Dennis,

In order to create a working VPN you need to have 3 basic things.2 copies of
VPN Software on both ends, and a connection between them. in most
traditional VPN Solutions you have a VPN Server on the "corporate" end and
the IT Department would distribute VPN Client Software to the end users to
connect from home or on the road.

There are different typses of VPN Solutions, including hardware solutions
out there, such as the Cisco Concentrator or Nokia's Checkpoint VPN-1
solution. it sounds like this might be for more personal use though.

There are also some VPN Client packages that will let you create a tunnel
between two clients, much like RSA Secure Remote did, they work on a form of
key agreeement based on public and private keys within VPN Client
Certificate files to create the keys for the tunnel.

If you are working with a Microsoft Windows 2000 Server, there is already a
VPN Server built into the server offering, it is configured under routing
and remote access. Windows Desktops like Win 2k professional or Windows 98
have a Dial up access client built into the OS that will connect to this
Service.

You can find more information by searching on Technet or google, also
Microsoft help has a step by step configuration guide that might be helpful
as well.

Hope this answered your question.

Eric



----- Original Message -----
From: "Dennis Thiel" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 8:53 AM
Subject: [PCBUILD] VPN Setup Help


Hello All,

I'd like to set up a VPN connection but don't know where to start as far as
what software and hardware I need. Do I need server software, a VPN capable
router, etc.?

Any help or a point to a website would be helpful.

Thanks in advance,

Dennis Thiel

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