Introduction

There are two "flavors" of remote access available in Windows Server 2012 R2. The most common way to implement the Remote Access role is to provide DirectAccess for your Windows 7 and Windows 8 domain joined client computers, and VPN for the rest. The DirectAccess machines are typically your company-owned corporate assets. One of the primary reasons that DirectAccess is usually only for company assets is that the client machines must be joined to your domain, because the DirectAccess configuration settings are brought down to the client through a GPO. I doubt you want home and personal computers joining your domain.

VPN is therefore used for down level clients such as Windows XP, and for home and personal devices that want to access the network. Since this is a traditional VPN listener with all regular protocols available such as PPTP, L2TP, SSTP, it can even work to connect devices such as smartphones.

There is a third function available within the Server 2012 R2...