I need a reliable VPN router; suggestions?
 

Let me start by saying I am not a network guy. I barely know enough to be dangerous. That said, I will install some equipment on a small private network with only a level 3 switch passing multicast traffic from 3 desks to a "server PC" which will then send unicast traffic to some equipment and vise versa. This will be installed far away (4 time zones) and I need to gain access to the "server PC" via VPN connection for maintenance. When I research VPN routers I see some reviews where they might start out good and stable but after some time (days) they require to be power cycled. I really need something reliable and secure. Any suggestions from you battle hardened network guys?SmileWavy

Old machine with Linux or BSD running SSH so you can do port forwarding. Or run one of the Free VPN setups on it. But I do all my remote stuff via SSH.

I'm not sure what all that means; like I say I'm not very tech savy. I really wouldn't know how to do what you've suggested. So I'm just looking for a good off the shelf unit like a Cisco or other with a solid track record. Thank you.

Well, you could always use a Cisco ASA 5505. But if you aren't very router savvy, you may have a hard time getting it set up. I'm sure there are some folks here on the board that could help with that.

FYI, the ASA5505 is a cisco firewall

OK, I did a quick search and found the Cisco ASA 5505 has reached end of life. Oh well, so much for that one...Thank you.

If not Cisco ASA, I think Sonicwall next for small business, features, price.

Meraki Vpn router. Www.meraki.com

How about not using the VPN and using something like Pertino? We have a 5505 here and I put the Pertino app on one of our managers computer and she has far less issues getting to her machine on campus.

Are you trying to access the servers desktop GUI?

Simple VNC won't do it for you?

You still need a way to connect from the outside IP address to the internal IP address through the router.

A lot of routers may not be stable keeping a VPN up but will work just fine with a single port forward for RDP or VNC, would that be good enough?

I use Mikrotik stuff which has been extremely stable, but it can be a bit of a pain to set up.

I want to access an application on the server; this applications allows me to make changes and push to the clients.

So the outside IP is me? and the inside IP is the target server?

I don't need to keep the VPN up for hours, just accasional access to make changes and/or monitor system.

Pertino would be free in your case and it converts your WAN to a LAN. Then you can connect just as you would from your office or elsewhere on your LAN at work so you can use your app, RDP or whatever you like..

Home | Pertino

The outside is your public IP address assigned by your ISP at work. The internal IP is the local area network private IP. 192.168.xxx.xxx or 10.0.xxx.xxx or whatever the case may be. You can also use the name instead of the IP.

Thanks Flip; looks like I've got some reading to do.
Cheers,