Thread: Setting up a VPN

I have a ton of computer/networking experience but yet to set up a vpn. I have been hire to setup this type of network between to offices in seperate cities. I will be using SOHO grade devices. I will be purchasing these devices tomorrow. Any input, suggestion, and ideas will be greatly appreciated.
TIA

How many users are you trying to support?

Sonicwall has some cheep vpn appliances and pretty reliable too..

Amazon has the best price so far....
http://www.amazon.com/SonicWALL-SSL-...3501423&sr=8-2

Originally Posted by Partyball

How many users are you trying to support?

There is 4 users in 1 office and 1 in the other. The main initial goal here is for the office with 1 user to access quickbooks data which is located on a pc of one of the users in the other office

Originally Posted by Warprosper

Sonicwall has some cheep vpn appliances and pretty reliable too..

Amazon has the best price so far....
http://www.amazon.com/SonicWALL-SSL-...3501423&sr=8-2

Yea War thanks for the input. I was hoping to get more of small office grade equipment. I know Sonicwall is awesome but think the client is unable to spend that type of money. I guess my main question is do I simply need to setup routers at each office create a vpn between the 2. Hoping its that simple. My other question is both site are fed internet from the property not from isp. Am I gonna need to get ports opened through there equipment.

If the sites are fed through a property host then putting a router at the end of each site is only going to route you to the properties equip, from there the routes are theirs to control so yes you will probably have to have them route/nat your site.

Have you thought about secure FTP. If all they need is quickbook data....

Another option is to convert your sites to Business DSL and use an MPLS connection between sites... typically 1.5 down and .256 up not the fastest thing but it does work..... Also depends on the database size ..

Let me know

Or..... You could open up terminal services at the one site and enable him to access quickbooks that way.....(May require a cheap computer to be setup as a remote workstation though) That would be your cheapest route... The only problem with this route is printing capabilities..

Are you wanting to also set up remote desktops or just share data? Are all of the users on at one time? Do you have a static IP?

Are there servers (server OS anyway)at each end? It is easy enough to set-up and forward the ports to the right places for all of that to work.

I have a few servers I run here and its enough to manage and set-up. Although, on my Server 2003 SB OS it only supports 2 VPN connections at once with the current set-up.