vpn connection dropping

Archived from groups: comp.security.firewalls (More info?)

Hello,

Is there a way to keep a VPN connection up instead of dropping when there
is no activity?

Let me explain my situation.

For the company where I work for I have set up a VPN connection. It is a
connection between the head office and a remote office. I have made the
connection with two Sonicwalls. On the head office we have an IP Subnet so
the
Sonicwall has a public IP have address. The remote office has only one
Public
IP address. (see the drawing below)

When the connection is set up from the remote office everything works good,
but when
there is no activity the connection is dropped after a while.

Of course the connection cannot be set up from the head office, since the
remote
sonicwall has no public ip address.

My problem is that I want to keep the connection up so that it keeps
accessable
from the Head Office.

Now I am able to do this by letting one of our servers constantly send PING
requests
to a machine at the remote office. But this feels like a ducktape solution.
Is there
an other way to keep a VPN connection up for "ever"?



HEAD OFFICE:

______ ___________ _________
_( )_ DSL |Cisco | |Sonicwall|
(_Internet_)--------|2600 Series|_____|PRO 200 |-------------LAN
(______) |ADSL_______| |ADSL_____| ^
^ ^ ^ |
| | | |
x.x.x.17/30 | | |
Public IP address | | |
| | |
x.x.x.18/30 | |
Public IP address | |
| |
10.10.1.1 |
Lan Gateway 10.10.1.0/24




REMOTE OFFICE:

_________ __________ ______
|Sonicwall| |Cisco | DSL _( )_
LAN-------------|SOHO2 |------|800 Series|--------(_Internet_)
^ |_________| |ADSL______| (______)
| ^ ^ ^ ^
10.10.5.0/24 | | | |
| | | |
10.10.5.1 | | |
Lan Gateway | | |
| | |
10.10.250.2 | |
| |
10.10.250.1 |
Gateway for |
the Sonicwall |
|
x.x.x.166
Public IP address

Thanks,

Bart