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FinNet can be accessed by means of dial-up access or permanent connection.

In the dial access option, a customer can connect with an analog modem or an ISDN terminal adapter to the FinNet's dial-in service center.

• Analog dial-in-up to 56Kbps (V.90) is supported.
• ISDN access-only Basic Rate Interface (BRI) is supported.

For permanent connections, the frame-relay switching data network operated by Wharf T&T is used.

Connection speeds ranging from 64Kbps to 2048Kbps are supported. For higher speeds, special arrangement can be discussed and negotiated upon request. Each connection comes with a FinNet-controlled router equipped with a 10/100Mbps Ethernet interface.

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The open standard TCP/IP is being used on FinNet as the communication protocol among networking equipment and system servers. Both static and dynamic routing are supported. The routing protocol between :

• FinNet and customers - RIPv2
• FinNet Backbone - OSPF (for fast convergence)

A set of filters is configured on FinNet backbone to block illegal route updates.

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FinNet follows the industrial best practice "RFC 1918 standard on "Address Allocation for Private Internet" for IP address assignment. This scheme is applied differently for :

• Dial-up user : dynamically get an IP address from modem pool during the connection process.
• Permanent connection users : up to 128 addresses will be assigned to each site. In the event that permanent connection user are also using the same private IP ranges in their corporate LANs, conflict of IP address might occur which can be resolved through Network Address Translation (NAT).

Note to FinNet Service Provider

Service providers on FinNet must be aware that Network Address Translation (NAT) may be used by a customer. Therefore, applications must not dictate a well-known port on client workstations. The use of application gateway at customer premise to enhance efficiency and security and to facilitate transaction-oriented processing is allowed as long as the gateway does not monopolize the network connection to FinNet.

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FinNet is fully redundant and no single point of failure will occur on core backbone network. Resilience is achieved by redundancy of critical components as well as duplication of equipment in the two network centres. For better redundancy on customer premise end, dual connections to FinNet are available for rental.

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FinNet recommend the members and service providers to apply different encryption and cryptography techniques based on their distinctive needs. As a standard, FinNet services are capable for using 128-bit SSLv3 encryption with PKI infrastructure ready for turning on when business need arises.

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FinNet provides authentication service by using RADIUS and LDAP for network access and FinNet provided service access. For application-level access control, potential service providers can choose to integrate the authentication mechanism (e.g. Single Sign On) with FinNet (pre-arrangement is required) or use their own authentication methods.