Choose a One-Way or Two-Way Initiated Connection

Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

You can set up a site-to-site connection so that it can be initiated from only one location, or you can configure a connection that can be initiated from either side of the dial-up or VPN connection. The following table describes and compares these options.

Connection Type	Description	Use
One-way initiated connection	One site contains only an answering router and the other site contains only a calling router.	Use an on-demand or persistent one-way initiated connection when users at a branch office need to connect to a headquarters office but not vice versa. Use a persistent one-way initiated connection when you have 10 or more branch offices and users at each site need to access the other sites. When you use a two-way initiated connection for 10 or more connections, performance is too slow.
Two-way initiated connection	A router at each site can function as both an answering router and as a calling router.	Use a two-way initiated connection when users at both locations need to access resources or people in the other location and you have 10 or fewer connections. Note For performance reasons, if you have 10 or more connections, use a one-way initiated persistent connection.

For both a one-way and a two-way initiated connection, use the properties of the router in the RRAS MMC snap-in to configure both the calling and the answering router as a local area network (LAN) router and as a demand-dial router.