Looking to link up 3 offices in different locations

We have offices in 3 different locations (20 miles max apart) and I want to link the 3 offices up so that we can share documents, share printers and centralise functions such as typing and database access. Video conferencing would be good as well as well as voip.

When I did my MCSE some years back the best way to link offices was via Windows VPN's. If I remember correctly this allows you to access files and print from a remote location.

Are VPN's still the way to do it? Presumably a Windows Server 2003 box with the built-in VPN services runnning will be up to the job? Also are there any other benefits to VPN's

cheers

 

VPNs are still the best bet. However, personally I'd recommend using hardware to control the VPNs. The best solution would be to get three small hardware firewalls and use their in built VPN functions to provide the inter-office connection.

Suitable products are available from the likes of Watchguard, SonicWall, and Cisco. These manufactures provide products that will not only provide your VPN connections, but also make securing your networks much easier.

If you are on a very tight budget, Netgear are making some interesting cheap alternatives. Also I've used Draytek routers to provide connection to very small (two man) offices with good results.

However, personally I'd feel more comfortable securing an office of 5 or more users behind a firewall from a dedicated firewall manufacturer (i.e. Watchguard, SonicWall, Cisco PIX).

The other thing to consider is bandwidth. If you are using ADSL connections for each of the office, you will find that the bottle neck for VPN is the upload speed of the links. This is often only 256 or 512 kb/sec. That sort of bandwidth can be rapidly used up maintaining a few mapped drive links. If you want seamless connection and the appearance that the other offices are part of the same LAN, you've got to be looking at at least 1Mb (upload and download) links - and that gets expensive.

Printing has some of the issues of drive mapping, in that the standard windows printing system eats up bandwidth maintaining links to remote printers. It is therefore worth looking at printers that provide Internet type printing options that can work well over a VPN. For example, our Xerox Workcentre 7228 has a facility where you can browse to its inbuilt web server pages, upload a file to it, and it prints out that file. This works a treat over VPN (though for big files the upload can take a little time) and is available from a number of cheaper printers.

Therefore, in summary VPN links work well and are easy to set up and maintain via dedicated hardware. However, the nature of many small office internet links means that bandwidth is restricted. So fine for Intranet applications, FTP file transfer and centralised e-mail systems, but not so good for mapped drives and windows printing.

 

From the school of hard knocks make shure you set up each location with a different subnet.

Location 1: 192.168.1.xxx
Location 2: 192.168.2.xxx
Location 3: 192.168.3.xxx

 

Cheers for that Reggie.

So VPN's are really best for basic file sharing and the like.

I've seen some firms (e.g. law firms) that advertise the fact that they have high speed links between all their offices.

Would they have something more advanced than a VPN? They mention things like video conferencing etc.

I guess if they had like an 8mb connection with similar speeds for uploading it would support those sort of uses?

 

Good point, well presented!!!!

Though personally, I find the 10.0.0.0 space easier in this situation:

Site 1: 10.1.0.0/255.255.0.0
Site 2: 10.2.0.0/255.255.0.0
Site 3: 10.3.0.0/255.255.0.0

 

The reason to use VPN is cost. It means all you have to pay for is a network connection to the Internet at each site. The VPN then secures the inter-office communication that passes between the offices.

Broadband is favoured again, because it is cheap.

For example, in the UK I can bet a cheap ADSL connection for around 10 quid per month. 30 quid a month would get me a reliable business broadband with 4-8mb download. It would cost me around 100 quid a month to get SDSL (same up speed to down speed). Around the same to get a very slow leased line. Probably 200 quid a month to get a reasonable leased line.

If you can afford it, 2Mb leased lines between sites would be great - but it will cost you a lot.

It might be a different situation where you are, but in the UK 8Mb ADSL lines rarely have faster than 512kb upload speed. With VPN it is the upload speed that is crucial.

If you can get afford 8Mb synchronous connection (same speed up and down) grab it. If the lines are directly between sites, you don't need VPN, but most people would advise it nowadays. If the lines are to the Internet, you need to use VPN to secure your inter-site communication.