I could spend hours online looking at the specs.

I could spend time with a couple consultants we use.

Or I can ask here, check back in a few hours, and get suggestions from people I know will work and trust.

One of the non prfoits I'm involved with is going to an Admin center with service centers out in the field. The people in the service center, we are thinking two offices in each, will need to get on the main office network. I know tons of you guys use VPN to get into the office networks, and I think that is by far the easiest way and least expensive way. We would put the hardware in the home office, DSL lines in the branches,a nd VPN into the network when people need to do so.

Any suggestions on the hardware/software solution that works, doesn't cost a fortune, and can be used by people who think a CD tray is a cup holder?

Thanks in advance.

I have been very impressed with openvpn - easy to configure, extremely secure, robust enough for enterprise-level use, and it is free, because it is open-source.

it also works on windows and linux. i used a linux server and installed it on my thinkpad laptop as the client.

i set it up to vpn into my small office network, it took around 30 minutes to configure initially.

You might consider using a static VPN tunnel between the main office and the branches. We use a commercial product that supports this between our main and branch (singular) office. This way, it looks like the networks are always connected between each other--no need to initiate a connection. Ours uses IpSec.

It is possible that you might be able to get a firewall capable of this for < $250; thte ones we use do other things (like the mobile VPN as well as the static) and are in the $500-$1000 range.

I didn't look at OpenVPN, I will confess. It's price point is likely better for the non-profit.

while price is always an issue, free isn't necessary, it would probably be covered by a donation or grant anyways.