XPost: comp.dcom.xdsl, comp.dcom.frame-relay   
   From: efflandt@xnet.com   
      
   On 21 Apr 2004, Bill Paxman  wrote:   
   > I'm sending this on behalf of someone who would prefer not to identify   
   > himself or his company.   
   >   
   > He is responsible for a corporate network connecting a main site to   
   > about 20 branch sites.  Right now the branch sites are connected with   
   > frame relay, with CIR speeds varying from 128kbps to 512 kbps.  The HQ   
   > has a T1 frame relay connection which is sometimes congested, and a   
   > separate T1 to the Internet.  The frame contract is apparently up   
   > soon.   
   >   
   > He is wondering about the experiences others are having with   
   > converting over to an ipsec VPN running over the Internet.  Most of   
   > the branch offices have access to DSL, and the few that don't can get   
   > a T1 split up for voice and data.  He could eliminate the frame port   
   > at hq, and replace it with a 3Mbps internet connection.  The overall   
   > cost seems quite a bit lower, but service availability is important.   
   > It is ok for a branch office to be down for part of a day, but hq must   
   > be able to reach most offices at pretty much all the time.  His frame   
   > service has been reliable for the past few years.  If he converts to a   
   > VPN, he thinks he can get all sites connected from a single ISP.   
      
   Our company switched from remote offices connected with 56K frame relay   
   (32K minimum), to factory DS-3, and our office has 1.5 mbps SDSL with   
   SonicWall VPN.  The SonicWall does local DHCP and has some sort of ToS or   
   QoS queuing that reserves some bandwidth for the VPN, so if someone is   
   updating Windows from internet, it does not bog down our factory VPN   
   connection. They contracted the SDSL through AT&T (which in our area uses   
   Covad, which would have been less money directly).  It has been as   
   reliable as the frame relay.   
      
   You can imagine that going from 56K to 1500K (1273K plus overhead) makes a   
   difference (about 23 X faster).  I don't know how many connections run   
   into the DS-3 at our California factory, but they include factories in   
   Canada and Switzerland and UK sales office, besides US offices.   
      
   --   
   David Efflandt - All spam ignored  http://www.de-srv.com/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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