I would first like to say hello to everyone as this is my first post on this board.

That being said I have a few questions about VPN.

If I a VPN router/firewall/switch on my LAN can my brother setup a vpn connection to my LAN from behind his firewall/router or does he have to reconfig his firewall?

Does he need special client software or is this on a case by case basis based on the router I choose?

And once the connection is set up and my bro connects to my LAN will I also be able to see the contents of his network as if it were part of my own?

I appreciate any and all help with this.


THanks

Basically, you have to open a port on the firewall if you want to be able to access anything behind it. So you could reconfigure your and he could connect to your computer and access files. You can't access his files until he reconfigures his router.

He won't need any special software or a client, except to configure his windows box to connect to it using the windows netwroking utilities.

You need him to set up a server and reconfigure his firewall to see his file, if your on a LAN with him why not just use windows file sharing? It's a lot more simple and would probably suit your needs just fine.

We are on two separate LANS so windows file sharing isn't an option.

So basicly is that what you are saying is that for him to see my files ect... I have to set up a server on my end. And for me to see his stuff he has to have a server on his end.

Not exactly. You'll ned a vpn server on one end, and then the other end will log into that vpn server creating your vpn. I'm not very familliar with vpn's, but I think that you will need to open the appropiate port on your router to allow incoming vpn connections, and then things should work good after that. If you could tell us exactly what kind of router you have, I can look into some of the more finer details for you.

infinite

i do not have my router yet. I didn't want to purchase it until I figured out exactly what i should get to do the job.

I understand that I will need to configure the firewall/router to allow the connection to pass through.

What I was wondering/hoping is that with the linksys BEFVP41 I could set that physical box as the vpn server instead of a machine on my network.

If that will not work I can enable his router to accept the connection and I will seup his win 2k pro box as the vpn server but after I connect I should beable to see his network as if it were part of my own. The question is will he also see my network at that time or do I have to have a VPN server set up on my end as well.

Also is there a way to setup XP pro as a VPN server?

I think that you can configure the BEFVP41 as a VPN server. You would then connect to the VPN server by configuring a network connection to connect to it. You do this by going to "network connections", select "create a new connection" click "next" select "Connect to the network at my workplace" select "Virtual private network connection" click "next" after that enter a name for the connection under "Company name" click "next" enter the IP address of the other network, and then click "finish"

This is how to configure windows to connect to the VPN server that the router has. You would then have to configure the VPN server on the router to accept connections. I think that after that you would connect all the machines on both networks to the router. Like infinite said i dont think you would have to have a server on both ends. I also dont believe that XP or 2000 could be configured to be a VPN server. This is what i found out through some research so any part of it could be wrong. If all else fails contact microsoft and/or linksys support.

Thanks ghost. You seem to have nailed my question on the head. I had hoped that I could use the router/firewall/switch as the "VPN Server" and connect directly to it rather that through it from the other network.

Thanks

no problem man