[VPN] VPN layout question

[Walter Reynolds]

I am not sure where these consultants are from, but one of the main points
of a VPN is that you do not need all those costly point-to-point links.

Your scenario should work just fine.

-- Walter Reynolds
   University of Michigan

On Tue, 26 Oct 2004, Chris Dahms wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I work for a small doctors office that has three locations across long
> island and we are looking to overhaul our network connection in
> conjunction with upgrading our practice management software. Currently
> we have a 'vpn' of sorts setup by point to point frame relay from two of
> the offices to the main office. The hardware 8+ years old and failing,
> so we need to replace everything.
>
> The network needs to provide secure communication between all three
> offices. The practice management software we uses resides on one server
> at our main location, and needs to be able to securely communicate with
> the other two offices.
>
> My question is with regard to the network toplogy. I was under the
> impression we could get a T1 to each site, buy cisco 2600 series routers
> for each office with a VPN module card, and set it up so that office 1
> was on say 192.168.1.x, office 2 on 192.168.3.x and office 3 on
> 192.168.4.x and then when office 1 wanted to communicate with office 2,
> the packets from office 1 would be encrypted and routed by the vpn
> module over to the router at office 2 and sent to the appropriate
> machine. Then as a backup we could have dsl at each location hooked into
> the router, and if the t1 when down it would fail over to the dsl.
>
> The network consultants we contract with are recommending point to point
> t1's from each smaller office to the main office with the network
> server, and then having each office have a seperate t1 for an internet
> connection, in addition to the dsl failover. When I asked about the
> design I had in mind, they replied it was unsecure/unreliable but failed
> to explain why.
>
> My question is: is the network toplogy I have in mind feasible/reliable,
> or do we need point to point internet connections between the offices to
> establish the vpn ?
>
> thanks,
> chris
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