A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a technology that creates a secure, encrypted connection over a public network, such as the internet, to a private network, like a company's internal network. For a user working from home, a VPN client on their laptop establishes this secure "tunnel," allowing them to access internal company resources, such as file servers, as if they were physically present in the office. This is the standard and most direct solution for providing secure remote access to private corporate files.

A. Wide-area network: This is a broad network category (e.g., the internet) that the user is already on. It is not a specific configuration to grant access to a private network.

B. Wireless network: This provides the user's initial internet connection at home but does not inherently grant access to the secure, private company network.

C. Proxy network settings: A proxy server primarily manages and filters web traffic. It does not typically provide the encrypted, network-level access required for file shares.

1. Microsoft Documentation: "A virtual private network (VPN) is a point-to-point connection over a private or public network

such as the Internet. A VPN client uses special TCP/IP or UDP-based protocols

called tunneling protocols

to make a virtual call to a virtual port on a VPN server."

Source: Microsoft

"What is VPN?". Windows Server Documentation

VPN Gateway Section.

2. University Courseware: "VPNs are essential for telecommuting

allowing employees to access their company's intranet from home or while traveling. The VPN software on the user's computer encrypts data before sending it through the internet

and the VPN server at the company decrypts it

ensuring a secure channel."

Source: Kurose

J. F.

& Ross

K. W. (2021). Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach (8th ed.). Pearson. Chapter 8

Section 8.2

"Securing TCP connections: SSL". (This textbook is widely used in university networking courses).

3. Academic Publication: "The primary purpose of a VPN is to provide a secure communication mechanism between remote users and a private corporate network... It encapsulates private network data within encrypted packets and tunnels them over the public Internet."

Source: Zand

A.

& Jacob

S. M. (2019). A Survey on Virtual Private Network (VPN) Technologies. International Journal of Computer Applications

178(45)

1-5. DOI: 10.5120/ijca2019918591.