Can a PC replace a dedicated Firewall?

[Julian]

We have a DLINK DFL500 firewall sitting behind a Cisco827 router in our
Sydney office. The firewall is setup to create a VPN to our Melb office
where we have a DFL1000 firewall (VPN is firewall to firewall).

Our DFL500 firewall in the Sydney office went down yesterday and thus the
office is offline again today. I've been trying to source a replacement
firewall ASAP with no luck.

My question is, can a PC be configured (using WindowsXP) as a VPN connector
to our firewall in the Melb office and can it also act as a firewall?

 

[Leythos]

We have a DLINK DFL500 firewall sitting behind a Cisco827 router in our
Sydney office. The firewall is setup to create a VPN to our Melb office
where we have a DFL1000 firewall (VPN is firewall to firewall).

Our DFL500 firewall in the Sydney office went down yesterday and thus the
office is offline again today. I've been trying to source a replacement
firewall ASAP with no luck.

My question is, can a PC be configured (using WindowsXP) as a VPN connector
to our firewall in the Melb office and can it also act as a firewall?

If you want to go cheap, the Linksys BEFVP41 unit will do 20 IPSec
tunnels appliance to appliance for about $100 USD.

If you want more, you can use a Symantec 320, a Firebox X5 series, or
you could even use a DI808-HV by D-Link or a FSV-318 by Netgear. While I
don't consider the Linksys, D-Link or the Netgear as being real
firewalls, they do provide for dedicated IPSec tunnels for a reasonable
price.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

For issues related to firewalls:

Please visit the Windows Firewall newsgroup experts:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.windows.networking.firewall

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| We have a DLINK DFL500 firewall sitting behind a Cisco827 router in our
| Sydney office. The firewall is setup to create a VPN to our Melb office
| where we have a DFL1000 firewall (VPN is firewall to firewall).
|
| Our DFL500 firewall in the Sydney office went down yesterday and thus the
| office is offline again today. I've been trying to source a replacement
| firewall ASAP with no luck.
|
| My question is, can a PC be configured (using WindowsXP) as a VPN connector
| to our firewall in the Melb office and can it also act as a firewall?
| --
| +-- Julian

 

[Ted]

Linux PC would be better to be used as a firewall.
I was going to use Linux as Internet PC, but changed my mind because
I wanted email to be saved in Windows outlook format.