Jordan Krause who served as the technical reviewer for this series and provided valuable input and feedback during the production of the course. Before you implement DirectAccess with Windows Server 2012, be sure to sign up for a subscription at Trainsignal.com and not only will you receive this great DirectAccess training course, you’ll have access to the entire TrainSignal library of content for just $49.00 per month!

TrainSignal Windows Server 2012 DirectAcess Video Training Course

4 Comments
by Richard M. Hicks on March 11, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Important Links, IPv6, Remote Access, VPN, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2012
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by Richard M. Hicks on March 11, 2013

https://directaccess.richardhicks.com/2013/03/11/windows-server-2012-directaccess-video-training-course-now-available/

DirectAccess Clients and TPM

I’ve been frustrated recently with a number of articles and blog posts I’ve seen indicating Windows 8 DirectAccess clients connecting to a Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess server require a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and the use of smart cards for authentication. This is a myth, and nothing could be further from the truth. TPM and smart cards are indeed supported (TPM with Windows 8, smart cards with Windows 7 and Windows 8 DirectAccess clients) but they are not explicitly required. For the posts I’ve seen I have asked the authors to correct their statements, and to their credit some of them have. Others, unfortunately, have not. I’m not sure if they are simply misinformed or if they are deliberately misleading their readers to downplay DirectAccess in an effort to sell another VPN solution. Regardless, I am compelled to set the record straight here. So, to be perfectly clear:

TPM is NOT a requirement for DirectAccess clients.

There you have it. Now go out and deploy DirectAccess today!

7 Comments
by Richard M. Hicks on March 8, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Important Links, Remote Access, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012
Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by Richard M. Hicks on March 8, 2013

https://directaccess.richardhicks.com/2013/03/08/directaccess-clients-and-tpm/

Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess IP-HTTPS and Windows 7 Clients

With Windows Server 2008 R2, IP-HTTPS used standard SSL cipher suites to encrypt sessions. However, those sessions are already encrypted using IPsec, which is needlessly redundant. The protocol overhead for this double encryption placed an extreme burden on the DirectAccess server in terms of CPU utilization and memory consumption. Throughput and performance suffered greatly in large deployments. To address this issue, Microsoft included two new SSL cipher suites in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 that use NULL encryption. IP-HTTPS sessions are fully authenticated, but encrypted only once using IPsec. This significantly reduced resource demand on the DirectAccess gateway and improves performance greatly. Unfortunately, only Windows 8 clients can take advantage of this new IP-HTTPS functionality in Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess. When Windows 7 clients establish an IP-HTTPS session with a Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess gateway they will still request the use of fully encrypted cipher suites, as shown here:

Windows 7 IP-HTTPS Client Hello

Windows 7 DirectAccess IPHTTPS Cipher Suites

Windows 8 IP-HTTPS Client Hello

Windows 8 DirectAccess IPHTTPS Cipher Suites

Windows 8.1 IP-HTTPS Client Hello

Windows 8.1 DirectAccess SSL Cipher Suites

So, if you want to take advantage of the IP-HTTPS performance improvements in Windows Server 2012 DirectAccess, be sure to use Windows 8 clients!

Update: Recently with the help of the folks at F5, I developed a solution to emulate Windows 8 client behavior for Windows 7 DirectAccess clients using the F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM). Using this technique allows you to *effectively* offload SSL for Windows 7 DirectAccess clients. Fore more details click here.

8 Comments
by Richard M. Hicks on February 15, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Important Links, IPv6, Remote Access, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012
Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted by Richard M. Hicks on February 15, 2013

https://directaccess.richardhicks.com/2013/02/15/windows-server-2012-directaccess-ip-https-and-windows-7-clients/

Newer Posts »