Securing access with a VPN: How to?

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carl67lp

Supreme [H]ardness
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Oct 17, 2001
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My girlfriend's cousin is in need of a secure network that will do the following:

- Allow her to connect from her home office to an office in another state, over the Internet.
- Allow her to transfer files securely (financial information).

Her end is broadband; the out-of-state office is dial-up, and I'm unsure if there is the capability for broadband. Satellite might be an option, but I don't know of providers (can anyone suggest any in the Corbin, Kentucky, area, of any broadband type?).

What I need to know is the best way to do this. I was thinking a VPN router, say one of the nice ones from Linksys/Cisco, but the dial-up bit puts a wrench into things.

Anyone have any thoughts?
 
We use a Pix 515E with the Cisco VPN client for remote access at work. Works fine over dialup albeit a touch slow. It looks like your GF needs to go from broadband to dialup though which would require someone on the far end to establish the VPN connection. Might want to look into setting up a modem on the far end and use RAS to connect to the network/remote computer to xfr files. That would alleviate far end interaction, but there would be long distance charges to deal with....
Spec
 
So what you're suggesting--and what I was considering--is that the broadband user would be the one with the VPN router, and that the person with dial-up would initiate the connection, sending the files through the VPN connection?

Are there any good tutorials on the Web for all of this? I have to admit that my knowledge of secure transfers is a bit rusty.
 
Quick bump. I'd like to have a definitive answer by this evening, if at all possible, so the more suggestions/options I have, the better. Thanks!
 
Correct, put the router on the broadband side. As for tutorials, maybe someone else can point you to some links. My knowlege is all from Cisco configuration which won't make a lick of sense to you unless you get your paws into a pix and start dinking around. Also as far as the Linksys VPN routers go, I believe they are for Point to Point Static VPN connections only. I do not think there is a client for connecting to them like there is to Cisco equipment. If you are using win XP or a linux distro it might be possible to establish an IPSEC tunnel but I have never tried. Anyone else have any experience/thoughts/idea's about this?
Spec
 
I'm almost wondering if I'm trying to use a power drill to assemble a pocket watch. I think, depending on their needs, I might suggest that they simply ZIP or RAR up the files they need to send, specify a password on the archive, and email them or post them to a secure Web site. Would a VPN be a better option, though?
 
Password protected archives are extremely weak and easy to break. And it does seem the vpn is a bit overboard for your needs. Might want to take a look at PGP or GPG. Have them compress the file then use one of these to encrypt. Not undefeatable but MUCH better than the password's for zips/rars.
Spec
 
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