Establishing a VPN connection to an at home employee

We are considering adding an employee that would perform most of their work
from home. I've been asked how secure of an access we can establish between
them and our network.

I have zero experience with this type of set-up. So I'm asking for the
basics of what's involved, what's required that we don't already have and
any "gotchas".

We have:
1720 VPN Router
PIX 515

Both at latest IOS.

I assume we need VPN client(s), at least on the employees machine. Is that
a Cisco product?

Thanks in advance

Paul

 

:We are considering adding an employee that would perform most of their work
:from home. I've been asked how secure of an access we can establish between
:them and our network.

:I have zero experience with this type of set-up. So I'm asking for the
:basics of what's involved, what's required that we don't already have and
:any "gotchas".

:We have:
: 1720 VPN Router
: PIX 515

: Both at latest IOS.

Well, PIX doesn't run IOS, but we know what you mean. ;-)


:I assume we need VPN client(s), at least on the employees machine. Is that
:a Cisco product?

Yes. You can download it from Cisco.com to get the latest version.
A version of it was also in the box with the PIX 515, but that might
be a bit old now.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/secursw/ps2308/index.html

 

If you have PDM loaded on the PIX then it's pretty simple to setup for a
client connection via the VPN Wizard.

 

Does the at home employee have to have a fixed IP address for VPN to work?

Thanks again
Paul

 

No, just one endpoint have to be fix. Of course, it is not good if home
employees address change during the connection. It will probably
breakdown the connection.