Need some help from you WAN Guru's out there please :)

[JustAnotherTech]

I need some advise/pointers from you network guru's.
I am wanting to setup a simple WAN using VPN between two offices. They have an application they want the users at the remote office to be able to use that is being used at the main office.

Here is the setup...

Main Office is setup with ADSL 1.5/384 with a static IP. All systems including the "Server" are using XP Pro. The network is wired using CAT 5. The ADSL comes into a 2wire ADSL Modem/Router. The server is connected to this. There are also two 8 port Linksys switches (14 users in all). The network is operating smoothly.

Remote Office is setup with ADSL 1.5/384 with a static IP. All systems including the server are using XP Pro. The server is connected directly to the ADSL modem. It then shares the internet via Linksys USB wireless network devices in ad-hoc mode.

The situation is there is an application at the main office that they would like to use at the remote office. It has been installed at the main office and works fine. I was wanting to create a VPN between the servers at both locations, map the main office server drive application folder at the remote office, install the client version of the application on the client PC's at the remote office, map the mapped main office server folder on the client pc's and let them share the same data as the main office does. Whew!

A few questions...

Will this work? How do I find out the IP address of the main office server so that I can create this VPN? Can you map a mapped drive? Will I have to create just one VPN between the servers or will I have to create a VPN between all the client PC's at the remote office to the main office server?

Any help would be very deeply appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Tony

[juniper]

first off no you can not map a mapped drive. to answer your hole question you can do one of two things.

1. setup a site to site VPN ( this will just connect the two networks together as if there was a router between them and they can map directly to the main server no software needed on the clients PCs) to do this I would probably just get a PIX at both ends and a DSL modem and remove your existing routers and configure a site to site between them.

2. You can get a PIX or whatever that does VPN and configure it as a client to site VPN where all the PCs at the remote office will need VPN software to connect. If you are PATing their addresses you will need to enable NAT traversal on the VPN server. then just map the drives like normal.