Connecting sites

[Koss007]

I want to connect a main office and 2 branch offices, all sites are running windows servers, from my research i have learned that connecting using VPN is the best option. has anybody come accross a step by step guide to inter connect three sites, such that there is one domain controller in every site and one domain span across 3 geographical region in case one domain controller (DC) goes down, the DC at the any other location takes over.

Please help

 

[Heyme]

VPN isn't really ideal for what you are attempting to do, there is a lot of overhead (network traffic) consumed with VPN. Since its running off your regular Internet connection (some form of DSL or Cable) your at the mercy of the connection. Your also looking at difficult configurations and possibly additional hardware (i.e. VPN concentrators). VPN is really more aimed at home office type users or branch offices that *don't* have local servers to talk to. What your attempting is to connect your servers and VPN is not ideal.

You could look into Frame Relay, its an older technology and not the fastest but is well suited for what you attempting to do.

A newer and faster technology that is also well suited for this is Transparent LAN Service (TLS). If your company has the budget this is the way to go. Each office network segment is joined together "Transparently" and your DC are able to communicate with each other quickly and reliably.

 

[l69norm]

...VPN ... Frame Relay,.
.Transparent LAN Service (TLS)....

VPN is good for sites that are in different cities. The service quality depends on how much you are willing to pay (for bandwidth). There's no mileage charge. It can range from a $200/mo (DIY) to $2K/mo+ (managed service) for the same speed. See www.linksys.org for DIY.

Frame Relay is much older and slower. Some providers don't offer it anymore (Bell isn't taking new customers). It's used for special connections like older banking machines that don't use TCP/IP. It's starts at $1K/mo for a 56Kbps connection. There no mileage charge. It's being replaced by something called Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS).

TLS is good for in city connections, very fast speeds (100Mbs to 1Gbps) but as you pay for mileage and reserved bandwidth it can get expensive very fast ($2K+ for an in city link)

For TLS, call your local Hydro telecom (Enersource, Toronto Hydro, Blink, Ham. Hydro, Fibrewired, Hydro One, etc) for the best prices.

Frame Relay or MPLS - Telus, Allstream and Bell

VPN - your ISP or any of the above.