Vpn?

altis · 25-05-2004, 15:00

I look after a small network of computers for a company nearby. They have a custom application that runs on all their W98 workstations. It holds a copy of its database locally and every so often the user can synchronise the information with a master database that is held on the fileserver, also running W98. Only record updates are passed back and forth.

This works fine for all the computers in the office but now they would like their road-warrior to be able to synchronise from home. They will soon have broadband ADSL access with a fixed IP address. The road-warrior is on Telewest dial-up access (I think).

I can lock down their router so that it only forwards incomming SMB transactions from a small range of IP addresses but it strikes me that this is not ideal.

Any good suggestions? BTW, this company does not like spending money (does any?) so please don't suggest anything that will cost thousands - or even hundreds really!

Nemesis · 25-05-2004, 15:02

A VPN should work, we already use them for sync'ing Two large informix Db's.

altis · 25-05-2004, 15:10

But, as I understand it, W98 only has a VPN client. I think I'll need W2K server or WXP pro to set up the VPN server. If needs be then okay but this does seem like a sledgehammer approach.

Jon M · 25-05-2004, 15:12

Bear in mind that VPN traffic will hammer dialup bandwidth. You may get timeout issues if you are syncronising with a database.
I'd be more confident of a VPN working in this way once you have broadband in place.

Nemesis · 25-05-2004, 15:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by s1lv3r

Bear in mind that VPN traffic will hammer dialup bandwidth. You may get timeout issues if you are syncronising with a database.
I'd be more confident of a VPN working in this way once you have broadband in place.

Do you use routers or Pix Firewalls ?

Nemesis · 25-05-2004, 15:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by s1lv3r

Bear in mind that VPN traffic will hammer dialup bandwidth. You may get timeout issues if you are syncronising with a database.
I'd be more confident of a VPN working in this way once you have broadband in place.

True, and remember, a VPN may be secure, but is not always reliable.

philip.j.fry · 25-05-2004, 15:15

VPN will work, or an alternative might be to run OpenSSH on Cygwin and forward the SMB ports.

altis · 25-05-2004, 15:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nemesis

Do you use routers or Pix Firewalls ?

It's a NAT router. There's loads of filters that I can configure so I can lock it down quite specifically. Here's an example of the outgoing filter:

Nemesis · 25-05-2004, 15:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by altis

It's a NAT router. There's loads of filters that I can configure so I can lock it down quite specifically. Here's an example of the outgoing filter:

Was just thinking ... a Pix firewall would not be expensive at all, and would terminate the VPN for you there, you can specify the network addresses available from that point.

A secure access point for your remote system, using Cisco VPN client, but would be better with a BB connection.

altis · 25-05-2004, 15:31

I've just been on the dog-n-bone to the road-warrior himself and he's definately on Telewest dial-up, and unlikely to change. So a low-overhead solution would definately seem best.

Starts thinking about that elderly modem can be configured to dial back a fixed number...