Getting Started...

[Longar, Dennis]

Here are some general comments.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jeff Larsen [mailto:larsen at QEC.COM]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2001 4:07 PM
> To: VPN at SECURITYFOCUS.COM
> Subject: Getting Started...
>
>
> Hi folks,
>
> I have subscribed to this list because I have found very few other
> resources on the net that offer any help on how to choose a VPN
> service provider.  We are a mid-sized company looking to connect
> 3 remote offices in Denver, Kansas City and Milwaukee to our main
> office in Minneapolis.

Are these the only locations that will have VPN?  Or will you be
adding more offices down the road?

> We have talked with Qwest, McCleodUSA and Touch America, but
> how do you really
> gauge the quality of the services they are offering?
> Basically, I'm looking
> for flames or kudos for various service providers.  What do
> you, the users,
> think of your provider?  Who should we be talking to?  Who
> should we avoid?

Most likely the best provider of VPN will be experienced and
have a backbone that covers 95% of the area you want to connect.

LEC's will have to hand your traffic off to another provider.
For instance Qwest in Denver, KC, and Minneapolis can not have
backbone connections in these cities, so they will hand
your traffic off to one of there upstream providers.

Now I don't know much about the services each provider you
mentioned above will use, but a good question will be, "Does
YOUR network reach between the cities I need to connect?"  Your
VPN's are going to run much better if they stay on one providers
network the whole time.

I haven't priced out a VPN service from anyone, so I don't
really know how price competitive it is with frame relay.

Frame relay is a good option, the only way I would say you
could beat it is with 50% or more price reduction per month.
Warning, I'm just pulling that number out of my ASS!  8-)

Other good questions would be:
What type of VPN do you use?  PPTP, IPSEC, L2TP etc..
What type of equipment will you need to purchase?
What is the level of security?
How do you guarantee my traffic is secure?
What are your network delays between cities X and Y?
Will your traffic leave the providers backbone when going
between city X and Y?
What equipment will I need to make sure my network is secure on
the remote end?
What kind of tee shirt will I get from you for signing up for your
service??  OK, I just had to see if you were reading this!! 8-)

VPN's have some hidden costs if your looking for large scale
deployment.  Now I have only priced out, "do it yourself VPN"
but the cost for equipment is higher than with Frame.  The
cost difference is mainly because of the need to provide a
firewall at each site.  There is also the hidden cost of
a more complex setup to trouble shoot, install and maintain,
Lastly there is also always that question in your mind as to
weather your data/network is really safe.

You may be able to save big money on VPN, but If your looking
for a large scale (30-50 remote offices vpn), you may be able to
negotiate cheap enough frame relay to not want to do VPN.



> Is there any significant difference in functionality or
> usability between
> basic frame relay and a VPN service?
>
> I know this is pretty basic stuff, but there seems to be a dearth of
> opinions on the subject.

If your office numbers aren't going to grow, you can see real
savings by doing it yourself.  Pick your own equipment and
install and setup local ISP connections etc...

Depending on how reliable you want it, and your bandwidth requirements
you could even check out DSL or Cablemodem for extremely cheap internet,
and save even more, but it's all up to your requirements.

> If you don't feel like spouting off, then perhaps you could direct me
> to some web resources which might help. If you don't want to make your
> opinions public, feel free to email me directly.

I think I more spewed than spouted, but that's my opinion, like it
or not!!

-Dennis

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