My company is switching carriers for our T1 service. Most of the T1 is just for phones but part of it's for data (no broadband save satellite in my neck of the woods). Our old carrier supplied the firewall but the new one only supplies routing (firewall 'service' is $250/mo which is just silly for an office of 20). We host nothing internally so I've purchased a SOHO3 from Sonicwall (I'm the default network guru but it's not my primary job). It's got a VPN option, which is interesting as I dream of telecommuting occasionally and it might be useful for a few (2-4) of our sales guys when they're on the road to sync their CRM sofware & enter orders.

Here's the question part:
Where can I get a good grounding on VPN setup & troubleshooting? Any tips for good sites or books? Also, do I need to use Sonicwall's client or do I have other options?

I know this is a pretty broad subject, but I'd like to see what's doable with my time (limited) and resources (computer & otherwise).

Thanks!

-Zeke

There is a lot of documentation on sonicwalls website at
http://www.sonicwall.com/products/documentation/VPN_documentation.html.

You need the Sonicwall VPN-clientsoftware on each pc that you want to connect to your SOHO3.

I have setup an VPN-connection myself to a SOHO3, using the documentation sonicwalls website without any prior knowledge of VPN

Best regards and good luck with the project.

Ole

Ole,
Thanks. That's encouraging. I just received the unit but it'll be month or so before I can use it. Have the client configurations been working smoothly? Ease of use will determine how many people get to use this.

-Zeke

Sonicwall! Argh!

Check out our 5XP at www.netscreen.com

- Jon

Could you be a little more specific?

Zeke

The client configuration is working smoothly and it's very easy to setup.
The setup-wizard in the SOHO3 includes the VPN-option. From there you can export a files with the settings you need in the client-software.

There is one importent thing that you must rember:
You can not have the same local IP-addresses in both ends on the VPN-connection (f.ex. 192.168.x.x). Since you cant always control the IP-address on the clients, and since most ADSL-routeres and cablemodems defaults to 192.168.x.x I recommend that you use 10.x.x.x range at the office behind the SOHO3

best regards

Ole

Ole,

Thanks for that warning. I could see how that type of thing would be difficult to diagnose.

-Zeke