different VPN clients on one laptop

[robro]

I have a problem that I can't figure out any way to resolve. We have
a software application that we support that's installed at various
client sites. Each client uses a different VPN solution. My
developer needs to be able to connect to each client at any given time
to do support or perform software upgrades, but the various VPN
clients have problems co-existing on one machine. The only thing I
can think of is installing something like Virtual PC and installing a
different client each on a different VPC (though I'm not 100% certain
this will even work)... he'd have to set up a development environment
in each VPC as well which is a PITA. I can't really set him up with
more hardware as it needs to be portable and lugging several laptops
back and forth between home and work isn't really a convenient
option. Does anyone have another idea as to how I might get around
this issue? It's only going to get worse as more and more clients
begin to use our software.

Thanks!

[Doug McIntyre]

robro <rrothberg@gmail.com> writes:
>I have a problem that I can't figure out any way to resolve. We have
>a software application that we support that's installed at various
>client sites. Each client uses a different VPN solution. My
>developer needs to be able to connect to each client at any given time
>to do support or perform software upgrades, but the various VPN
>clients have problems co-existing on one machine. The only thing I
>can think of is installing something like Virtual PC and installing a
>different client each on a different VPC (though I'm not 100% certain
>this will even work)... he'd have to set up a development environment
>in each VPC as well which is a PITA. I can't really set him up with
>more hardware as it needs to be portable and lugging several laptops
>back and forth between home and work isn't really a convenient
>option. Does anyone have another idea as to how I might get around
>this issue? It's only going to get worse as more and more clients
>begin to use our software.

Welcome to the wooly world of VPN. :)

Unfortunatly, there's not a whole lot of things you can do. The
virtual machine one is in use in more than a few sites that I know about.
Yes, it will work just fine (assuming you have a NAT-T compliant VPN
solution or setup the VM to bridge packets out if there's more than
one IP available).

You can try to figure out a VPN client that works with all VPN servers
out there including yours, and tell your clients to use that one.

Or, you can change your VPN solution to do something like use the
builtin IPsec/L2TP client in windows which other VPN clients generally
don't mess with.

But yes, on windows, its generally a pain dealing with multiple VPN
client software, and they all tend to interfer with each other because
they have to hook low into the same TCP/IP stack.

[robro]

On Mar 31, 11:58 am, Doug McIntyre <mer...@geeks.org> wrote:
> robro <rrothb...@gmail.com> writes:
> >I have a problem that I can't figure out any way to resolve. We have
> >a software application that we support that's installed at various
> >client sites. Each client uses a different VPN solution. My
> >developer needs to be able to connect to each client at any given time
> >to do support or perform software upgrades, but the various VPN
> >clients have problems co-existing on one machine. The only thing I
> >can think of is installing something like Virtual PC and installing a
> >different client each on a different VPC (though I'm not 100% certain
> >this will even work)... he'd have to set up a development environment
> >in each VPC as well which is a PITA. I can't really set him up with
> >more hardware as it needs to be portable and lugging several laptops
> >back and forth between home and work isn't really a convenient
> >option. Does anyone have another idea as to how I might get around
> >this issue? It's only going to get worse as more and more clients
> >begin to use our software.
>
> Welcome to the wooly world of VPN. :)
>
> Unfortunatly, there's not a whole lot of things you can do. The
> virtual machine one is in use in more than a few sites that I know about.
> Yes, it will work just fine (assuming you have a NAT-T compliant VPN
> solution or setup the VM to bridge packets out if there's more than
> one IP available).
>
> You can try to figure out a VPN client that works with all VPN servers
> out there including yours, and tell your clients to use that one.
>
> Or, you can change your VPN solution to do something like use the
> builtin IPsec/L2TP client in windows which other VPN clients generally
> don't mess with.
>
> But yes, on windows, its generally a pain dealing with multiple VPN
> client software, and they all tend to interfer with each other because
> they have to hook low into the same TCP/IP stack.

Ok thanks, crap... we can't dictate the customers' VPN solution, so I
guess
I'll have to look at VPCs or multiboot solutions. I've tried getting
the built in
Microsoft VPN solution to work before with some various VPN installs
and I've hit a dead end in some cases after spending hours of work on
it. While it ultimately may have been possible, I don't have the time
or
resources to go back down that road again. Oh well.

I think going forward, I may have to talk to my management/sales and
see if we can push something like we need to be able to directly RDP
or
VNC into the server without having to deal with a VPN.