Remote Access for Home user

[faisul]

Hi there,

I have been acked by my boss to setup one of the users to work from home. This is the first time, I have had to do this. What is the best course of action.

I was thinking of installing a modem on my server with a direct phone line and then setting up the users home PC with a modem. The user will then dial into the server and collect here emails.

Info: I am runninng windows 2000 server. User needs to be able to login to the company domain from her house!

Will this work or can anyone suggest a better idea! Thanks in advance

Fai

 

[Davetoo]

Does the home user need access to files on your network, or is she just trying to send/receive e-mail?

 

[faisul]

Hi and thanks for the reply: lander215

I think she will, need access to here files aswell as email.

Thanks
Fai

 

[Davetoo]

Your best bet is probably to setup a VPN for the user at home. Does your firewall offer VPN connectivity?

 

[faisul]

I'm not sure about the firewall.

Is there no easier way of doing this?
Can she not just use a dial-up connection to logon to the company network using windows auth?

Fai

 

[Seaspray0]

2 choices. Set up a dedicated phone line to a modem on your server and dial into it. The cost here is the cost of the phone line (roughly $25/month) and exposing your network to a dial-up. Your second choice is only valid if your company has a dedicated connection to the internet and your user has internet access... use a VPN. The cost here is $0/month (provided you don't have to pay to give your user internet access) but you do expose a vpn connection on the internet which is more vulnerable. Security is an issue and risks can be minimized with a good security settup (use certificate services to validate remote users is a highly secure option but you can also use MSChapV2 as a good option to validate your users) along with encription on the connection (either dialup or vpn). The vpn solution is the way to go if you expect to expand on remote access to more users. Either adjust your firewall for VPN, or create a firewall on the dial-up. I recommend putting your remote access (vpn/dialup) service in a DMZ. With both methods, you user can have full access to your network just like it would be if it was directly connected to your LAN.

 

[faisul]

Hi Seaspray0,

Thanks for the reply! Can you suggest or do you know where I can find a white paper or any article that shows me how to do this!

Thanks
Fai