Small scale VPN help needed

[blutotiger]

Thanks in advance.

I read most of the threads in the VPN forum and saw nothing that addresses this question.

I have a small business and our workload has increased dramatically over the last 6 months.

I want to be able to work from my house (and allow one or 2 of my employees to be able to work from home as well). I have small children and can work when they go to bed and before they wake up. Even though I work in a pretty safe area, my office is on an isolated stretch of road and I do not want my female employees to have to work in the office after hours.

What is the easiest / cheapest way to accomplish this?

I talked to my employees and they have no problem with installing required software on their home PCs, so if it is a hardware / software combination solution then that is ok.

[thiggins]

I would definitely go with an SSL-based VPN. Much easier to deal with than installing and configuring IPsec clients.

Consider Linksys RVL200 Review: No Hassle SOHO / SMB VPN (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30237/51/)

It's been moved under the Cisco brand since they re-org'd how they handle small-biz products. It's still the same product.

[blutotiger]

Tim,

Thanks for the quick response.

Is router setup straight forward?

In doing a quick read of the linked article and other sources, it seems that I do not require much on the client side?

Is getting the client side of the tunnel configured and open easy? Input the cd and follow the prompts?

[thiggins]

That's the beauty of SSL VPN. You don't configure anything besides creating usernames and passwords on the router. When a client wants to connect, they download an applet via their web browser that establishes the VPN tunnel.

The only thing you need to pay attention to is the OSes and browsers that are supported. Vista is / was a problem with some products not too long ago and sometimes Mac OS X is, too. So check the manufacturer specs.

[blutotiger]

Using XP and vista.

Is IE the only browser supported?

Can I utilize remote desktop to control the office computer?

[eaadams]

remote desktop is not VPN.

What are your trying to do?

share files? log into a program like quickbooks? database like filemaker?

[thiggins]

Using XP and vista.

Is IE the only browser supported?

Can I utilize remote desktop to control the office computer?
Check the product specs. They may have changed since the review.

Once you have a tunnel up, you can do anything that you can do over a local network connection, but it will be secure.

[YeOldeStonecat]

There's always the quick and quite easy approach of a remote desktop service such as GoToMyPC, or LogMein. No VPNs to deal with, no firewalls to deal with, you log into your account on their website from home...and then connect to your PC at the office through your web browser. You see your office computers desktop through a remote desktop/citrix like client within your web browser.

Quite affordable. Both have free versions you can try out to see if it works for you.