VPN Clients - Another use for Virtual Machines?
VPN clients allow you to securely connect your workstation to a host network somewhere else. Typically, a firewall company (Fortinet’s Fortigate line in my case), support IPSec VPN’s to their firewall with VPN client software they supply.
Because of the tight integration between the VPN client software and Microsoft networking components in Windows, loading a VPN client from 2 or more vendors, say Fortinet and Cisco, isn’t a very good idea.
VPN client softwares have a nasty reputation of not playing well together. In fact, it has been known to happen that when you install a second VPN client on your PC, not only does neither VPN client work, but neither does the Microsoft networking to you local network.
In some cases, the only fix is a complete Windows reinstall. Ouch.
Enter the Virtual Machine. What if your need to connect to another network were limited enough that you could set up a simple Virtual Machine instance of Windows to connect to and access that other network?
Not only could you have multiple VM’s for multiple VPN clients so they don’t HAVE to play together at all, but the remote network could be less concerned about whether your PC has been compromised in some way? Yes?
So who needs multiple VPN clients? How about an accounting firm with many clients, high gasoline and other travel costs that make remote access appealing, and a typical lack of standardization between chosen firewall products among those accounting clients?
I have one such accounting firm as my client. I think I just found another use for Virtual Machines.
