SOHO Cisco VPN 3002 Hardware Client

The 3002 Hardware Client provides hardware stability for small offices in which remote access VPN tunnels to the main office are required. Instead of installing the software client on multiple end-devices, the Cisco VPN 3002 Hardware Client offloads that responsibility onto itself by initiating the VPN tunnel on behalf of the clients behind it. This functionality, known as Client mode, utilizes Port Address Translation (PAT) to hide the devices behind the hardware client. The 3002 can also support site-to-site connectivity in Network Extension mode. Configuration is simple because of its pushed-policy feature in which the 3002 inherits configuration parameters from the head-end VPN concentrator.

The VPN 3002 Hardware Client is capable of providing up to 10Mbps of throughput of unencrypted data and 2.2Mbps of software-based encrypted data over a single VPN tunnel. It comes standard with a public 10/100 Ethernet interface, which connects to an external Internet WAN router. The CVPN-3002 model has a single private 10/100 Ethernet interface, whereas the CVPN-3002-8E model has an embedded auto-MDIX 8-port switch. The fact that this appliance does not need to rely on unstable computer platforms and can maintain substantial throughput, means the VPN 3002 Hardware Client is a robust solution in comparison to software-based clients. Figure 3.1 illustrates the CVPN 3002-8E model.

Figure 3.1. Cisco CVPN 3002-8E Hardware Client.