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Most of the equipment you already own is capable of supporting an extranet, but building a virtual private network (VPN) out of existing devices may give you some a serious headaches.

Interoperability problems are a given, even when different firewall and router vendors support the same VPN protocol. The solution, some end users find, is to buy an extranet.

"We need a cost-effective way to bring in business partners, suppliers, our sales force, which is highly mobile, a remote-access intranet for employees, and we have a lot of outsourced contracts with engineers and contract programmers," says the extranet network architect for a large, diverse multinational manufacturer that is prototyping NOC 4000 extranet switches from Bay Networks, Inc.'s Extranet Access Division.

"These people are everywhere, and they need to communicate. We figure this way we could let them pay for their own Internet access, which most already have," the net architect adds. "We tried it on our own. But we had a lot of painful issues. A lot of PCs would hang. We brought the NOC in here, plugged it in and it worked."

Besides the NOC 4000, which Bay acquired in January with the purchase of the product's creator, New Oak Communications, Inc., a few other extranet VPN-specific products are creeping into the market. These include getAccess client-based security software from enCommerce Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif.; Permit, an Ethernet encryption gateway from TimeStep Corp., of Kanata, Ontario; and the VSU family of encryption/decryption gateways from VPNet Technologies, Inc., of San Jose, Calif.

In addition to sidestepping the interoperability issues of legacy equipment, these ready-made extranets offer a high level of control over access privileges for individuals and groups. The same device allows the Webmaster to define which applications are available to remote employees and which to suppliers, customers or consultants.

The downside is cost. Most of these solutions are aimed squarely at large corporations, with prices ranging from approximately $10,000 for a low-end solution to more than $100,000 for a large enterprise VPN. A bargain for the target market, vendors say -- but out of reach for midsize or small companies.

-- Julie Bort