  Let ${\mathcal {B}}$ be a reducible reduced plane curve. We introduce a new point of view to study the topology of $(\PP^2, {\mathcal {B}})$ via Galois covers and Alexander polynomials. We show its effectiveness through examples of Zariski $N$-plets for conic and conic-quartic configurations. 
On the topology of the complements of reducible plane curves via Galois   covers