Question : Problem: How to improve connection speed (time taken to access files, directories, Etc) through a PPTP tunnel between two offices.

Dear EE

We are working through a slight WAN/PPTP VPN issue here and your input/advice would be helpful.

The Problem:

We have an office in Chicago, which is our main office, and a small office in Lacrosse WI. The offices are connected Via a PPTP/VPN between two Netopia Routers. The connection and file access speed between the two offices is finally stable, but very slow.

We do a lot of work with construction CAD & graphics files, which I expect to be a little slower than most other “normal” files, but lately, Lacrosse office users have been complaining about slow times with smaller files such as Word & Excel files.

As much detail as I can think of is provided below:

Chicago Office – 10.10.70.0:
Win Server 03 AD Domain, 5 servers:
•      1 DC acting as WINS, DNS, DHCP, File server
•      1 DC acting as DNS, APP Server, Print server
•      1 member server – Administrative server, McAfee EPO
•      1 member server – Exchange Server 2003
•      1 member server – Database server for Deltek Vision
About 50 workstations all running Win XP
Chicago has a T1 to the internet from McLeod going through McLeod’s “Integrated Access” service.
Netopia 4686XL Router (10.10.70.1) handling WAN access, remote VPN & Remote DHCP.
•  The tunnel in question is a PPTP VPN, Router to Router
o      Authentication – MS-CHAP
o      Data Encryption – None
o      No Time Out setting
o      No Address Translation or Statefull Inspection
o      Netbios Proxy enabled
o      RIP send & Receive off


Lacrosse Office – 10.10.74.0:
No Servers
4 WinXP workstations, 3 full time users.
Lacrosse has cable internet access from Charter at 1.5 down, 256 up.
Netopia 4686XL Router (10.10.74.1) handling WAN access, remote VPN
•      The tunnel in question is the same as above

The Wisconsin users are members of the Chicago Domain and authenticate through the tunnel on the DC’s here in Chicago. I have disabled using remote Profiles on all Wisconsin machines. I have setup all Wisconsin machines with LMHOSTS files set with appropriate Chicago server, IP & Domain information.

Changes I have made that has helped:
•      Disabled Encryption on the routers for this tunnel.
•      Enabled Netbios Proxy for this tunnel.

Suggestions that have been made:
•      Wisconsin based Server – (Files would probably still be kept in Chicago)
•      Better Router / VPN hardware
•      Faster / Dedicated connection between the two offices.
•      Call Netopia Support to see if there are any additional changes in the tunnel I could make.

Answer : Problem: How to improve connection speed (time taken to access files, directories, Etc) through a PPTP tunnel between two offices.

"As I have been moving forward with this issue, I have got now, and have wanted to stay with a router to router PPTP VPN rather than a PC to Router (or appliance) connection or formal MS-RAS.
Is one better than the other? "

Of course there is never a blanket answer, all decisions need to be based on real business cases, but in general I always prefer a VPN between devices ( if the devices are capable of the amount of traffic expected ). That keeps unnecessary traffic off the servers, which always seem to be overworked anyway.