APN vs VPN - Is there a difference?

[Geek2be]

Hi guys,

Awesome website. I have a small company, with 18 staff which are mainly on the road. They all have laptops using the Vodacom 3G/HSDPA cards. The only problem is that they only have acces to the internet.apn

I believe there is a solution to set up a company.apn environment so that my staff can interact with my servers back at the office over the Vodacom network. Apparently I can either buy a "pot" of data and all my guys eat from it or I can set it up so that each of my guys get a bill whilst using this corporate APN. But when I spoke to a friend of mine (IT geek) he advised me to rather go the VPN route. Now I am confused, what is the difference?

Cheers

 

[vodacom3g]

Hi guys,

Awesome website. I have a small company, with 18 staff which are mainly on the road. They all have laptops using the Vodacom 3G/HSDPA cards. The only problem is that they only have acces to the internet.apn

I believe there is a solution to set up a company.apn environment so that my staff can interact with my servers back at the office over the Vodacom network. Apparently I can either buy a "pot" of data and all my guys eat from it or I can set it up so that each of my guys get a bill whilst using this corporate APN. But when I spoke to a friend of mine (IT geek) he advised me to rather go the VPN route. Now I am confused, what is the difference?

Cheers

In your case, kinda the same thing.

An 'APN' is a method for connecting to the 3G network and is just like a VPN, i.e. it will connect everyone on the same APN together. So if you get a corporate APN, it will connect your guys to the office just like an VPN would.

There is a generic APN used by all data users to connect to the internet called the 'internet' APN. This APN will allow you to do normal browsing and also connect via VPN software to your office servers. Your guys are all using this APN at the moment.

If you want your guys to JUST connect to the office (and access the internet via the office link), then a corporate APN is better.

If you're happy that they use their data bundles for anything (like downloading files from the internet) and they don't generate a huge amount of traffic to the office, a VPN setup over the internet APN is probably better and cheaper.

 

[drukkie]

uhm they will use their bundles regardless unless the pot of data is sitting with vodacom/cellc/mtn?

 

[vodacom3g]

uhm they will use their bundles regardless unless the pot of data is sitting with vodacom/cellc/mtn?

Many corporate APN's are configured that the end-users can only access their office systems and thus are subject to company policies (no P2P for example).

 

[Geek2be]

In your case, kinda the same thing.

An 'APN' is a method for connecting to the 3G network and is just like a VPN, i.e. it will connect everyone on the same APN together. So if you get a corporate APN, it will connect your guys to the office just like an VPN would.

There is a generic APN used by all data users to connect to the internet called the 'internet' APN. This APN will allow you to do normal browsing and also connect via VPN software to your office servers. Your guys are all using this APN at the moment.

If you want your guys to JUST connect to the office (and access the internet via the office link), then a corporate APN is better.

If you're happy that they use their data bundles for anything (like downloading files from the internet) and they don't generate a huge amount of traffic to the office, a VPN setup over the internet APN is probably better and cheaper.

Hi V3G,

Thanks for the prompt reply. I know what to do in order to set up a corp.apn but how do I go about setting up a VPN over the internet APN? And by doing so, can I still get to my email and file servers back at the office servers on this VPN?

 

[ambo]

Thanks for the prompt reply. I know what to do in order to set up a corp.apn but how do I go about setting up a VPN over the internet APN? And by doing so, can I still get to my email and file servers back at the office servers on this VPN?

You will need to get a VPN concentrator (basically VPN server) that all your staff will connect to. This will usually be a router that sits at the end of your ADSL line and the costs vary depending on what you want to do.

You can drop a few R1k on a Cisco solution or you can get something open-source like pfSense and run it on some standard PC hardware. Your staff will then require some sort of software on their PC's to connect to the VPN server.

If you get this all setup correctly then the road warriors will be able to connect to everything that they can when they are sitting at their desks

 

[vodacom3g]

You will need to get a VPN concentrator (basically VPN server) that all your staff will connect to. This will usually be a router that sits at the end of your ADSL line and the costs vary depending on what you want to do.

You can drop a few R1k on a Cisco solution or you can get something open-source like pfSense and run it on some standard PC hardware. Your staff will then require some sort of software on their PC's to connect to the VPN server.

If you get this all setup correctly then the road warriors will be able to connect to everything that they can when they are sitting at their desks

Thanks Ambo,

Windows already has the VPN client built-in, so you just need to configure it on your router/server. This will depend on how you connect your office to the internet.

Don't many of the ADSL routers now have it built in?

If you're going to use 3G at the office, it'll need to have the unrestricted APN configured, but hopefully you have some fixed line capability there?

 

[ngwenyas]

Hi All

Me and my colleague just setup the VPN on an apple because our RADIUS only supports chap authentication therefore we get pdp authentication error on the apple.

What we want to know is: does this vpn eat from the data bundle or what? We want to demonstrate unified comms by using email, lync etc but dont want to incur data charges.

 

[VodacomData]

Hi All

Me and my colleague just setup the VPN on an apple because our RADIUS only supports chap authentication therefore we get pdp authentication error on the apple.

What we want to know is: does this vpn eat from the data bundle or what? We want to demonstrate unified comms by using email, lync etc but dont want to incur data charges.

yes it will like any other apn i.e unrestricted .is.co.za

 

[irBosOtter]

Hi All

Me and my colleague just setup the VPN on an apple because our RADIUS only supports chap authentication therefore we get pdp authentication error on the apple.

What we want to know is: does this vpn eat from the data bundle or what? We want to demonstrate unified comms by using email, lync etc but dont want to incur data charges.

Maybe rephrase please...

I have a few questions:

What is "an apple" As far as I know fruit does not do wireless...
What vpn did you setup where?
When this fruit dials the vpn connection, is it connected to a office Wireless network, or connecting over sim's 3G/LTE/HSDPA/EDGE?
If going over 3G/LTE/HSDPA etc then yes, of course it will use data that you paid for.

If you use office wireless then no need to VPN in in the first place, if using home wireless then data charges will be to the home owner or whomever pays the adsl bill...