How To Create A Vpn With Comcast
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I have an attorney I do some work for, she has an IT person that her her firm uses.
They want a VPN tunnel created between 2 offices, but have only the routers provided by the internet service providers, no firewall or VPN devices installed. One office has Verizon one has Comcast.
The attornys are getting very frustrated with thier IT guy, as he keeps telling them he can make the tunnel work with just these 2 routers, hence me getting involved. I am telling them I do not think it can be done using just these 2 routers.
I have been wrong on more than one occasion so it always helps to throw out a line and get some feedback from my fellow spiceheads.
I have done quite a bit of research and have found no evidence or documentation that supports the theroy that a tunnel can be created just using the 2 routers provided by 2 different internet providers

and this is very easy to answer, call comcast and verizon or log into the device and see if it has that capability
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and this is very easy to answer, call comcast and verizon or log into the device and see if it has that capability


Pretty much Network Overlord said. You'd need to get the model numbers of the devices to find out if they can do VPN and if they are compatible with each other.

Neither router has a VPN anywhere in the user accesible settings

If the routers are both Cisco routers, then possible. You would have to check with both Verizon and Comcast to see if the routers are VPN tunnel capable. If they are consumer style routers, I would say probably not unless the routers themselves are capable of handling that.
The way we run a VPN tunnel between two offices and two different ISP is by having our own Cisco or equivalent router (SonicWall can probably do the same thing) at each location and only use the Verizon & Comcast routers as passthrough bridges.
Best to get everything laid out first, then call each ISP and explain what you are intending to do. Their routers may work, they may not, they may also NOT allow that kind of traffic to go through their routers (or their routers can' t handle that kind of work).
Gather more information and find out. Also see if Verizon and/or Comcast has that kind of technology as a service. You may need to upgrade one or both routers and/or service to handle that type of traffic.
Regards,
Paul Luciano, MCSE

I would highly doubt its possible, my guess is he is going to put something together to make it happen or has no idea what he is talking about.


Do they want to access one of the offices from the road? Does it have to be IpSec protocol? If you can port forward your router you might want to try OPENVPN, but no firewall ???

I dont know how it works, and I have never used it, but logmein.com claims to offer vpn tunnel software for up to 5 computers for free. Hard to tell what they would be looking for when we dont know the number of machines at each location.
It seems to me that people in legal profession would understand the need for a higher level of security. This would prompt most people to buy the routers to do it right.


Most consumer and even business class Modem/Routers from ISPs if you are using Cable, DSL, Satellite, 3G, and most other connections do not have VPN capability built in. While the routers may not have this functionality it does not mean you are dead in the water.
Possibility 1, use a PPTP or L2TP(recommended) site to site VPN, provided there is a Windows server OS at each site.
Use third part VPN software if there are servers at each site but you don't want to use the above. OpenVPN is an SSL VPN solution and will run on Windows.
If you do not have a Windows server OS at each site your best bet is to introduce new hardware at each site and setup a VPN using the new hardware. Now it seems cost may be a factor here. Therefore I recommend an inexpensive small form factor device like the Sheevaplug (http:/


You know come to think of it a Raspberry Pi would also work as the end point devices.


You can use LogMeIn Hamachi. They offer several different configurations some requiring Server OS to be present and others do not. All limited to 5 computers for the free version. I use it and it works well.

In this situation you have two disparate systems. Verizon will provider their CPE to the customer on the Verizon infrastructure with a Verizon IP address. Comcast will provide their CPE (customer premise equipment "modem")....to the customer on their infrastructure, with the Comcast allocated IP address.
Both locations can communicate to each other using the IP address that the carrier provided them. The CPE's will not perform a VPN between the two carriers systems. You will need a third party VPN solution to create the tunnel between offices. A few things to take a look at.
1. Does each location, the Verizon and the Comcast office provide static IP addresses, this is important because you will point VPN devices to the IP, if it changes then the VPN will constantly break.
2. If they don't have a static IP, you can use a dynamic DNS solution, but that would just be a pain to manage in my opinion.
3. You will need to decide where the VPN device connects into the overall network infrastructure. Not hard, just need a topology design.
4. There are a thousand devices that can do VPN point-to-points. Raspberry PI would be SWEET, I just bought two of them and they work awesome, they are very cumbersome however if you aren't a linux guru. There are many devices with simpler interfaces and will accomplish the task at hand.
5. You can also do Remote Desktop or a number of other solutions depending on the purpose of the VPN needs. Do you need the whole network to talk to each other or just two computers between the location. This will have a direct impact of what type of device you use and how it is setup.
Other things to consider, but it may be a stretch:
Comcast does a service called EPL, which is short for Ethernet Private Line. This is a fully layer 2 solution for a point to point connection, which can be implemented over a COAX or Fiber connection. If the location that has Verizon as the ISP can get Comcast, and is within the same footprint, then an EPL is possible, and a VPN could be eliminated, and a PRIVATE Layer2 connection can be established between offices. This can be done over fiber or over coax (if its Comcast)
Let us know what your thoughts are. Can't wait!
Peace,
Jon
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How To Create A Vpn With Comcast
Source: https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/267775-is-it-possible-to-create-a-vpn-tunnel-using-only-a-verizon-and-a-comcast-router
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