VPN Advice

Anyone using Netscreen or similar?

[mattb]

We are in the process of moving our warehouse offsite. It will be located approximately 2 miles from our current offices. Currently we have everyone networked into the LAN at 100mbits. We are planning on moving the warehouse fulfillment side offsite which would mean that we have 2 machines that need to still be connected into the LAN. I talked with Netscreen and they recommended the Netscreen 5xp at each end. We would have a DSL line @ 400kbps with static ip at each location. Anyone have any real world experience running applications over this type of set-up? The shipping dept. would be access a MS Access DB across the VPN.

It sounds workable but I have concerns about the speed and reliability before spending $1000 with Netscreen.

[DaveAtIFG]

Can anyone offer mattb any suggestions or advice? Help!! :)

[Air]

Yeah the site-to-site VPN stuff works fine, I'm not familiar with NetScreen specifically (I've seen the Symantec VelociRaptor, Cisco site to site, and checkpoint, work just fine) but I'm sure NetScreen works too. The only problem is if this is a mission critical connection you might want to think about a backup line, perhaps an ISDN line with the two channels bound to create a 128kb connection to be used as an inexpensive alternative to the VPN in case of failure. High availability levels still seem to be lacking in DSL and other "high speed" internet connections.

And from the out in left field department ... you may want to look into using fiber between the sites, a two mile run should be relatively inexpensive. It will provide high speed, unfailing rock solid performance, and allow for the inevitable growth, but the cost may still be prohibitive compared to the VPN solution, but that'll be for you to decide ...:)

[Tapolyai]

I use NetScreen, Checkpoint, and WebRamp in over 40 locations. 400K DSL is fine if it is set up right. IS it a SDSL or other? If it is an asymetric solution, you might have a lower bandwidth then you think.. (kinda like trying to connect to consumer V.90 modems). I run an office on 144K IDSL with MS Exchange, Internet, SAP R/3 and they are are fine.

Asking the goat if the cabbage taste good is not the best idea.

It's a long story how I got into this mess, but ...

unless
A.) you are planning on major expansion, and/or
B.) have more then 50 concurrent users for the VPN
stick with the small devices, such as a WebRamp.

99.999% of these VPN devices will also provide firewalling capability.

Some further clarifying questions -
What is the number of people at the warehouse (assuming that's the smaller location)?
What applications will they be using?
Will the Main location generate traffic to the warehouse?

The problem with ISDN lines is the cost. ISDN lines are charged by the minute, so if your warehouse is 7/24 you will pay 1440 minutes every day while your DSL is down!

In such a short distance, you might want to look into "dry lines". These are telephone lines that are connected between your main office and warehouse, no dial-tone, no votage, nothing. Just a pair of copper wires. Slap two DSL modems at the end cross connected, play with the settings a bit, and sha-Bang! You got a high speed ( I got 1Mbps) dedicated circuit for maybe $15 per location. Do it 10 times, mux it, and you have a 10Mbps circuit for $200 a month. (Of course the initial cost of 20 DSL modems will kill your budget.)

Other alternatives are point-to-point line-of-sight solutions. A bit higher initial price, but you can clearly get a 10Mbps connection with proven technology (as opposed to my experimentation with dry-lines).

[mattb]

Hey, thanks for the feedback.

We're in the Cincinnati area and Cin. Bell has the corner on the market.

So...

Lan advantage 1.5mbps point to point is $1200 / mo.

128kps ISDN is $225 at each location.

Currently we pay $100 / mo dedicated ADSL 768/384k.

We are going to streamline our applications so the data passed to the warehouse is minimal. Uptime is an issue since there are now 2 points of failure. However, the dedicated DSL line seems to be fairly stable and has only needed power cycling 3-4 times in the past year. I think we had one or two days of downtime in that year also.

Alternatively, I found a Netgear VPN / Router that is new on the market and retails for around $150.

We can't do wireless do to the hills and buildings between the warehouse and main office.

Thanks again.