Buffalo NAS Linkstation pro - VPN Solution required

[Billy0161]

Hi, just to give you my scenario

I have 4 windows xp pc (1 Xp pro,) 1 iMac, 3 printers and the NAS on my LAN

I have got the Nas connected to my BT router (2700hgv) and I can access the Nas from all computers in the office

I would like to be able to connect to the office remotely via VPN and access the files and folders on the Nas, would be great if I can access the printers too but not necessary, just would like to access the Nas and other computers on the LAN remotely

Can anyone give me any guidance on how to achieve this?

Many thanks

Bill

 

[john-b691]

It depends what you mean access remotely. You could use something like remote desktop or VNC to remotely control one of your machines and that is mostly just setting up port forwarding in your router and loading the correct software.

A VPN depends if you want only a single machine to access or many to many. Many to many you will need a hardware vpn solution on both sides. One to many you will need some form of VPN box on your lan side and software loaded into your PC. In many cases people buy VPN routers for their hardware. You would likely need to replace your current router with a VPN capable router since it get tricky to run pptp or ipsec though a nat routers. You could also use a dedicated machine running openvpn instead of a router. Openvpn runs pptp and ipsec as well ssl/tls. The advantage of ssl vpn is it will easily pass though firewalls and routers on both sides since it appears the same as HTTPS traffic. You can also run openvpn on some routers that you can load dd-wrt large image on...asus n66u is a model I know is large enough to take that image.

VPN is a little tricky to setup..if you can get by with VNC or one of the many other desktop sharing things it will be easier.