Hey,
Well by the sounds of things you do not want the office PC's left on?
Cloud virtualization such as Citrix might be a solution...
http://www.citr
Cheers
MC
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Windows remote access for all of our employees
What is the best option to allow multiple employees to have a remote connection to out office LAN? We've been alllowing users to leave their office computers turned on, and accessing it using Windows remote access & Cisco VPN software through our Pix firewall router, but I'm curious if we can just set up separate logins on our data server for each user so that they don't have to leave their office computers turned on each day. I'm sure it's as simple as adding users to the server, but I'm curious what other companies are doing, and any issues that I might need to be aware of.
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Answers
You have a few options some explained already above.
1. Cisco VPN Client (Ipsec would be your best option due to network load etc depends on how many users) You can do AD authentication via IPsec to the LAN so they have the same access as if they where in the office
2. Setup a dedicated terminal server and purchase CALS give your users remote access and then the only option to RDP to the terminal server
3. Use Citrix as explained above depends on how many users we are talking about citrix would be a cost effective way if the numbers are big
4. SSL Web Based VPN like sonicwall etc
Personally if the users who VPN in having company laptops etc then none of the above then option 1 would be the easiest as it would have corporate anti virus and locked down as to what can be installed etc
If the users are going to be using their own equipment then I would not go with option 1 because they could carry viruses etc over to the network i.e once dialled in they will have access to resources like shared drives for the sake as an example if you had a virus outbreak similar to conflicker it does not need any special permissions as long as the user can write to the directory then so can the virus
You need to take into account security and costs whichever route you go down
Sounds like there are several possibilities.
(Raheem05) - I'm curious about how a "terminal serve" (option 2) works. I'm not familiar with that solution, but it sounds like it might be one of the better choices.
I'm hesitant about using option 1 since we'll have (both) "company" remote PCs that they'll be using and also their own equipment.
Citrix might be too expensive, and I probably won't be considering that option. We have 20 users in our office, and probably 10 "remote" users.
Citrix can be expensive, but otherwise workable. With respect to VPN remote access, the company should provide those people with company laptops and put the VPN client on the laptops. I would not install VPN access on non-company machines for security reasons. There are enough problems with company-owned laptops, but no end of issue with home computers (no standards, no control over usage, etc.). .. Thinkpads_User
Basically setup a windows 2003 server on your LAN then purchase in your example 10 CAL licenses from Microsoft they come in blocks of 5 and you get 3 free when you take the console into consideration.
So when a user dials into the network they then have an rdp window already saved on their desktop called office.rdp and that has already been setup with the correct IP, Screen resolution, local device connections) all they do is double click on office.rdp and they will get the login box to the server as long as they are in remote desktop users on the server I would suggest doing this centrally i.e. create a security group called VPN users and then add this security group to the server which is going to be used as a terminal server under the local security group remote desktop users add the vpn users group then whoever needs vpn access you just add them to that security group in ad and install the vpn client which is locked down to only connect to the lan and authenticate to the above server. They can login to the server as if they where logging in to their pc's in the office they also have the option of carrying over local printers from their end so if they wanted to print from the session to a local printer at home they could do.
As long as you have the correct CAL license for your users you will have no problems
option 2 gives you complete isolation (bear in mind if a user is working on a document locally they they can not transfer that document to the remote desktop session they could email it to themselves or use the clipboard) and easier to manage when things go wrong i.e. if a user calls you and says I am not getting the @ sign etc i.e. you can then open a remote desktop session to the server and login as the user (which will kick them off) and in the above example change the regional settings etc so you dont have to worry about an exec sitting in shanghai who needs something changing on his profile you can do this for him without him getting an internet connection etc
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by: thinkpads_userPosted on 2009-11-05 at 15:14:08ID: 25755143
What I do for my clients is provide them with server ID's and remote access via VPN (Netscreen) like you do. Then they access the network and deal with whatever they need to deal with. No office computer need be left on for the most part. Just be sure the server logons have good passwords as server security is important once the client is into the network. It is just ordinary security stuff.
... Thinkpads_User