Mac – Which VPN Server Hardware is Best for Accessing from Mac Clients

clientmacvpn

We are an all-Mac shop (well, actually, a mostly-Mac shop – we have some Linux servers running behind the scenes). We do web applications development and our files and source code is all hosted in-house.

Our Mac-toting consultants would like to connect to the office to access files (AFP to shared volumes), update source code (subversion over HTTP/HTTPS), and demo software (HTTP through a browser) when they are on a client site.

Traffic will be light. We are a small company (and cheap), and do not expect more than 3 or 4 people to be connected concurrently. However, we need the solution to be reliable. Many of our clients and consultants are abroad.

Which VPN Server Hardware is best for this scenario? I would prefer something that uses standard protocols – I understand that L2TP, PPTP and Cisco IPsec are built in to the OS – so something that uses these protocols will be ideal. (I have seen quite a few VPN solutions that have horrible, buggy, and badly supported client software). An added bonus would be support for iPads as well.

Naturally, I would like it to not be too expensive (I told you we are cheap), though what I really mean is that I am far more willing to pay for reliability and built-in support, than for features I do not need.

Best Answer

Where I work, we use the Junos line of products for VPN connections. I'm a little light on the details as far as the hardware requirements and the setup costs etc. but we've had very little issues with them. Some advantages:

  • Platform independent

    The vpn runs in Java (I believe, I never took the time to look really) and can be run on pretty much any platform. I've tried on Mac and PC, though if you might need Linux you should check into that first.

  • Works on iPad

This might be a bit more enterprise-y (read: Expensive) than your company is willing to fork over. In that case, you might look into the built-in Mac OS X VPN. Mac OS X Server has advertised VPN hosting capabilities which you can apparently use something like iVPN (though if you're technical with the CLI, you can probably get by without it.) I don't have any on-the-job experience with this as we're a strictly SOHO environment, but it's for sure worth looking into.

There are enterprise options out there if your company is looking for a managed solution. If not, there are options for enterprising individuals willing to put forth the necessary time and effort to make sure it all works. I've experimented in the past with VPN and, though it was years ago and I'm sure the software has matured, I'd definitely prefer a managed solution.

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