ADSL and VPN

[clubbe]

Hi all !!
I am working for a company in CT with Head office in JHB. At this moment both branches are linked with DigiNet line 256 K with 128Kb ISDN line as a backup. Our line was down last week and it got me to wonder if ADSL (VPN)can be used as either main connection or as a backup.
I am in no way a "techie" so am posting the query here with hope that I can understand the cons and pros of ASDL in my application.
Replay's with a contact number of the "right" company/person will be appreciated
regards
and thanks

 

[vinesh]

yes you can, check http://www.mwebbusiness.co.za/vpnsolutions.htm

a major con would be the bandwidth cap

 

[DFantom]

There has been a lot of discussion about this before (Do a search) and it is possible and there are far cheaper solutions available than Mweb (I've done it before for the cost of two entry level pc's and some time).
If you want help in setting it up, just pm me or post here

 

[DFantom]

ADSL to ADSL VPN based on the systems I've done using it.
Pro - Cost. It costs the price of your ADSL and 2 small boxes (say R2000-R3000 boxes should be fine)
Pro - It's all in Telkom's network, so latency is low (not great, expect around 40ms-100ms), and speed is decent
Pro - Internet access can be provided across the lines as well at no extra
Pro - All the normal pro's of VPN (encryption, ease of setup on network, roaming users etc...)

Con - ADSL is not a guarenteed service, if it goes down it goes down and sorry for you. Speed and latency is also not guarenteed
Con - Installation time for ADSL
Con - There is a general lack of ADSL ports in exchanges around the country pushing ADSL rollouts even further back
Con - You have a limited upgrade path. Currently 512k is the highest, soon 1Mb though
Con - With Telkom bringing in the local throttle soon and no full details on exactly how it will work this may or may not be throttle and counted towards the cap

To be honest I don't really recommend it for long distance (major city to major city) systems anymore. It is far cheaper to run a diginet line from each branch to a local UUNet POP and go via their MPLS. But if a secondry backup is required this could be used. The big plus over the MPLS and branch to branch diginet is that you can support roaming users, so users at home on the internet which the correct key and software can login to the VPN.

It will be a lot better than dialup to ISDN over the net

 

[ScrnScrm]

ADSL as a backup solution is a cinch to setup and use - if you have the right equipment. I have done it using ADSL wics in Cisco 18xx routers, and then firing up an IPSEC tunnel over the ADSL ports. Works like a charm I left the Bri Wics in, but to date havent had to use ISDN at all... One thing though - you may want to consider getting a Fixed IP Adsl account with IS (and one that doesnt have a cap) - it makes config a lot easier to manage. IS can also route you into their MPLS network via ADSL now, which is another really good and cheap option.
My next trick, that i am busy playing with, is UMTS wics. Wanna see how redundancy works via 3G Will keep the forum posted...