To the original questions: 1) Yes, a T1 should easily be able to handle 25 - 30 users checking their Outlook email through VPN... We've normally got 20 to 25 users with individual VPN tunnels connecting to our Exchange server through a T1 with no problems (end users are a mix of dial-up, DSL and Cable modem users)... That T1 is also used for just about everything else as well, (web surfing, incoming/outgoing email traffic, etc) and we haven't had any performance problems...
Though a different T1 we've got 20 remote offices connecting through office to office VPN links, probably around 60 users in total... Last time I checked the monitoring on that line, we were only hitting 50% utilization on the T1 during peak times... Of the 20 offices, 18 have 512K F/T1's and the other two have full T1's. They use the VPN link for access to our central email server, limited access to our central file server, and running Oracle database applications.... 2) Separate VPN tunnels is going to add more overhead to the communications and be more difficult to manage. Just as Ed said, if you can maintain a single link, then you've only got to troubleshoot that link if there's a problem instead of trying to troubleshoot 5 different problems on each users' machine when they're having trouble. Joe Pochedley If you have time to do it twice, you had time to do it right in the first place. -----Original Message----- From: Ely, Don [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 7:52 AM To: Exchange Discussions Subject: RE: Re[2]: 25-30 external users using outlook through VPN (Excha nge on a T1) As much as I hate Watchguard, they offer Firewalls and SOHO devices that support DHCP, it's called DVCP. Works nicely for small offices connecting to main office via the hub and spoke method... -----Original Message----- From: Jean-Francois Bourdeau [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2003 8:03 AM To: Exchange Discussions Thanks ed The problem is that the customer has a Dynamic IP address at 2 of the location. Establishing somekind of VPN or IPSec tunnel would ne be serious for now because everytime the link change it's ip address, the tunnel would go down. And for now the customer do not have the budget to handle those link upgrade Thanks JF -- Best regards, Jean-Francois mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Hello Ed, Wednesday, March 19, 2003, 6:17:56 PM, you wrote: EC> 1. Probably, but it depends on how heavy the users are, their usage EC> patterns (do they all log in at the same time?), and what else runs over EC> that line. EC> 2. I would think that it would make a whole lot more sense to have the EC> routers tunnel to each other. Regardless of the performance, it'd be a EC> whole lot less hassle to manage. EC> Ed Crowley MCSE+Internet MVP EC> Freelance E-Mail Philosopher EC> Protecting the world from PSTs and Bricked Backups!T EC> -----Original Message----- EC> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EC> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jean-Francois EC> Bourdeau EC> Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2003 1:16 PM EC> To: Exchange Discussions EC> Subject: 25-30 external users using outlook through VPN (Exchange on a EC> T1) EC> Hi EC> Queston 1 : Does anyone know if a T1 is enough to handle properly 30 EC> external users using OUtlook 2000 through VPN EC> I know it's a question of how much bandwith is really avalaible but EC> suppose the T1 is only for outlook, did anyone did something with a EC> simillar number of users coming in through VPN EC> Question 2 : do you know if 25 seperate users VPN in (PPTP) on a remote EC> network is using a lot more bandwith than setting up an IPSEC tunnel EC> between the 2 sites (the one with the exchange server and the other site EC> with 25 EC> users) I mean : EC> a) Site A with 25 users doing vpn(PPTP) to access the server on site B EC> that has a T1 EC> b) creating an IPSEC tunnel between both site and aloowing those 25 EC> users to access exchange 5.5 through the tunnel between both site... EC> JF _________________________________________________________________ List posting FAQ: http://www.swinc.com/resource/exch_faq.htm Archives: http://www.swynk.com/sitesearch/search.asp To unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Exchange List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
