Question

How to allow outside access to internal pc securely

Firewalls, Switches, Network security, Check Point, VLAN, Networking

Hi all,

I need to allow an outside service engineer connect to a machine tool (PC attached) to run diagnostics on my network.

What's the best way to allow him temperorily access to this internal pc? This will probably only happen a few times a month, so access doesn't have to be enabled permanently.

I have a checkpoint firewall and use HP procurve managed switches.
Should I be setting up a rule on the firewall or setting up a VLAN on the switch? Or some combination?

Not sure how best to approach this?

Thanks in advance,
Paul

Setting up a VPN (Virtual Private Connection) is a trivial matter to set up and provides an encrypted tunnel (link) for remote workers. If you are running Windows Server it is set up under Routing and Remote Mangement. It can even be set up on a standalone XP (probably 2000 and lower as well) workstation by creating an advanced connection in the Create New Connection wizard (Accept incoming connections.) You'd just have to route port 1723 (default PPTP port) to whichever computer is accepting the connections. You'll also need to have a user set up to be able to connect remotely - this is done under the Dial-in tab on their user account.


#######Added by Kb3cgj#####

I usually recommend Logmein.com. You can setup a free account and give the engineer access to it. When he is done trouble-shooting..simply delete the account and uninstall the software....They have a number of good products.

Nick