How do i let a new employee access my network remotely from home?

[port27374]

hi all...

we have an existing windows 2000 server network with 10 clients attached to it, 2 of the clients are laptop PC's... the direcotrs of the company...
they both want to be able to connect to their office network from home and have all the same privalges as if they were in the office...
the office uses an outgoing 1Mb ADSL connection which is supplied by BT through a standard BT ADSL Router.... this is connected to the server which has proxy/firewall software installed on it...

Both of the directors have broadband connections at home also supplied by independant ISP's...

What is the best way to set this network up so that the directors can access their office network from home? VPN? VNC?
(theoretical question: If the directors laptops are assigned static IP addresses in the office network environment in order for them to be seen on the same network i.e. no DHCP is running), how then can when they are at home they access their ISP broadband services? because most if not all BB service providers require "obtain Ip address automatically" to be enabled....

Is any extra software on the windows 2000 server required in order to let them remotely access their office network?? If so any ideas about prices and what software names are good?

thankyou

 

[fs483]

You could setup Terminal services which would allow your directors to access their files. It's practical but doesn't allow you to do drag and drops because you are basically not working with any local files (on the laptops). I would however suggest you to setup VPN either terminated on the firewall (if you have a hardware firewall) or directly onto the servers. All my clients PC (including laptops) are setup with DHCP but I created a reservation in the DHCP so that they pretty much always keep the same ip even if they are disconnected for a prolonged time. If you insist on keeping static IPS, maybe you can create a batch file that will call the command "netsh" that will allow the reconfiguration of the network card settings on the fly. Do a quick search on google and you'll get the proper syntax... Maybe creating different hardware profiles ? Not sure if it would work.