Choosing the right VPN Appliance

[jeremy]

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.vpn (More info?)

Greetings!

Hi everyone Im new to this news group and I need some help selecting a
VPN Appliance.

My office network has two broadband connections (DSL and a fixed
wireless connection.) The goal of the VPN is two-fold, 1. to allow
employees access to the network from home. 2. to allow our off site
warehouse computers to connect to our network. Over the next year we
are planning to expand our company and need a solution that can grow
with the company.

I have done some homework and narrowed my choices down to the Symantec
200R or the Linksys RV082. I have read some old reviews on both units
and I am interested to see how they compare, and if I should look at a
different unit altogether.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jeremy

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.vpn (More info?)

Jeremy wrote:

> Greetings!
>
> Hi everyone Im new to this news group and I need some help selecting a
> VPN Appliance.
>
> My office network has two broadband connections (DSL and a fixed
> wireless connection.) The goal of the VPN is two-fold, 1. to allow
> employees access to the network from home. 2. to allow our off site
> warehouse computers to connect to our network. Over the next year we
> are planning to expand our company and need a solution that can grow
> with the company.
>
> I have done some homework and narrowed my choices down to the Symantec
> 200R or the Linksys RV082. I have read some old reviews on both units
> and I am interested to see how they compare, and if I should look at a
> different unit altogether.
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jeremy

I hear many complaints relating to Symantec devices and Symantec's
support of those devices. I would leave that one out.
With low end devices you need to be careful to pick something with a
high enough throughput rate. That linksys device has an encrypted
maximum throughput of 14Mbps. If your fixed wireless link is faster
than this you should pick something faster. Unfortunately faster means
more expensive because you are moving away from embedded processors to
faster desktop pc class of processors in the VPN equipment. A good
example of this is the Nortel Contivity 1010. It contains an Intel
Celeron 300A class processor or faster with a complete PC compatible
motherboard, memory, etc. It uses a flash memory card instead of a hard
drive but is basically an integrated PC.

I personally like to use the Netopia 3386-ENT as my low end device. It
supports IPSec and PPTP protocols which means you can easily setup a VPN
that allows the microsoft built in PPTP client for remote clients. It
is not a simple device to setup since everything is through a telnet
interface but it has much more power than most devices of this price
range.

I have not personally used that Linksys device you mentioned. I
wouldn't mind hearing from anyone who has used it to see what they think.

I usually recommend the Nortel Contivity line for higher end VPN needs
but it is optimized as a VPN only device, firewall features of the basic
unit is good but nothing spectacular since it is NAT based. Watchguard
also makes a nice unit that integrates strong firewall functions with
VPN support. The watchguard firebox X device has many built in
application level proxies to help you setup more complex security
policies. (IE: Strip specific mail headers from leaving your internal
SMTP servers)

--
WARNING! Email address has been altered for spam resistance.
Please remove the -deletethispart-. section before replying directly.
Mike Drechsler (mike-newsgroup@-deletethispart-.upcraft.com)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.dcom.vpn (More info?)

I think the previous reply contained a lot of sage advice. I have heard even
more horror stories about Linksys equipment than the Symantec. Simply put,
Linksys is not commercial-grade equipment.

Nortel Contivity is definitely solid. I have a mesh VPN network of 8
SonicWall appliances that works well for me. NetScreen appliances are also
highly regarded. As with so many other things, you get what you pay for.



"Jeremy" <jeremy5431@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:eee4e0ea.0409021213.60261af4@posting.google.com...
> Greetings!
>
> Hi everyone Im new to this news group and I need some help selecting a
> VPN Appliance.
>
> My office network has two broadband connections (DSL and a fixed
> wireless connection.) The goal of the VPN is two-fold, 1. to allow
> employees access to the network from home. 2. to allow our off site
> warehouse computers to connect to our network. Over the next year we
> are planning to expand our company and need a solution that can grow
> with the company.
>
> I have done some homework and narrowed my choices down to the Symantec
> 200R or the Linksys RV082. I have read some old reviews on both units
> and I am interested to see how they compare, and if I should look at a
> different unit altogether.
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jeremy