vpn connection

1. If I am understanding you correctly, If you have them "dial-in" meaning via modem with POTS, then no.

2. If you are talking about via the internet & TCP/IP, then the answer would also be no. Reason being, if you both have internet conections, each of you must have at least 1 real world (Routable) IP address (This address would be used for your 2 sites to communicate).

If item #2 is the case, the only problem you may have is routing the incomming IP traffic to the correct in-house (Non-Routable) IP address.

Note: When I said "Non-Routable" I mean, via the internet, not intranet.

Also, if you can give a little more info on "what & how" you want to do this, I'm sure we here could get you an adequete solution.

People can dial-in and use software like PC Anywhere (running and waiting on the host computer with the modem connected to it) and via their version of PC Anywhere dialing and connecting to the remote host (again through a telephone line). There's no problem with that process. IP addresses are not relavant unless you are connecting to another server at the remote site (then they become relavent as you need to know what the ip address of the server you are connecting to is, but it will not matter that you may have the exact same ip address or not -- because at that point, you are operating through the host with the modem directly connected to it. In orther words, you will be in the local LAN and using the ip address of the computer with the modem attached).

This is not VPN -- it's RAS (Remote Access). It's not secure and it's not private. Not through a telephone line.

HMM, you've got two good answers, but I think both of them miss the mark slightly. Bottom line, they're both right that your ip addressing scheme is irrelevant. But they're wrong about the reason. Actually, it is because when you use terminal services, you are NOT using VPN or RAS, you are using a terminal connection (whether it's via the Internet or a direct modem connection). This is more like a pcAnywhere connection than a VPN or RAS connection. A terminal connection creates a client session on the server itself and the session does not get its own IP address (I don't believe it does, anyway, but if it does it would be one that is local to the server). Depending upon what level of user permissions you give to the terminal user logon you assign to them, they may or may not have access to administer the local server or (through mapped drives) to other parts of your network. This, too, has nothing to do with IP addressing - it is controlled completely by the user permissions you give to their ID, just as if they were sitting in your office and logging on through a local workstation. Hope this helps!

Maybe they are not running a domain, but peer to peer. A standard NAT router/firewall will block a VPN connection because you are only able to connect to the router IP address via the VPN, not the destination computer.

I reckon NetGear make a router/firewall that allows VPN connection through it.

Can you use a straight RAS via a modem and even something like VNC remote desktop software. It is good, cheap (read free) and reliable. I set up software on my daughter's machine using RAS andVNC remote desktop over a 750 Km phone connection.

When you connect to a site using a Win2k VPN server, you will receive a new network interface. (Test by connecting to your RRAS server and doing an 'ipconfig/all', before and after connecting.) When they connect they need to get your DNS server on their new interface. Your VPN server needs to pass this on from you DHCP server or a static pool. (If you give your VPN server a static pool it will pass on its configured DNS and WINS settings to the client.) As long as your VPN server is already correctly handing out interfaces to connecting clients, then I don't think there will be any problem at all.

When you connect to a site using a Win2k VPN server, you will receive a new network interface. (Test by connecting to your RRAS server and doing an 'ipconfig/all', before and after connecting.) When they connect they need to get your DNS server on their new interface. Your VPN server needs to pass this on from you DHCP server or a static pool. (If you give your VPN server a static pool it will pass on its configured DNS and WINS settings to the client.) As long as your VPN server is already correctly handing out interfaces to connecting clients, then I don't think there will be any problem at all.

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