Forgive me as I have very little domain knowledge in this area, I'm helping out at my parent's office and was asked to look into speeding up the internet. They've been using this IT guy that I think is ripping them off... They have a T1 line which costs a ton and only provides 3 Up, 3 Down. The IT guy is convinced that it is necessary for the VPN which is used by employees to access documents on the office server when they're out of the office. They also use it to access some applications which run on the server.
I understand that this is for reliability but if you don't have a T1 line going to your house, how are you going to see that reliability? Am I missing something about VPNs? Is the T1 necessary at all? I'd think you need T1's from point to point? Why can't we just put a VPN on a normal cable connection?
I'm just about to finish my CS degree, but know very little about networking, so be gentle please.