I've been looking all over for an answer to this problem. We installed Metaframe XP on a beefy new server in our office. We have remote offices in Chicago & Boston, both with T1 lines and no servers. We have T1 line as well. All three offices use identically configured Checkpoint VPN firewall software on Nokia 330 boxes with maximum memory.
My question/problem:
Our remote offices complain constantly that programs like Outlook, Word, etc. will intermittently become fast then slow, sometimes to the point that they are unusable. We don't have this problem in our local office obviously, and when people work from home, albeit usually not during peak business hours, the system flies.
Our tech guys have tried several different ideas; we turned off all encryption thru our VPN tunnels and just used the Citrix encryption, in case the double-encryption was causing the problem. Very little benefit. We've analyzed the bandwidth thru the firewall in both directions, and the Citrix data averages about 15 - 25 KB constant thruput, maxing out at 80KB very occasionally. We have a total of 30 remote users; both remote offices are experiencing similar speed issues.
So the question is, what could be causing this? Our computer guys are going thru it methodically, but unfortunately the CEO is in a remote office, and he could care less about methodology, he just wants results, and to a certain degree I understand. They're thinking about implementing a QOS solution, Floodgate for Checkpoint, in case users in our office are hogging bandwidth with file sharing, mp3's, etc.
I'm thinking that a T1 from each office should be sufficient, and I know our hardware is sufficient. Any ideas? One guy I talked to is adamant that we use published desktops instead of published apps; from everything I see, that would make no difference. He also said that LAN traffic in the local office could be causing packet loss from the remote office. But my connection from home would suffer as well in that case.
I've looked all over the Internet, thru all the forums & Citrix sites, and I'm still stumped. Any kind soul who read this whole thing have any suggestions? They'd really be appreciated. Thanks.
My question/problem:
Our remote offices complain constantly that programs like Outlook, Word, etc. will intermittently become fast then slow, sometimes to the point that they are unusable. We don't have this problem in our local office obviously, and when people work from home, albeit usually not during peak business hours, the system flies.
Our tech guys have tried several different ideas; we turned off all encryption thru our VPN tunnels and just used the Citrix encryption, in case the double-encryption was causing the problem. Very little benefit. We've analyzed the bandwidth thru the firewall in both directions, and the Citrix data averages about 15 - 25 KB constant thruput, maxing out at 80KB very occasionally. We have a total of 30 remote users; both remote offices are experiencing similar speed issues.
So the question is, what could be causing this? Our computer guys are going thru it methodically, but unfortunately the CEO is in a remote office, and he could care less about methodology, he just wants results, and to a certain degree I understand. They're thinking about implementing a QOS solution, Floodgate for Checkpoint, in case users in our office are hogging bandwidth with file sharing, mp3's, etc.
I'm thinking that a T1 from each office should be sufficient, and I know our hardware is sufficient. Any ideas? One guy I talked to is adamant that we use published desktops instead of published apps; from everything I see, that would make no difference. He also said that LAN traffic in the local office could be causing packet loss from the remote office. But my connection from home would suffer as well in that case.
I've looked all over the Internet, thru all the forums & Citrix sites, and I'm still stumped. Any kind soul who read this whole thing have any suggestions? They'd really be appreciated. Thanks.
