Site to Site LAN - Advice needed

|tera|

|tera|

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Good morning friends.

How would I go about extending a LAN from one location to another, within the same town, but from different locations, possibly a few kilometres apart?

The main issue is that certain network resources at the Main Office need to be accessible from the second location, such as the PBX (voice), which is IP based and network resources such as hosted web services.

The aim is to avoid to install new Servers at the second location, but have the location be part of the same LAN.

Would this be possible with a point to point Wifi link, if so, what equipment to look for?

Will a VPN solution work? Will this muck up PBX calls? Due to encryption and decryption of data the whole time? Again, what equipment to look for?

Thanks for any advice.
 
How far apart are the 2 sites and do they have Line of Sight of one another?
 
A VPN would work just fine. Perhaps setup a second DSL router on each side, than configure your routing as 1 for internet, 1 for VPN. Run Voice and Data over the VPN.
 
|tera| said:
Good morning friends.

How would I go about extending a LAN from one location to another, within the same town, but from different locations, possibly a few kilometres apart?

The main issue is that certain network resources at the Main Office need to be accessible from the second location, such as the PBX (voice), which is IP based and network resources such as hosted web services.

The aim is to avoid to install new Servers at the second location, but have the location be part of the same LAN.

Would this be possible with a point to point Wifi link, if so, what equipment to look for?

Will a VPN solution work? Will this muck up PBX calls? Due to encryption and decryption of data the whole time? Again, what equipment to look for?

Thanks for any advice.
Click to expand...

TBH, best bet is fibre. See if you can get a secure site to site link through something like Dark Fibre Africa or similar (ideal is your own fibre site-to-site, but that is unlikely to happen). You'll just be bottlenecked using a VPN over VDSL or similar, not worth it. Pay the capital, get the fibre and you'll also future-proof yourself.

A/VDSL has limited upload speeds, and your PBX will fall apart if the day gets busy.
 
Peon said:
How far apart are the 2 sites and do they have Line of Sight of one another?
Click to expand...
The location has not been secured yet, hence no specifics at this stage. Should there be line of site, or if we could 'create' line of sight, which equipment do you suggest?
Deadmanza said:
A VPN would work just fine. Perhaps setup a second DSL router on each side, than configure your routing as 1 for internet, 1 for VPN. Run Voice and Data over the VPN.
Click to expand...
I don't really want to bug around with DSL, way too slow, but should VPN work ok though? Would it not cause issues with the PBX etc.?
agentrfr said:
TBH, best bet is fibre. See if you can get a secure site to site link through something like Dark Fibre Africa or similar (ideal is your own fibre site-to-site, but that is unlikely to happen). You'll just be bottlenecked using a VPN over VDSL or similar, not worth it. Pay the capital, get the fibre and you'll also future-proof yourself.

A/VDSL has limited upload speeds, and your PBX will fall apart if the day gets busy.
Click to expand...

This was our initial idea. I think this will be the route to take ultimately. The point is though, how to connect both Sites? Which hardware to use? Do we go VPN, or leave it to the Fibre Provider to create the link between locations?
 
|tera| said:
The location has not been secured yet, hence no specifics at this stage. Should there be line of site, or if we could 'create' line of sight, which equipment do you suggest?

I don't really want to bug around with DSL, way too slow, but should VPN work ok though? Would it not cause issues with the PBX etc.?


This was our initial idea. I think this will be the route to take ultimately. The point is though, how to connect both Sites? Which hardware to use? Do we go VPN, or leave it to the Fibre Provider to create the link between locations?
Click to expand...

The DSL was just an example, Wireless works really well as well. Fibre would be ideal though obviously.

How many users are at the second branch? What will they be using at HO? Centralized documents? Accounting package? Terminal server? How many simultaneous calls would do they have at say their busiest time?

That info could help :)
 
Thanks for the info, but I can't provide any more info than I have. Just know it will be a busy network. That's about all I can say.
 
Creating a wireless bridge will be great and for me have worked well in the past. Look at the Ubiquiti range. If budget allows and distance is short the best wireless option would be to get Ubiquiti AirFibre

There are cheaper option down the list but I would go the wireless bridge network options. Same IP subnet, transparent encryption(if you want to) and the devices and stuff on the other side will behave as though its on the same LAN.
 
|tera| said:
This was our initial idea. I think this will be the route to take ultimately. The point is though, how to connect both Sites? Which hardware to use? Do we go VPN, or leave it to the Fibre Provider to create the link between locations?
Click to expand...

Ask the various providers. They may be able to offer a site to site link, or an encrypted VPN. They'll be helpful getting you set up. It depends on fibre/trunk availability.
 
What is your budget?

Also be careful of your wording. Do you just need access, or do you want to actually extend the layer 2 network across both sites?

Your SP can provide services to bridge both sides if you want or you can do as suggested above
Use a point to point link, something like a microwave / laser etc
or use fibre.

Just as a thought, extending layer 2 connections is always a crap idea. If you can avoid it, i would suggest doing so
 
|tera| said:
This was our initial idea. I think this will be the route to take ultimately. The point is though, how to connect both Sites? Which hardware to use? Do we go VPN, or leave it to the Fibre Provider to create the link between locations?
Click to expand...

well do you want to terminate the fibre and light it yourself, or do you want the SP to take care of it for you?
What are the bandwidth constraints?

Its pretty damn simple to get 2 fibre terminating switches, plug em in and configure
 
syntax said:
What is your budget?

Also be careful of your wording. Do you just need access, or do you want to actually extend the layer 2 network across both sites?

Your SP can provide services to bridge both sides if you want or you can do as suggested above
Use a point to point link, something like a microwave / laser etc
or use fibre.

Just as a thought, extending layer 2 connections is always a crap idea. If you can avoid it, i would suggest doing so
Click to expand...

+1 do not extend the LAN.
Layer 3 will work nicely, all you need in the new building is a DHCP server with scopes pointing to the PABX.
Both buildings should have routers to route the traffic.
 
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