[GLLUG] VPN

[Michael George]

On Thu, Jan 20, 2005 at 11:29:16PM -0500, Charles Ulrich wrote:
> 
> I don't have any experience with VPN-enabled hardware routers, but 
> they're probably quite expensive. Serveral Linux and BSD-based 
> router/firewall distributions (IPCop, m0n0wall) have VPN functions built 
> into them and might be a cheaper solution since you can usually just 
> slap a couple of NICs into an ancient machine, install the software, and 
> go to town.

I have a Netgear FVS318 and it works pretty well.  It's on the lightweight end
of the scale, but it will support 8 tunnels.  I've been using it for a few
years.

I was just talking to a friend last night and he found some of them
refurbished somewhere for $42.  I think new they are under $100.  Not too bad.

However, one caveat: I've never connected them with anything but other Netgear
FVS318s or Linksys VPN models (which we always found very flakey).  If you
want to go a more general HW solution that can interface with IPCOP or
M0n0wall, more investigation would be needed.

There is also the FVS328 (I think that's the model number) which is similar to
the 318 but it has a serial port for a failover connection to a modem.  Cool
feature.

If I have to replace this 318, it will be either with a software solution like
IPCop or M0n0wall or I'd get the 328...

FWIW,
-Michael

-- 
-M

There are 10 kinds of people in this world:
	Those who can count in binary and those who cannot.