Is VPN the solution I'm looking for?

[bjensen44]

I need a substitute for Windows File Sharing via Mapped Network Drives that I've used for years with Windows Explorer to manage several remote web servers. VPN is the suggested solution. However, in dipping my toe in the water to set it up, it seems that 2 NICs are needed and that dial-up is required.

1. I need to have my workstation via Road Runner connect to one of my web servers set up as a VPN server, and do it over the Internet. No modems, and the web server is not using Road Runner. Its ISP is UUNet.

2. I need the VPN server on one of my web servers to do it all with a single NIC. It's connected to a router and traffic director for the web sites that run on it plus it has its own IP address for direct connection to the Internet.

Are these two things possible with VPN, or am I wasting my time?

Thanks

 

[AlexIT]

A single-NIC configuration is possible, but not recommended due to the high load from both WEB and VPN traffic.

I always suggest getting a hardware VPN-host device (Netopia, 3Com, etc.) instead of running VPN on a server anyway and if you are connecting this to another NIC on the web server you prevent congestion on the main NIC. Connect the WAN port of the VPN device to your router and forward the VPN-port traffic to the new hardware. Install the mating VPN client on the remote machine hooked to RoadRunner and you will have secure access to the server through a seperate NIC using the public IP of your router.

Alex

 

[bjensen44]

That's what I was afraid of. Meanwhile, I'll just see if I can't get WtsFtp to do what I need.

Thanks.

 

[John Lewis]

I'll disagree.

The web traffic plus the VPN traffic will never exceed the traffic you are seeing now. Your total internet traffic is capped by your ISP, not by what you try to push through it.

Further, your available internet bandwidth is generally only a fraction of what a network card can handle. Even at 2.5Mb, you are only using 2.5% of a 100 Mb card. (I can do math, see)

On a slightly different note, you have already been pulling the data across your internet connection, so the only difference you will see there is the slight amount of overhead caused by the encapsulation of the data.

You might see a very small performance hit on the machine that is acting as a VPN server due to the encapsulation/de-encapsulation (is that a word?) of the data. Probably not measurable.

Short version: if you aren't hyper sensitive about security and if you will only have one or two users VPNing at a time, a VPN server on one of your existing machines should be fine.

 

[bjensen44]

mkhwood,

1. Single NIC?

2. Will work with no modems, no dial up?

If yes on both, I'll pursue setting up a VPN.

Thanks!