1st time VPN setup - Need help

[watrout]

Hello all,
I'm trying to setup a VPN between my office & home but need to know if I'm heading in the right direction. Right now I have 2 Linksys BEFSX41 routers (1@home, 1@office) and I'm running Windows 2000 Pro OS on all machines. As of now I have 8 computers connected inside the office via peer-to-peer. I have one computer @ my home that I need to connect to the office. I'm planning on installing Win2K small business server in the office & leaving my home computer's OS alone.

Connection wise, I have a DSL with a static IP @ office & cable @ home. Office side is the weak point w/ max bandwidth around 250k. Network traffic is minimal but it is important for me to be able to access it from my home.

Will a VPN tunnel using the Linksys routers be a doable/advisable solution? Does anyone have experience with this scenario? Is Small Business server a good server OS to start with?
Lastly, would it be possible to establish the tunnel using the peer to peer setup I currently have so I can trouble-shoot and play around with it before I go into tackling a server setup?

Please keep in mind that my networking knowledge is minimal so keep suggestions as elementary as possible.

Thanks in advance for the help

 

[ChicagoTechNet]

Yes, that should work. you can setup VPN on a w2k/xp workstation to test it before setup VPN on the server. For more tips or information, go to

http://www25.brinkster.com/ChicagoTech

Robert Lin, MS-MVP, MCSE & CNE
Windows, Network and How to at

http://www25.brinkster.com/ChicagoTech

 

[chevy96man]

Hello.
I have the same kind of setup between 4 offices. I have a corporate office with a Linksys model # BEFVP41, and 3 other offices each with a Linksys model # BEFSX41 Endpoint VPN routers. I have a static IP to the internet at all 4 locations. All the locations are also NAT'd. One other note on the setup is that I have the VPN's setup to Keep-Alive, meaning, a full time, never down VPN tunnel between the offices. The hub offices connect to the corporate office via a terminal services client, to run an application off of the server. Print jobs must be sent back and forth. Also, I have a couple users in the corporate office connecting to the hub offices to check on files, this being thru web browser using \\<servername>\sharename.
My connections aren't T1's. I have 3 cable modems and 1 DSL hookup. It is a little slow connecting and viewing files via web browser, but the terminal services client works great. Oh, and one other thing. Watch out for bad routers. I had to replace 2 of mine the same day I got them, as they were bad out of the box.
Just my 2 cents. Hope this helps out your decision making, and if you have any other questions, just post them.