i am doing a project on connecting a Bank's Wan to another Bank and exploring the possibilities of using a VPN instead dedicated leased lines. on reading about the MPLS and IPsec Technologies i think this would best suite the secnario. However, i need to know the cost associated with the MPLS and IPSec in terms of is Security, Performance, Support and Maintenance within the company.
125079
A VPN would generally be the least expensive.  Keep in mind that the throughput of the VPN would be limited to the upload speed of the slowest connection.  You'll need two firewalls, Cisco PIX is my favorite, to set this up.  The cost will depend upon how many users at each end.  Security is excellent if you know what you are doing.  If you use pre-shared keys, you should change them periodically to ensure continued security.  Certificates are more secure but can cost a few hundred a year though you could publish your own if you deploy a certificate server.  Large VPN networks demand certificates for ease of manageability.\n\nA point-to-point link would be absolutely secure.  Depending upon the distance, it could be fairly economical.  You'll need routers at each end, with a high-speed serial interface.  You may also need a DSU/CSU at each end though this may be provided by the telco.\n\nMPLS is rapidly replacing frame-relay as the WAN link of choice where longer distances are involved.  Costs will depend upon the local market.  Larger customers (several hundred sites) pay far lower rates than a smaller one with just two sites would.  You'll need to contact the local telco for pricing.  Service can be managed or unmanaged.  If you have routing expertise, you could save some money by doing the router configs yourself.  If not, go with a managed solution.  MPLS is highly secure.\n\nSome carriers also offer managed VPN solutions.  This might be your best combination of price, performance and security.\n\nPerformance of any of these solutions would be similar assuming the same port speeds were involved.  A point-to-point leased line would be slightly faster due to lower latency but you probably wouldn't notice a difference without measuring it carefully.
266893
The easiest way is to purchase a piece of VPN hardware that does the work for you. I have owned several of these over the years. D-Link, Netgear and Linksys all make routers with VPN code built in, so that someone from the outside can establish a VPN connection to the router, then can see computing resources behind the router.\n\nI found that configuring the PC's to connect to the VPN hardware was the most difficult task. There are third party VPN Clients available that you can load on those PC and which make things much easier. I found that configuring the Windows IP/SEC stack was almost impossible.\n\nI don't know of any VPN Server software that can run on a PC.
285936
I am caution on Vonage IPO.  I'd rather put my money in Master cartd IPO instead.  For the simple reason, too much competition on the cable phone area.
644474
Network Solutions really has no advantages other than their name.  Most of them will try to sell you additional services, which is fine if you are new to this, but sucks if you are in the industry.  Watch for contractual agreements from the cheaper ones.\n\nGood luck..
671296
Laplink is a good option, been around for year and year so nice an secure. Laplink Everywhere is a smaller versoin of the main program (so cheaper), free 30 day trial and then only $8.95, which is nothing considering if you use a free program there is always the risk that it will be unsecure or design to get information. download link from downloads.com is\nhttp://www.download.com/Laplink-Everywhere/3000-7240_4-10392669.html?tag=lst-0-3\nshould do the job nicely (ps you do not need to have a laptop to use it is was just orginally a program for conecting laptops together before networks, had to use a serial cable)
596692
As there are different types of them, and the prices differ depending on the price, this article would probably be useful to find out what to look for in an EAS:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_article_surveillance
105071
Tiscali is cheaper for the internet.\n£14.99 1Meg Broadband.\n\nTheres not much we can do about the line rental, it`s a complete rip off by BT, but we have no choice but to pay it.
129712
I tried searching their website, but i think they are vague in explaining about their business channel partners........\n\nIt only says the write up below:\nPartners \nIT Secure has certified partners who are trained to sell and support Sonicwall solutions all over India ie in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Surat, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Coimbatore and many other locations. Email sonicwall@itsecure.com or contact your local IT Secure office (links below) to reach the partner closest to you. \n\n\n \nCustomer \nThrough its network of Channel Partners, IT Secure has built up a list of 1000+ customers ranging from small enterprises with 10 customers, going up to large infrastructure corporates with thousands of users. We have customers in every vertical ranging from manufacturing to finance, to automobile to BPO, to telecommunication, software, call-centres, textiles, etc etc. Contact sonicwall@itsecure.com for reference list or refer to our case study pages.
666228
In computer networking and telecommunications, Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a data-carrying mechanism which emulates some properties of a circuit-switched network over a packet-switched network. MPLS operates at a OSI Model layer that is generally considered to lie between traditional definitions of Layer 2 (data link layer) and Layer 3 (network layer), and thus is often referred to as a "Layer 2.5" protocol. It was designed to provide a unified data-carrying service for both circuit-based clients and packet-switching clients which provide a datagram service model. It can be used to carry many different kinds of traffic, including IP packets, as well as native ATM, SONET, and Ethernet frames.
2398
My preferred program is UltraVNC.  It's relatively light, and supports encryption (if security is important).  Very simple to setup, and once you setup, its one click connection to your pc.\n\nIf you want an  easy way to connect them together through routers without port forwarding, try hamachi. It's a zero config vpn program that is always encrypted.  It will make your computers think that they are on the same local area network.
521266
price #1, reliability #2, bandwidth alotted #3, resources #4, security #5 , support #6 (usually dont get good support anywhere but a few do)
250129
I'd do the same, but use IPX. Its more secure.
82891
If they are cisco routers you can use IP tunnels or you can use VPN. Linksys also has some high end versions of homerouters that support point to point IP sec tunnels. I would look there first.
76965
I finally managed to get through to McAfee after spending around £40 ($70) on a premium rate telephone line. (And they call it customer care !!!). In the end I ditched the company and the software. It seems they want your money but don't want to provide the customer care. Personally, hell will have to freeze over before I use McAfee again.\nYes, sebastian 640 - you have my every sympathy.
459670
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps133/tsd_products_support_series_home.html\nCisco tends to make all the information on a router available for free.  \n\nThe company that sold it to you also wants to keep the relationship open, so you'll buy through them again.  Your rep probably assumes you'll call some for advice on using the unit, because you bought it through them.
248984
site-to-site VPN is definately the way to go, and if you know your stuff, not that hard to set up.  And it gives you scalability, which is always a good thing.\n\nVPN in general has two parts.  There is the 'well protected' internal network and a less trustworthy external network.\n\nThe internal network is your Intranet.  The external network is usually the internet.\n\nA firewall usually divides the internal and external networks.\n\nFor your setup, there would be 3 firewalls, one at each site.  They would all be configured as part of the same VPN. \n\nhere's an example.  Say your internal 'secure' network are islands in the ocean.  the water is the internet. boats are packets/traffic.  A leased line is like building a bridge between the islands.  It's still visible to other boats and is expensive to make (distance fees).\n\nA VPN is like a submarine, undetectable by any boat or other submarine.  Plus, it's easy to add more and more submarines to your 'fleet'.\n\nSo basically, a VPN establishes an authenticated connection over the internt.  Only the firewalls will be able to de-encrypt the information because they're all 'in the know'.
357110
A virtual private network sits behind a NAT device such as a router or residential gateway. The device has the public IP adress while each computer on the network has a private IP adress. This makes each computer behind the NAT device basically invisable to the World Wide Web. All information to and from the networked computers goes throgh the NAT device. \n\nI highly reccomend Belkin software for routers and wireless access points. Belkin has a few differant types of network devices, and which you chcoose will depend on what you can afford and what you wish to achieve. I runn a bussiness, so I am using the highest grade devices, router and adapters. The system is called Belkin Pre-N, with N standing for the level above 8o2.11g stamdard and is campatable with 802.11b and 802.11g devices and supports WPA security encryption of data flow, has two hardware firewalls which are compatable with the windows software firewall, has strong controls on use of service, and parental and employee browsing and chat controls. It also has abilities to eccelerate both your connection speed by 800% with my connection maintaining an amazing speed of 108Mpbs, and has a 6000% increased coverage area for laptops. If I choose I could sit down the street or at a neighbors four houses down and connect to my own network, all without any worry of others getting into my network or using my connection without putting in a password. \n\nLinksys has a good product too, but I had severl connection drops which entailed having to push the reset button on the router in order to get the connection up and running again. While I understand this may have been a hardware failing, I have answered a few questions about the linksys routers doing this often. \n\nYou will need a router and adapters for each computer on your network. The router needs to be configured for WPA encryption not just WEP as WEP is simply not that secure. Then the key used for the router needs to be typed into each adapter interface in order for a connection to be made wirelessly. \n\nNOw, a virtual private network is not just a wireless network but can also be a wired network. I needed to add that so there is no misunderstanding. \n\nI hope this has helped you understand better what you were wanting to know about VPN's. Good luck. :-)