Connecting Remote office with VPN for E-mail 1

[ms7212]

Greetings. I am in a central office and support two remote offices. I have the Exchnage 2000 server here for all three offices. We have been connected to each other through Frame Relay. We are now changing and going with seperate T-1's in to all offices. I want to keep the Exchange server here so I can administer it. I would like to keep the clients in the remote offices set up with Outlook as an Exchange client and not go to POP3. I just need some guidance on the best way to accomplish this. The obvious was setting up a VPN connection, but I would like to keep everything as much in the background as possible with minimal or no user interaction. Is there a way to create a login script to connect the VPN connection as soon as the remote users log in to their local server? I would appreciate any suggestions! Thanks!

 

[lgarner]

I'd suggest using VPN gateways, such as Pix, so there is no user interaction. Then you effectively have a permanent WAN, like frame relay, but using the Internet.

Nothing else needs to change. The end users don't need to even be aware of the new topology.

 

[ms7212]

lgarner, Thanks for the fast reply. Let me make sure I am clear on what you are saying. Set up a VPN tunnel through the firewalls and I should be good to go? I have a PIX 501 on my end here at the central office. The remote offices both have Symantec firewall VPN appliances. I beleive the symantec appliances have this feature as well. Is that it?

 

[lgarner]

Yes. I haven't done Pix to non-Pix VPNs, but if they support IPSec then it should work. Basically you just set up tunnels between each office as if they were PVCs. The tunnels will be up constantly, so they're transparent to the users.

 

[ms7212]

Lgarner,
Thank you very much for the info. I will give it a try. I appreciate your fast response.