I have several Windows Server 2012 dedicated servers with static ip addresses. I am wondering if it's possible to create a secure private network for these machines using software only. The machines are in different physical locations around the world.
5 Answers
If they are machines with a public static IP address each (as opposed to small networks with gateways), you can use IPSec to secure and encrypt traffic between them.
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The only way to connect multiple sites like if it were in the same physical location is by using VPN. Once the connection is established they will share the same virtual network. Windows Server comes with Remote Access Role and you can use it to setup VPN without any additional licenses or third-party softwares. Here's a collection of articles with everything you need to know.
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So does one server have to act as the host, or can each server know about all the other servers in a group, kind of like peer to peer?– jjxtraSep 23, 2014 at 19:39
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One will be the host and all the others will connect to it creating a virtual network where everyone can be accessed like if they were on the same physical network. Bear in mind that you will be tunneling the connection over the internet (assuming you don't have dedicated data links between these servers) so the connection between them may be slow depending how far they are or the quality of the connection. Sep 23, 2014 at 19:54
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Hmmm. I don't like the idea of having a host - single point of failure. Is there no way to do this peer to peer style? Or perhaps there is a way to have a fallback host?– jjxtraSep 23, 2014 at 22:12
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No p2p. You can have multiple servers tho for load balance and failover. Sep 23, 2014 at 22:55
One way is configuring VPN between the server which are spread across the multiple geo location.
The other way is to setting up tight security measures such as firewall in all the location and deploy remote management software's. These software have secured transactions and you will be able to remote and manage the servers which are in different physical locations around the world. But which is not exactly as like a VPN concept.
Hope this help.
1: Take a look at SoftEther It's not the most well documented software, and some features are a bit broken (or at best difficult to configure) but it does have NAT and firewall traversal as well as VPN Azure. The latter is a feature where a free to use cloud based server acts as a rendezvous point using http. If both clients can access the internet then a VPN can form between them. I'm not convinced on the security implications of this though.
2: Use corkscrew - this will be slow and probably require some DynDNS service such as no-ip.
3: Rent a VPS (virtual private server) and use this as your own VPN hub (this is what I usually do)
If you can't install VPN software in Windows, use a cheap router that supports VPNs, such as those from Mikrotik.