So I was going to setup a vpn between my mixed sites. I was hoping to use openvpn at the "no mikrotik hadrware sites" and the openvpn stuff in mikrotik hardware sites to all group together. I did alot of reading on the forums about the state of openvpn on the mikrotik devices. Seems its not being developed any further (which that is stange because its a very active project and has good backing) and might someday be phased out. Cold someone suggest a replacement for openvpn that would work with the mikrotik hardware and the generic hardware (ie x86 based) I have at other sites. I don't think that L2TP/IPsec handle the whole gambit of features that openvpn brings to the solution. The main hub site would be running on x86 hardware, not mikrotik.

You don't have to use the same technology among each site ... in general I would say that you need to think about your topoloogy first. Are you setting up a central hub and all others connect to that or you set-up peer to peer connection among each pair of sites?

Even in the hub situation you can have L2TP, PPTP, SSTP and OpenVPN running on the hub and each client can use the technology best suited for their network to join. P2P connections might be more complicated, but would cut down the latency.

All in all I think you should use L2TP (with or without IPSEC) wherever possible. It uses UDP transport - OpenVPN could use UDP transport as well, but MT did not implement that part... SSTP and PPTP could be your backup solution.

As far as I know I have been able to do everything with L2TP and PPTP that can be done with OpenVPN, but if you have a different opinion, continue this thread with examples.

GL