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Remote Access

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I work for a company of approximately 1000 people of which the majority needs to have access to our clients’ servers, UNIX, VMS and NT. We currently use a number of means of connecting to the various hardware, such as modem banks and third party software, for example, PCAnywhere. We are now looking to streamline this process and make it easier for the users as well as more cost effective.

Does anyone have suggestions as to what possible alternatives are available?

We are dialing out to sites to transmit code, update operating systems and trouble-shoot a multitude of hardware and software issues.

Thank you to all for your assistance

Anne

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Remote Access

In reply to Remote Access

Hello Anne,
What you need is VPN; and if you have more then one site, you’ll also need some routing.
I don’t know what you budget is like, but if you want to start from the bottom and work your way up on ways to VPN and route, go to my web site and get tons of info about both procedures using Microsoft Products.
I can’t do it all in 1000 characters.
Keep it in mind that Windows 2000 would be the best product to do it all. However, you can accomplish the same task on NT4s.
Go to my site and get all the info you need to start your research.
http://www.softsolutionsconsult.com – network

Good luck!

Remote Access

In reply to Remote Access

Thank you for your assistance

Remote Access

In reply to Remote Access

Remote access can be a very complicated beast to deal with. There are several factors to consider: 1) Security 2) Geographic diversity of your users 3) Network protocol requirements and 4) Application bandwidth requirements. Since you are currently using modem banks and PCAnywhere, you most likely have a support and maintenance nightmare on your hands. Remote control (PCAnywhere) is only an applicable solution for highly intensive bandwidth requirements. It is also the most insecure RAS solution you can design. If you can, erradicate it from your business environment. If you are able to provide terminal emulation support via TCP/IP to all of your backend host, then I might recommend a Remote Node approach via the Cisco 5300/5400 RASrouter. This in conjunction with CiscoSecure will give you a consolidated, cost effective, reportable, manageable, and secure RAS solution. In addition to analog dial, you will also be able to support ISDN (BRI or PRI) dial-in and T1 connectivity. If your users are g

Remote Access

In reply to Remote Access

Thank you for your assistance, and for the follow-up e-mail. Bot I have find quite helpful

Remote Access

In reply to Remote Access

Connectivity – use a VPN, Axent’s Raptor firewall comes with a mobile VPN solution for as many users as the firewall supports. You could also use MS & PPTP to create the same effect. That takes care of the Unix-based servers because I’m sure you have telnet & secure shells to use behind it.
Remote Control (NT)- First of all use what the client already has: MS SMS, Citrix, PcAnywhere, etc. If you can’t connect, they will have to troubleshoot it so they had better know it. Otherwise for NT you can look at SMS, NetMeeting, RemoteCMD (NT reskit), or VNC by bell labs. It would seem to be really hard to choose a uniform solution for every client.

Remote Access

In reply to Remote Access

Thank you for your assistance

Remote Access

In reply to Remote Access

Hi Anne,
You have to consider following factors in order to adopt a solution: 1) Security 2) Geographic placement of your sites 3) Network bandwidth requirements 4) Management effectiveness and 5) Budget. The primary solution would be implementing a VPN over Win2k – using L2TP, but you could also use Border Manager from Novell or Cisco’s routers 5000 series.

Remote Access

In reply to Remote Access

Thank you for your assistance

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