VPN/router/switch/NAT questions...

In article , Jed Savage wrote: :2nd: Do I need to get a VPN/router for our old office to make the VPN :connections work? I want all machines at the old office to be able to :access servers that will be located at the new office.

*Something* has to do the VPN work in the old office. That could be a VPN device such as you are planning to put into the new office, or it could be software on each individual machine in the old office.

This should work, but it might be slower than you expect.

If previously office workers were intercommunicating over Ethernet, perhaps 100 Mb/s Ethernet, they will now be intercommunicating between old office and new office at, say, 300 Kb/s if ADSL is what you're using, or 1.5 Mb/s if SDSL.

The advantage of ADSL over SDLS is that downlink speeds can be as high as 8 Mb/s. However, that would be downlink from the telco's Central Office. As in, comms between the Internet down to a subscriber. But when going between old office and new office, your speed will always be limited by the uplink speed of the xDSL flavor you're using, which will be fairly low no matter what, but especially low if you're using ADSL.

The VPN is formed by encapsulating IP packets from end users in each office into an outer IP envelope. The outer envelope routes the packets across the service provider's network from old office to new office, or vice versa. At the other end, something strips off the outer IP envelope, leaving a data packet which appears just as it would have when the office was in a single location.

These VPN tunnels can be terminated in stand-alone boxes, such as the router that ties your two offices into the ISP's network, or they can be terminated inside end user hosts themselves. If there are multiple users in each office, my inclination would be to terminate the tunnel at a router. That way, all interoffice comms can be sent over a single VPN. Seems simpler than creating a VPN for each host. But either approach can work fine.

Bert

Depending on how fancy you wanted to get, the SMC firewall/routers with built in hardware VPN may do the trick for you. I have a pair operating between home and my wifes office, and lets me see the whole LAN there. Note: I previously had a pair of Linksys VPN routers and had temperature trouble and failures with both of them, so I would avoid that brand. gr