Linking two distant locations with DSL

[Zucarita9000]

Sorry if this has been asked before...

My father asked me to link two distant locations of his company via DSL. It's a mid size business, with no more than 25 clients on each end. He needs to be able to sahre some files, and probably even internal instant messaging.

Both locations have DSL access, but no static IP on either side. They're using a dynamic IP ISP with PPPoE. No routers, just PCs running WinGate.

I've read about VPNs, but I realized that both locations would loose their internet access if they connect via DSL, is this correct?

What kind of software/hardware would I need to accomplish this task?

 

[Smilin]

With the number of clients he has on each end, a home cable/dsl router that supports VPN is probably going to be the best bet. Having dynamic IP's might mean an occasional reconnect but it shouldn't happen that often. If you want to do it for free just see if he has some 2000/XP clients. You can have one PC on either end act as a gateway and VPN connection.

VPN in some form or another is what this is going to come down to.

 

[Smilin]

oh yeah, not sure where you got the "they'll get disconnected using VPN" thing. It doesn't work that way. Both ends connect to the internet and then setup an additional connection on top of that. The original internet connection works just fine while this is happening.

 

[Zucarita9000]

Ok,

Most of the client PCs are running Win2k. I guess this what I have to do next:

Create a VPN connection on one end, with the IP address of the gateway PCs on the other end. Now what? The other Workgroup will simply appear in "My Network Places" or is there anything else I have to configure?

I read that about loosing internet access while being connected to a VPN somewhere. It was a tutorial on how to establish a VPN connection with dial-up (I guess...). I never tried it out with DSL.

 

[MysticLlama]

If the VPN is set up properly, you shouldn't ever have to lose Internet access, unless you specifically want it to act that way.

The reason that Internet is sometimes lost is when someone VPNs into the office and then doesn't have the connection set up properly since they are now a part of the corporate network. Anytime you have a proxy server or anything, that will have to be set up separately when connected to the VPN just as if you were at the office.

So, if you connect and don't have those settings correct, you won't be able to get to the net.

There are a few other things that could cause it too, specifically denying net access when on the VPN (of course), DNS misconfiguration or not being handed off by DHCP, routing inconsistencies, etc.

 

[Zucarita9000]

I see...
What else should I configure? Do I have to set up a VPN connection on both ends or just one? How do I manage user names and passwords? Does the user name (for the connection) has to be a user in the target computer?

Please, if anyone knows about a nice tutorial on how to accomplish this, post it.

 

[Smilin]

Honestly one of the best places to look for this is simply in the Windows helpfiles. It has pretty much all you need.