[Web4lib] VPN for remote access

[Michael J. Dargan]

Mark--

On 1/30/07, Mark Sandford <sandfordm1 at wpunj.edu> wrote:
>
> Ed,
>
> Have you looked at Remote Desktop for Windows?  It just needs to be
> configured if you're running Windows XP Pro.  The upside to that is that
> XP
> Home has the client installed already, so there's no software you need to
> buy or install at home.  I'm not sure about earlier windows versions.  As
> far as I know, if the work machine is running XP Pro, you just need to
> enable Remote Desktop and open the firewall to it.


We've used Windows Remote Desktop for several years with good results.  I
recommend that you set your firewall to accept traffic only from the IP
address of the client.  It's a bit more overhead, but is a bit more secure.

--mike

  It uses the Windows
> username/password to log in.
>
> Also, there are some VNC programs that are good for the same effect.  I've
> used UltraVNC (http://www.uvnc.com/index.html)  It's open source, very
> easy
> to configure, and the only network support needed is an open port in the
> firewall.  You can specify what port you want to use.
>
> A benefit is the UltraVNC viewer can be launched as a standalone file from
> a
> USB drive without installing on a machine at all, and it's a standard
> protocol so you can even use a linux box (and I'm sure there's a Mac VNC
> client somewhere, too) to connect to the Windows machine.
>
> In either case, you'd need to know the address of the machine you're
> connecting to.  I use UltraVNC to connect to my home PC and have port
> forwarding set up on my router.
>
> These aren't exactly VPN based solutions, but they can be for added
> security.  My campus, for instance, requires a VPN connection before the
> firewall will let you connect to a PC using Remote Desktop.  VNC allows
> for
> several flavors of encryption and compression, which is nice if you need
> to
> tweak due to bandwidth issues.
>
> Hope that helps,
>
> --
> Mark Sandford
> Special Formats Cataloger
> William Paterson University
> (973)270-2437
> sandfordm1 at wpunj.edu
>
> On 1/30/07, Ed Erjavek <erjaveked at sbpl.org> wrote:
> >
> >
> > Our director is interested a VPN-type solution that would provide remote
> > access to her email and files.
> >
> > Does anyone have any suggestions for something affordable and easy for
> her
> > to use and our administrators to configure?
> >
> >
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>



-- 
Michael J. Dargan
Technical Systems/Reference Administrator
Waterloo and Cedar Falls Public Libraries
wpl-reference.blogspot.com