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Laptop connection solutions?

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by jim_rau

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I have 12 laptops that move between 10 sites in our company. All 12 run Win95 and 3Com network cards. When the user gets to a site they start the laptop, change the IP address and restart to connect.

This used to work better but since we added a couple more sites the IP addressing is very unstable. I think it has to do with the number of gateway entries in the TCP/IP setup.

So I would like to look into the utilities that manage connections. Since I have all 3Com cards in these laptops (and across the company for that matter) I received info from 3Com on their DirectAccess product and it sounds good. I also know Norton has a product as well. I am not sure what else is available.

I am looking for a couple good opinions on a suitableproduct. So a simple "pick this" just won't do ... I want to know what you tried and why. Also tell me how many laptops and sites you use the solution for.

I look forward to the info and will award 500 points to two opinions that help me make this project happen! Thanks!!!

4 replies

by jim_rau

That would be a lot of work to setup dhcp at 10 sites and manage the environment. I ran down 7 utilities that should do this and they all make the laptop reboot (Win95) which I hoped to avoid. I think I will improve my instructions and stick with what I have.

As a show of good faith I will give you a good rating ... thanks and enjoy!

by bill cassada

I agree with using DHCP...but if this is not possible my last firm used IPSwitch to allow about 50 mobile users to use their laptops at more than 10 remote sites. If you have a BDC at each site you could set up each BDC as a DHCP server (each with different scopes)...when the user connected to the network and logged in the DHCP would handle the dirty work. That was our end solution (we got rid of IPSwitch as a result...didn't need it anymore). The cost of a few BDCs (they don't have to be super machines) was about the same as buying a 3rd party solution and this way WE managed it.

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