[nylug-talk] Clean Slate Remote Office Connectivity

[Marco Romeny]

On 4/20/07, H. G. <tekronis at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 4/20/07, Marco Romeny <marco.romeny at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 4/20/07, Eric <etamme at optonline.net> wrote:
> > > Jim McBride wrote:
> > > > Hi All:
> > > >
> > > > Clean Slate Remote Office Connectivity:
> > > > Need to set up a satellite office. Nothing in the remote office yet.
> > Still to be leased. However the time frame is June/July 2007.
> > > > My question is concerning connectivity between this new satellite
> > office and the "home" office.
> > > > The users in the Satellite office will need to connect to applications
> > running on the home server in the "home" office.
> > > > There will be a maximum of 4 users in this remote office.
> > > >
> > > > By  Clean Slate I mean that there is no current connectivity between
> > the offices so
> > > > anything can be configured/built/purchased. I envision the satellite
> > office having a fairly
> > > > decent DSL connection.
> > > >
> > > > Would prefer an already built hardware or hardware/software combo type
> > solution due to time constraints/learning curve that would go along with a
> > "build a software solution" on older type hardware.
> > > >
> > > > Money is a consideration but certainly not the primary one.
> > Reliability, ease of configuration and maintenance would take a higher
> > priority.
> > > >
> > > > Suggested Solutions anyone.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Jim
> > >
> > > I have recently setup OpenVPN for a VPN solution between offices on
> > > located at 4 corners of the country.  It scales well from 1-100's of
> > > people and was not difficult to setup.  It has been rock solid since i
> > > set it up and it runs on commodity hardware (a 700mhz box w/512mb ram).
> > >  I would highly recommend it as a VPN solution, whether or not you have
> > > money to spend.
> >
> > I second openvpn. Not only good for this kind of setup, it's actually
> > pretty
> > easy to do roadwarrior configurations without static ip-addresses.
> >
> > But I think getting enough bandwidth is the biggest issue as always....
> >
> > >
> > > -Eric
> > >
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> >
> >
> > --
> > +++++++++++++++++++++++
> > Marco ter Haar Romeny
> > Email:marco.romeny at gmail.com
> > Tel: +1 917 945 2978
> >
>
> Heres a third vote for OpenVPN.  It might be your cheapest option, if you
> already have a Linux or BSD box as your office's gateway.
> By installing OpenVPN, you won't have to splurge for an appliance or
> something in that vein.
>
> Its fast and totally reliable, the way good infrastructure software should
> be, and I use it for both external and wireless access.
> Since using it, I don't have a single complaint.  On the contrary, only
> praise.
> The same software can function as either server or
> client; no separate package for each.
> And whenever disconnected, in client mode, it will automatically try to
> reconnect in regular intervals.
>
> Its not very hard to set up, though admittedly, the man page can be
> overwhelming.
> It comes with example configs.  Use them.
> Those configs are enough to immediately get a small office like yours going.
>
> The software runs on BSD, Linux and Windows (others too, perhaps, but I'm
> only mentioning what I've had firsthand experience with);
> you can furnish your Windows clients with the "OpenVPN GUI" (
> http://openvpn.se/ ), which presents a small icon on the task bar.

And tunnelblick.net for Mac's

Did I no mention it works with the hack-friendly openwrt?
So, two Linksys WRT54GL with one of the prefixed openwrt or dd-wrt
are good alternatives.  Those will hardly handle 100+ users, but I guess
it will do two small remote offices without any problems.

>
> If configured correctly, all a user has to do to connect to the office
> VPN is right click the icon and hit "connect".
> Multiple VPNs each get their own little submenu.
>
> Good luck.
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>


-- 
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Marco ter Haar Romeny
Email:marco.romeny at gmail.com
Tel: +1 917 945 2978