VPN over ADSL, what kind of firewall?

[Zedd]

Hi,

I have a client with 10 different locales, all equipped with generic USB ADSL routers (I am still waiting for the exact model names). He wants to set up a VPN over ADSL between these locations. This is not the type of stuff we usually do, we are way more oriented towards web solutions, marketing and consulting, but this is an old and loyal client who has asked us for some friendly advice.

The can not pay for a hardware firewall with VPN support such as the 3Com Office Connect 25 Firewall. Yesterday I had a look at an old 3Com ADSL Router, the Office Connect 812, which has pure IP filtering, and I was wondering if something similar could be used for this purpose. Are there any cheap alternatives? Should I take the software solution? The 812 can put conditions on IPs, and set it up so that, input and output, only a set of adresses can pass through the router. The rest is blocked. I am aware that this is not a real security solution, and there are simple hacking tools that send a false IP at the beginning of the packet, but, they should first know the necessary IP, and than be interested in the client´s info. I seriously doubt this because the kind of info that the client is handling is not very useful or confidential.

Any (affordable) solutions then?

Thanks a lot,
ZP.

 

[johnny99]

Affordable is a funny word.

You don't say anything about sizes except 10 locations.
Size and the connections needed plays a big role.

I wouldn't want to manage this setup if what you need is all 10 locations connected to each other (90 VPN tunnels) without good firewalls and management software.

This will cost some money to begin with, but in the long run you will save a lot of money.

If your customer can live with a solution that doesn't have applicationlevel firewalls look into SonicWall and their SGMS. It does't cost so much.

We use SonicWall TZ on all our home PC's on ADSL and we manage them using SGMS.

Getting VPN to work with 10 locations is not always that easy. It takes a lot of time and skills (and that's money too)

Some operatingsystems have built-in VPN software that you sometimes can use for something usefull.

/johnny