Koozali.org: home of the SME Server
Legacy Forums => General Discussion (Legacy) => Topic started by: Terry Good on October 23, 2003, 08:46:33 AM
-
Hi,
I am very new with SME server and Linux so please bear with me here.
I have set a network at home using SME server 6 beta 2 and am using it as a data storage area which includes my MYOB data file. From what I have seen of the SME server software it is brilliant.
The rest of my network is Windows XP. All works well.
However now I find I must spend some time away from the office and wish to be able to dial in and access my MYOB data file from my laptop running XP.
Can someone please give me a walkthrough how to set this up.
Thank you for your time and support.
Terry
-
There are many ways to skin this cat, many I don't know much about. I simply use pcanywhere. You didn't mention how your LAN connects to the internet, but if through the SME server, do this:
1. In your server, forward ports 5631 and 5632, both tcp and udp to the fixed ip address of some windows box on your network.
2. Set up pcanywhere host on that box, with a username and password, and all the max security options and encryption.
2. If you have a fixed ip for your SME server from your isp, then remotely point pcanywhere on your laptop to that ip, and in a few seconds, you will be sitting at the console of the box you set up in step #2. You can now open and run MYOB, and it will be as fast as your slowest link in your internet connection.. Generally, for running an application, this is the fastest way to get the job done, as you are only using the communication link to transmit keystrokes and changes to the screen display.
If you use a router to connect your LAN to the internet, then program it to do the port forwarding as above, and leave your SME server alone.
If you do not have a fixed ip address from your isp, then set up dyndns or equivalent on your SME server (see the docs for how to do this). You will then point your laptop pcanywhere to the dyndns address you have established, and again you will sitting at your assigned system on your local network.
If you were to try to run MYOB on your laptop, and open the data files on your SME server, (perhaps using a VPN connection) even with a seriously fast internet connection all the way, you would find the response time to be like turtles swimming through peanut butter.
Hope this helps,
Tom
-
As far as I know 6.0 beta2 has a very poor VPN. Upgrade to 6b3 instead and all you have to do is to make a VPN connection on your WinXP to the server using your useracount (remember to enable VPN on the SME).
It should be easy once that is done!
-
I have several clients that use MYOB remotely and can confirm Tom's statement "... you would find the response time to be like turtles swimming through peanut butter".
We tested several solutions (including pcanywere) and found the best to be a small program called Radmin http://www.famatech.com/. Cost and overhead requirements are considerably less than pcanywere and performance is amazing.
-
try realVNC, it is free
what you would do is PPTP (VPN) into your sme box, then fire up VNC and connect to your home computer. This way MYOB will run on your home pc. Running MYOB on your laptop and accessing the data file on your home computer over the VPN will be as slow as was mentioned in the previous posts.
Also, i would stay away from using PCAnywhere or any other remote control util without going thru some type of encrypted tunnel (VPN)
I don't know if PCAnywhere does any type of encryption to the traffic it sends, VNC definitely does not.
steve
-
steve wrote:
> try realVNC, it is free
<...>
> I don't know if PCAnywhere does any type of encryption to the
> traffic it sends, VNC definitely does not.
There are a number of VNC implementations of which RealVNC is only one flavor. Other VNCs, like TightVNC, offer greater speed, and some, like Ultr@VNC offer greater speed and encryption. Most of these are free (all senses).
PCAnywhere does offer encryption btw. Another similar product is Timbuktu. I've used the latter a great deal as it is cross-platform between MacOS & Windows and it offers a handy 'locator service' where client machines can register for free with a central server run by the software vendor, no need for dynamic dns. Both of these products are about US$100.
Finally almost all of the remote control products can be set to be run from many of the popular chat clients like MS Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and AOL Instant Messenger. One simply leaves the host PC running with the chat client logged in, when a succesfull connection to it is made it can be set to launch the remote application and pass off addresses.