What are you guys using for Remote Access?

[bsi]

At our place there are 3 processes to remotely connect to work.

1) Connect to a 3rd party VPN which then lets us access our AS400. E-mail is handled through the internet at the same 3rd party. There is no printing or usage of shared network drive (or at least I do not know how to do it). We pay about $100/month for 5 connections but in reality only 2 are available to users. On a snow day where many want to work from home, this is not enough.

2) I use LogMeIn to access about 3 computers at work as well as home. My boss is unhappy about the security exposure. This lets me simulate being on that computer with whatever access that computer has. This means AS400, email, Office, printing and the network shared drives. Includes file transfer to my home machine with the Pro version.

3) WinVNC version 3.2.2 I think. I use this once I am within our network. I use this to share screens or remotely update computers in either my work location or one of our remote plants. I need to know the remote computer IP to use this. An increasing number of computers are not responding to me even though I can ping the IP and I think some new IE security updates are beginning to get in the way. Maybe something about ports (I don't know what ports are, I just see the options which I have always left as I found them)


So, I am wondering what other folks use. I see recent versions of Windows have a "remote connection" thing but I do not know how to use that. I am guessing it is probably useful and included in the OS.

Or are there common third party packages? There seem to be a lot of flavours of free VNC clones and I tried Tight VNC which looked good (it looks like WinVNC plus file transfer).

Or is there a good primer on this kind of stuff.

TIA

 

[canucklehead]

VPN and or SSH Tunnels.
To control and upgrade systems i use SSH and or ARD, Radmind, Netboot, Netrestore.
Timbuk2 is good for controlling cross platform systems.
I only work with a few windows systems and everything else is either OSX or a Nix of sone sort.

 

[raven@mirage]

AccessAnywhere is very good. http://www.accessanywhere.net/ms/
and also http://www.weboffice.com/default.asp?adid=webexone.com-2008-01-04&from=www.webexone.com?

 

[Larry_Fyne]

For my iSeries (AS/400) clients, i suggested similar techniques. We use a VPN to access the network (some are 3rd party (from their network provider), others use Windows server's VPN). Once in the VPN, they use Rumba for 5250 and then Ultra VNC to the devices needed. I tend to have the client use Wyse Thin Clients for access to iSeries if they don't have a PC and the Wyse OS uses a VNC host for remote support. I like Ultra VNC.

 

[2wheeljunkie]

IMHO... if you have many clients or vendors needing access to services securely. (I am not sure how important data security is in your organization) I would probably suggest use of an SSL (HTTPS) VPN into your network. I would suggest enforcing proper control policies for clients needing access and to restrict to servers and services to them. From an audit perspective you will need some form of authentication and logging to ensure there is no violation of usage and access policies.

I would recommend using SSL VPNs providing there is no need to have direct access to file shares on your network. I would prefer a real VPN client such as IPSEC to completely secure the data communication.

I hope this helps.

2WJ

 

[Anynym]

I'm not sure I understand your current VPN implementation, but have you looked into the VPN capabilities of your router on site? E.g. the Linksys RV082 can establish permanent tunnels between sites, or can allow secured client connections.

 

[PDSAjax]

It really depends what you are trying to remote access...

If you are trying to access a corporate network there are many flavours of VPN that can be configured to allow various levels of access depending on many conditions.

If you are trying to access your computer at home, there are again many solutions along the lines of GotoMyPC or similar

There is the Remote Desktop capability built into Windows, and it can be used over the Internet, you simply need to open the relevant port on your router and enable Remote Desktop. Windows XP and Vista allow either a console or an RDP session at any one time.
From the client machine you simply type mstsc /v:<name of computer you want to connect to> in the run box

I can elaborate at greater length if anyone is even remotely interested.....geddit geddit????? I'll get my coat......