Cheap VPN for OS X

[sturm375]

I am hoping somebody can help me here. Soon my boss will be moving his business from his home to an actuall office building. He would still like to access the 4D (Client/Server Relational Database) server from home while not at the office. I would like to find an inexpensive (my boss will not pay a lot of money) VPN server for an OS X machine at the new office.

Internet connection at the office will be broadband of some flavor (DSL or T1) with a router probably.

Internet connection at the house will be dial-up througha D-Link router(DL-714) with an external modem connected to it.

I don't want a Timbuktu type of an interface, I want it to be like a LAN except much slower.

I need advice on software and any hardware and tips you might have.

Thanks in advance.

 

[evildead]

hardware?

are you looking for a hardware or software solution? I dont know of any software solutions. There are plenty of good VPN servers out there and it doesnt mater what OS your running as long as you can find a VPN client that runs on it. There are lots of freeware and shareware VPN clints if you cant find a VPN server that dosnt come with one. Take a look at SonicWall.. they have some good ones. they are in the $400 range. I have seen some routers with built in VPN servers for $150... but I cant think of any right now. I have used every thing from $25k to $400 VPNs.

 

[Billicus]

As far as connecting, I found this in the 10.2 Mac Help:

You can use Internet Connect to connect to a virtual private network (VPN) using Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) over an existing Internet connection.

Connect to the Internet, then open Internet Connect and choose New VPN Connection Window from the File menu.

Hope this helps.

 

[lmalave]

I think regular DSL/Cable routers support VPN capability now for around $100. Haven't used them so I can't vouch for them. At work I use a Cisco VPN - no idea how much they cost. When I was a freelancer a couple years ago I bought a Cisco Firewall/VPN for $1000 - maybe they have a cheaper version now? The Cisco VPN client for OS X is great, though - I like how you just open the VPN client and then you can click "connect" or "disconnect" buttons at will. Keep in mind that for a VPN to be truly secure, you should not have access to the internet when you are connected to the VPN. I don't know how sensitive your data is though, maybe it's no big deal. Since I don't have access to the internet when I'm connected to my work VPN, I like to just connect, do what I need to do, and then get out, and the Cisco VPN client is great for that (haven't used the built-in OS X VPN client since it's not compatible with my work VPN, so I'm not sure how it would compare).