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VLAN equipment question

ASherbuck
Level 1
Level 1

Hello,

I'm looking for advice on setting up a network for a small business. My situation involves 3 different networks that need to become 1 VLAN.

My question is what type of equipment will I need? I am looking to focus on scalability, security and stability as there will more than likely be locations I'll have to add in the future.

3 Replies 3

Collin Clark
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni

Alex-

Do you need to make all three networks as one or do you need to make all three talk to each other? How do the networks connect today (if they do)? How far apart are they? How much load on each network(s)?

I'm sorry, I realize how vague I was in my original post.

As of right now 3 different physical locations exist. Each has it's own wireless network running on a lynksis wireless router. They each have their own internet connection and are not connected to each other in any way.

We've considered using a VPN to cut down on costs of travelling between locations to our program updates manually. The programs we run access a database that is updated daily and we would like to employ some type of setup that enables us to have one central computer with the database that is updating daily and our seperate locations machines to access this database or at least update themselves everyday.

We've been told a VPN is the way to go and to check into cisco technologies. Hence we're reaching for answers in the community.

Is a VPN a wise solution to our situation? What type of changes will we have to make, hardware and software to our network and does anyone have a recommendation for the direction we should take this project?

Network load is consists of google chat for all locations and one location has large amounts of internet traffic and automated back ups that take place at 3 AM and take <1 minute.

Physically the networks are <50 miles away from each other.

Yes, we'd like to make each network talk to each other.

Alex-

A VPN is the most cost effective solution a good one. A router/firewall would be placed at each location and a secure VPN connection would be built to connect each site to yours. The remote sites can then talk to your server securely over the internet. It sounds like you could use the lower cost 800 series routers for the VPN. Here's some links that will hopefully help.

800 Series Routers

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps380/index.html

IPSec VPN

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPsec

HTH

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