First, the rundown...

We currently have about 20 Win98 workstations, and two NT Servers.

One of the Servers is running a firewall to protect the internal network, and connects the network to the internet via a high speed wireless connection.

The other server is running, among other things, SQL Server 7.0.

All of the networked workstations contain a database application that I wrote in VFP that connects to the DB Server via an ODBC SQL DSN.

Now, the problem:

Our current office location is not in a DSL available zone. (We want to host an in-house web server, which will need to access the DB server, but not until we have DSL.) We don't want to re-locate the entire office, so one of the options we are considering is moving just the DB Server to a location that can get DSL. I still need each of the 20 workstations at our original location to be able to connect to the DB Server.

I have done some testing, and have set up a SQL server outside of our LAN. Even with a firewall on each end, I was able to connect a workstation in our LAN with the SQL Server on another LAN, via the internet. I know this can be done, and with some degree of security, beings each LAN was protected with a proxy server/firewall.

However, a couple of questions that I have are as follows:
1.) What are the chances of somebody "packet snooping" on the internet between the two firewalls? How hard is it to decipher a SQL ODBC packet?

- I don't know much about Virtual Private Networks. Would they enable me to encrypt the internet part of my setup? They may be the answer to my predicament. Anyone have links to good VPN info?

2.) If both LANs are connected to the internet via DSL-like connectivity, what kind of latency will I experience with the ODBC over the internet as opposed to the server being on the same LAN?

Any input would be greatly apreciated!!
Thanks!