The ability for an SME to provide Virtual Private Network (VPN) access to its staff, allows for significant productivity  gains. So what is a Virtual Private Network (VPN)?

Imagine being able to access your local  office network  on the road, or from home when catching up on some work in the evenings? How often have you needed to access a spreadsheet or document sitting on the company file server but you are not at the office and, for all intense and purposes, might as well be on the other side of the world? Well with a Virtual Private Network (VPN) you can, even if you are at the other end of the globe!

Virtual Private Network with Linux - access your office from anywhere in the world affordablly with ADSL

With a Virtual Private Network (VPN) you can securely access your company network, as if you are on the office network, from any where in the world, so long as you have Internet access. The way most companies setup VPN access is to buy an expensive VPN solution from a first tier service provider. These coslty solutions tie you into an annual contract with significant costs increases when you wish to extend the VPN. But it doesn't have to be this way; with an inexpensive ADSL account and a Linux based solution you can provide VPN access without significant costs, and no contract. All you will need is your ADSL connection and a spare, desktop size, machine running Linux. Even though the server is running Linux, your VPN users will be able to access the VPN using their Window's computers, and will be able to browse your office network as if they were in the office! This is another great example of how Linux and Microsoft Windows can work together to provide SMEs with an affordable solution.

Use ADSL bonding to provide higher upload speeds for your VPN

One of the limitation of using ADSL, is its limited upload speed. Telkom has capped the upload speed at 512Kbps and this can quickly become a bottleneck if you have a large number of remote users. But fear not! You are not doomed to use an expensive VPN solution based on costly diginet lines. You can use ADSL bonding to provide uplink speed of up to 1Mbps!

With ADSL speeds of 1Mbs you can even use ADSL to provide a backbone to VPN remote offices to head office at a fraction of the price of more heavy weight VPN solutions.

So isn't it about time you started considering using open source solutions in your business to save money, increase productivity and provide you with a competitive advantage? Makes sense, doesn't it?