Question for the .net/VPN experts

[judas]

We've been contracted to build an online quotation system for a client and part of the process involves getting some data from a third party web service via VPN. Given that I'm not a .net developer (but I do have a tame one available) and don't know much about VPN, what's the best way to approach this? Windows Server 2003 has the facility to set up a VPN connection, but this looks to be a user level connection that needs to be fired up manually. Is it possible to do all this automatically through .net?

[sneakyneil]

Just my 2p, the third party service provider may well mandate a certain VPN client to be used, as there are different incompatible standards so I'd make them my first port of call before deciding too much.

[judas]

Several phone calls later and it's firewall-to-firewall VPN they use, so I need to see if our hosting company can accommodate...

[zumbruk]

Even if it's "firewall-to-firewall", if you can run a compatible end-point it should still work. For example, if they're running IPSec, you can run an IPSec compatible client and talk to their firewall.