Windows Server 2003 Remote Access Policy

Access policies are used to help control what users can do on a network.

Windows networks are provided with many tools to help manage these networks. Microsoft provides Active Directory to help admins create and control access through user accounts; the Remote Access policy does the same thing for server computers.

History

In earlier versions of Windows, the Remote Access Policy was established from a "dial in" perspective. Only users who had the grant permission set on the dial in permission were allowed to log in remotely.

Description

A Remote Access Policy is a security policy that is setup to only allow certain users the ability to log in remotely to a computer. This is usually seen most for users who have the rights to work from home and need to remote in from their home. The user is added to a specific security group in active directory which is checked by the server when the user attempts to log in.

Warning

One thing to be cautious about when setting Remote Access Policy permissions is that you should only add users to the Remote Access Policy group instead of an active directory group. The reason for this is to ensure only users who should be allowed have access.

References

• Microsoft: How to create and enforce a remote access security policy in Windows Server 2003
• Microsoft: Introduction to remote access policies