VPN vs. Dial-in ~ What do you think?

I have a disagreement with a co-worker who wants to install a dial-in system, while I think a VPN is the better choice. She claims:

-that the dial-in is more secure from external threats than a VPN
-the VPN will take her several days to install, while the dial-in up will take a very short time
-the computer we want to use is networked to the other systems in our building and therefore will compromise the security from an internal standpoint

I disagree with all of the above points. Am I wrong? Do you have any advice? Do you know any sites with good documentation that I could study to help make my case?

We have two locations separated by about six miles, where one location needs to tap into the other to use financial software. From our standpoint, we have no room to put this standalone workstation in our small office, don't want to pay for the dedicated phone line for the dial-in, and feel the dial-in is less secure. We want to have one of our existing computers utilize the VPN to contact the other. We have no server, but do have six computer networked peer-to-peer only. On their end, they have an extensive network with several servers, and a Cisco router that would work for our VPN.

THANKS!

 

Thanks for the reassurance. I'm a computer science student, and that's what I've learned in class over the last couple of years. The problem is, I don't have any documentation to back it up. I'm also a little shaky on some of the technical things I know she's going to throw out and make me look like I don't know what I'm talking about, therefore making me seem wrong. The decision makers are going to listen to both sides and go from there.

Any nuggets of wisdom for me, or quality sites proving the facts on VPNs?

Thanks!