VPN that passes firewall?

  • Thread starter Thread starter james
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james

I have several computers in a peer-to-peer LAN at one office. Several
machines have shared folders. Now a new office is opened that I travel to a
few times a month and I need to access the LAN from the new office. The
total size of the files in the shared folders is a few megabytes (excel and
word files).

I'm running windows XP and vista. There is no dedicated servers or domain
controllers and I'd like to keep it that way because there is no one to
maintain the server.

In both locations (a rented office in a building), there is internet access
but I do not have direct control of the router/firewall. So I can't open or
forward a port.

I briefly look at the VPN in XP pro. It looks like I need a fixed internet
IP (which I'm not sure I would get; since the internet service is DSL,
probably with DHCP). It also requires mod to firewall, which I have no
control over.

Is there an alternate solution?

No need to walk me through a setup. Just point me to the right
technology/software. It doesn't have to be VPN, that's just the first thing
that comes into mind. The files are business-critical files, so hosting them
on an outside server won't work because if the internet goes down, I still
need to conduct my business at the main office.
 
james said:
I have several computers in a peer-to-peer LAN at one office. Several
machines have shared folders. Now a new office is opened that I travel
to a few times a month and I need to access the LAN from the new office.
The total size of the files in the shared folders is a few megabytes
(excel and word files).

I'm running windows XP and vista. There is no dedicated servers or
domain controllers and I'd like to keep it that way because there is no
one to maintain the server.

In both locations (a rented office in a building), there is internet
access but I do not have direct control of the router/firewall. So I
can't open or forward a port.

I briefly look at the VPN in XP pro. It looks like I need a fixed
internet IP (which I'm not sure I would get; since the internet service
is DSL, probably with DHCP). It also requires mod to firewall, which I
have no control over.

Is there an alternate solution?

No need to walk me through a setup. Just point me to the right
technology/software. It doesn't have to be VPN, that's just the first
thing that comes into mind. The files are business-critical files, so
hosting them on an outside server won't work because if the internet
goes down, I still need to conduct my business at the main office.
Click to expand...

You could probably do what you want with PC Anywhere. It does work
without fixed IP addresses although you will have to configure it each
time the address changes. At least some VPN software will work without
a fixed IP address at one end as we used Cisco VPN software without a
fixed address to communicate without another LAN in the past.
You should be able to get fixed addresses from your provider for a
nominal charge if that will make your work easier. We ended up going
that way when we installed SonicWall devices in our offices.
 
Since you don't control the router, your best bet would be to use a product
like GotoMyPC or Crossloop. These will work through firewalls and with
dynamic addresses. (There is a free version of Crossloop, but it requires
user action on each end to connect unlike the paid version.)

(PC Anywhere and similar products would require port forwarding to be
configured in the building router and probably at the other end as well. A
VPN end point router would not be suitable if you have to connect it to the
landlords router which you can't control).
 
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