VPN connection cheaply

[Captain Fizz]

Bit of a cryptic Subject, sorry...

We have a few remote sites that use standard BT Home Hubs and have 2~6 users on-site.

They are about to go through a domain migration, so in order to get their laptops onto the new domain we would need an always-on VPN setup.

Obviously software VPN's wouldn't work to change domain on the laptops.
Plus they are a 12 hour ferry + 6 hour drive away so getting them into the main office is not practical.

We could send DrayTeks out to site, configured for their BT Broadband and set up a VPN tunnel to the main office but it is reasonably high cost for the number of users.

Is there such a thing as a little box that would plug into the BT Router, then provide a VPN tunnel to the main office?
We then just set that as the default gateway for the laptops to the little box, remove / join to new domain.

Thanks

The other option is we leave their laptops on the old domain and just pick them up if they ever get to the main office... Not a neat solution though.

EDIT - Some sites have 1 user, so passthrough VPN wouldn't work for them :/

EDIT2 - Apparently there was a Linksys USBVPN1 - But can't really find these now - Not been made for many years.
May have to just get routers for everyone.

 

[mod1fied]

Is a software solution viable?

OpenVPN server in the main office and each client that needs to use it can be assigned a secure certificate for SSL.

Only thing the user may need to do is tell it to connect. or run it as a service for always-on.

Just noticed you mentioned joining a domain so I am not sure OpenVPN would be viable unless the users RDP into a server?

We use Fortinet firewalls and have each one setup with VPN's

 

[Captain Fizz]

A software VPN needs the OS to be up and running / at the desktop.
Which won't work for adding a machine to the domain unfortunately :/

We aquired this company so taking on legacy IT implementation which was "get a broadband connection"... Would like to install proper routers on future sites.

Think it might be a domain controller on a VM with VPN software on it and an engineer sent round to each site.
Does mean they would be out of action for a week or more to get them all ><

Or finding the cheapest routers that can have site to site VPN's...

 

[CliffyG]

You can add to a domain over a software VPN. You just need to enter some entries in the hosts file. The main issue comes when logging on for the first time as you need to authenticate at least once to the servers to log on using a cached profile. Not sure if you can do it on the more modern OS's but you used to be able to connect over dial up during logon so a PPTP vpn might be viable. If not some VPN clients have pre-logon functionality, this depends on the firewall at the main site though.

 

[Captain Fizz]

Cool, will look into that - It is a Watchguard they use, the current client is double click only but will check to see if they offer a pre-logon version (or can play with it to make it so)

One day things will get standardised over all the business units!