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Remote access to our centers: Using the virtual private network service at the IBM Innovation Centers for Business Partners
The virtual private network (VPN) service is designed to allow you to connect from your office or home-office workstation over the Internet to our centers. This type of service requires that you have the ability to perform your porting and testing work on your own with less direct assistance from our staff. Also, you will need to have some basic understanding of how your enterprise connects to the Internet so that we can recommend the correct solution to establish a VPN connectivity to our center.
The VPN service is composed of VPN products from AEP Networks (formerly V-ONE Corporation), Cisco Systems and IBM. One of these solutions will be used to establish an encrypted VPN session from your workstation to the IBM Innovation Centers for Business Partners. In order to use these VPN products, you will need to install software provided by AEP, Cisco or IBM and accept their client licensing terms for your workstation. As part of the service, IBM has negotiated your access to this code for the purposes of connecting to the VPN service only. Depending on the requirements for your engagement, we may also provide you with graphical user interface (GUI) access through products such as Microsoft Remote Desktop or VNC.
Visit our resources page and select the service you require to see if it is available by remote access. The answers to your most commonly asked questions about the VPN service are below.
Q: What types of VPN protocol and encryption do you support?
A: The VPN service at our centers provides support for IPSec through Cisco VPN servers, secure mobile VPN for wired and wireless users from IBM, and application-level port forwarding through the AEP SmartGate product. All solutions use triple DES or stronger encryption to provide privacy to your communications over the Internet.
Q: Our enterprise uses a NAT-translation firewall; what type of VPN can we use?
A: With a NAT firewall that supports IPSec passthrough, you may use Cisco VPN, Lotus Mobile Connect or AEP SmartPass clients to connect to our center.
Q: Our enterprise has an HTTP proxy to the Internet; what type of VPN can we use?
A: AEP SmartPass will work with your enterprise HTTP proxy to connect to our VPN service at our center. The traffic will be sent encrypted on port 443 (the default port for HTTPS traffic).
Q: Our enterprise has a SOCKS proxy to the Internet; what type of VPN can we use?
A: If your workstation has a "socksified" TCP/IP stack to work with your SOCKS server, you may use AEP SmartPass.
Q: Can systems at the IBM Innovation Centers for Business Partners connect back to my enterprise via the VPN?
A: Only if you require this type of connection for your engagement testing requirements. If you require reverse communication through the VPN, you will need to use the Cisco IPSec or Lotus Mobile Connect clients. Port forwarding VPN products like AEP SmartGate do not provide a reverse path for communication. This means that X11 applications will not work with AEP SmartGate. Instead, GUI extending solutions such as VNC may be used for accessing Linux®, AIX and other X11 platforms.
Q: Where can I read more about AEP SmartGate and how it works?
A: We have written a white paper (pdf, 196KB) that describes in more detail how AEP SmartGate works with our centers.
Q: I'm located outside North America. Can I access the IBM Innovation Centers for Business Partners via the VPN service?
A: Yes, the VPN service is now available through our centers in Bangalore, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Hursley, Moscow Oslo, Paris, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Stockholm, Stuttgart and Sydney. If you wish to access one of the IBM Innovation Centers for Business Partners in North America (e.g., for a specific offering), the VPN service supports incoming international access through our Dallas, San Mateo and Waltham centers.
Q: I have other questions about this service. How do I get them answered?
A: Please send e-mail to iic_vpninfo@us.ibm.com.
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