VPN vs. Terminal Services

You are sort of talking apples and oranges here. Terminal Services is a methodology for running applications hosted on a server (either local or remote). A VPN is essentially a medium through you which you reach the servers. A VPN essentially creates a private, secure tunnel (or pipe), through the Internet, between 2 points. A user could use a VPN without Terminal Services, if all he/she needs is access to data on a remote server. However, even with a VPN, in order to run applications hosted on the remote server, he/she would still need to use Terminal Services. Likewise, if the servers are local to the user, the user will need to use Terminal Services to run applications hosted on the server, even though there is no need for a VPN.A VPN and using Terminal Services are not alternatives to the same problem, but are complementary solutions.
Hope this helps.

I think what you're really trying to compare is RAS through a VPN or Terminal Services through a VPN. RAS (through a VPN or not) is for use when you're running the apps on the client and Terminal Services runs the apps on the server. The distinction in performance (assuming the apps can be run in either mode - i.e., normal business apps like word processing, email, etc.) is determined by the speed of your connections. If your users have a broadband connection to the remote server (i.e., DSL,cable, or T1), using RAS connections may suffice, although there will still be somewhat of a lag in performance when data is actually being transferred back and forth. Even with a broadband connection, many users get frustrated with the performance lags and will connect, download files they need to work on, disconnect and work on the files and then reconnect to re-sychronize the files back to the remote server. The speediest solution is a broadband connection using Terminal Services, because the processing and I/O of data is all happening on the remote server and the only thing being transmitted back and forth is the display info from the server and keystrokes/mouse clicks from the client. This is also better in some other respects - because the actual data is not being transmitted back and forth and is more secure and it's less likely that you'll end up with different versions of files in different places. If your users have a slower connection to the remote server (i.e., analog modem connection of some type), Terminal Services would definitely be the only viable solution. Straight RAS under these circumstances is ONLY viable if the user connects, downloads or uploads the necessary data and then disconnects to work on the files. Hope this helps!

Depends on the need. Is it for Remote administration? If so than TS is a great option and you can also secure it via SSL. If you need to publish apps then you may need a VPN as well as TS.

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