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We have a webserver which is hosted outside our office.

The firewall of the server limits the access (ssh, sftp, etc) by ip; only the public static ips of our office can access it.

Our problem is that the responsible person has to come to the office to work in case of emergency. We would like to find a solution to allow him to work without the location constraint.

Unfortunately our VDSL router (Zyxel P-870HN-51b) has not VPN capabilities.

We were simply thinking about buying a firewall (ZyXEL ZyWALL USG 40) and have it setup in our office so the remote employee would "get" a whitelisted public ip.

Is it a safe solution? Or would you advice something totally different?

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    Stand up a VPN server with a static IP somewhere (AWS, etc.)? Does your hosting provider have a solution?
    – schroeder
    Apr 20, 2015 at 22:22
  • Unfortunately their solutions are way too expensive. :(
    – Toto
    Apr 20, 2015 at 22:33

1 Answer 1

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You're website's security is partially dependent on your office's network security. You're talking about adding a means of making a remote connection into your office's network. Adding the VPN will provide a new attack vector (hacking the VPN logon or VPN device) so you'll be weakening your existing security.

That said, what you're proposing is a fairly standard configuration and functionality that VPNs are intended to provide. So take care with the VPN configuration and you should be OK.

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  • Looks like adding a two-factor authentication to the VPN would add a security layer. Hope we can find an affordable solution...
    – Toto
    Apr 20, 2015 at 23:55
  • This page has a collection of 2FA services. I've used Toopher, Google Authenticator, and DuoSecurity and been relatively happy with them. Apr 21, 2015 at 15:14

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