2 sites, 2 internet connections, one seamless network?

PhillyDee

PhillyDee

PhillyDee

Soldato
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First, did not know if I was going to put this in the networking, or this one, but decided here would be best!

I currently work from home, and have a WHS v1 system, and networking stuff here. I have the Virgin Superhub, and a Netgear 16 port dumb gigabit switch with everything plugged into it, wireless is via a tomato based wrt54gl.
I also have a Netgear FVS114 Prosafe firewall VPN Cable router doing nothing (Virgin Superhub took over the duties).

I am looking at renting an industrial unit, but all of the companies stuff is stored on the WHS system, and since it is more secure than the unit, I would rather keep it at home.
I do not know what ISP I am looking at yet, I am assuming it has a BT line so ADSL here, so any internet provider will be considered! No telephone required, since I use VOIP through Vonage.

I want to have the unit and my home networks to appear as easily as they do now. So everything is mapped to drive letters, printers are shared just the same (There will be a mono laser 1320TDN at the unit and a samsung colour laser connected to the whs at home) and I can easily DNC to and from any pc as I currently do.

What equipment will I need, is it nice and simple, and how on earth will I do it!
No set budget, but I would like to spend as little as I can to acheive the goals.
 
Reading up on it, it sounds like that a VPN is what I require. As for users, I will have 2 pcs in the unit, both of which require access to the files stored at home on the server. Initially, there will just be me, but surely the amount of users makes no difference since the pc's themselves will have the only access?

I know WHS has remote access for files, but its too long winded, and I want to be at the unit, accessing files (write and read access) as if I am at home plugged into the same network.

So:

Unit (2 pcs, 1 network printer) (10/100 would be fine for here)
|
?????????
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Home (3 pcs, wireless access point, server, ps3 etc) (again, 10/100 router would be fine as it will be using a gigabit switch for the network)

What hardware do I require for the unit (which will be ADSL) and for home? Will the Netgear FVS114 be sufficient for home use? If not, what cable router would I require?
It goes without saying that there also needs to be internet access for all clients.

And a handy guide to setting it up would be much appreicated. Although I know plenty about basic networks for small offices and homes, I know nothing about the more complex side like what I want to do!
 
Sounds more like some online storage would be better suited for this, google docs is dirt cheap. Sure you can do site to site vpn but I just can't help but think for your set up, this is exaclty what "cloud" computing is supposed to over come (complicated, incorrectly configured hashed togeather IT systems) which I mean no offense sounds like you are heading towards...

Business need to think about virus protection, backups & security to name a few. Sometimes separation is good...
 
Dont bother, it will be far to slow using your virgin media internet. I would transfer all the data to your warehouse and then if nessessary let it replicate back to your house.
 
You could turn your superhub into a dumb router with the R30 firmware.

You could then use your FVS114 to provide VPN passthrough to your WHS from the unit.

I would configure the FVS114 to restrict VPN passthrough access, to the WHS, to a single IP address of the unit.
 
ecksmen said:
Sounds more like some online storage would be better suited for this, google docs is dirt cheap. Sure you can do site to site vpn but I just can't help but think for your set up, this is exaclty what "cloud" computing is supposed to over come (complicated, incorrectly configured hashed togeather IT systems) which I mean no offense sounds like you are heading towards...

Business need to think about virus protection, backups & security to name a few. Sometimes separation is good...
Click to expand...

quoted for the truth. You may be best with a cloud storage solution to be honest with you.
 
Gaz1988 said:
Dont bother, it will be far to slow using your virgin media internet. I would transfer all the data to your warehouse and then if nessessary let it replicate back to your house.
Click to expand...

He didn't say what connection he was on. The superhub comes with 30Mb/s connections upwards. That's a minimum 3Mb/s upload, or potentially 5/Mb/s or 10Mb/s upload depending on his home broadband package (most VM connections that I have come across give full bandwidth in both directions.)

If he gets some really shonky BT ADSL connection, his upload might actually max out his unit's download capacity.
 
I've been thinking that this situation is really ideal and what Windows 7's BranchCache is for.

Technet subscription would give you access to all the necessary licences such as for the server at the home and Windows 7 ultimate/enterprise.
 
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Not what I want to hear of course!
Not a fan of cloud, and anyway, I have redundancy, ups, backups and anti-virus on the server, as well as on the home server.
The files will not be covered by google docs, as they are proprientary files for label machines, label printers, laser cutter files as well as cad and office type documents.
Speed is not an issue for the file sizes at all. No database access, as my warehouse software uses the cloud anyway (for a fee of course!).

I was hoping for a one off charge for the hardware, and then nice ease of use for the rest. the data does require access for updates from both ends of course! Seems a shame to move all the business stuff to cloud, and let the 7Tb of storage on the home server go to waste!

As for hashed together :o Im offended (:p). Just looking for a solution that keeps the same way of working, so it does not matter where I am if I forget to do anything in particular etc.

If I decided on cloud storage, then what would be the most seamless provider? Any that I can map as a drive letter, or a simple drag and drop interface?

Edit: Yes, I have a 30mb VM.While branch cache sounds good, I am happy with my WHS, and really do not want to go down the Server 2008 route! Far more complex than I require.
 
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PhillyDee said:
I currently work from home, and have a WHS v1 system,
Click to expand...

PhillyDee said:
Seems a shame to move all the business stuff to cloud, and let the 7Tb of storage on the home server go to waste!
Click to expand...

PhillyDee, are you using drive extending to achieve that capacity? Or is that a raided array of space?

The reason that I ask is that I think that WHS 2011 would be much better over a VPN as I think that it should only do block level changing on the network shares meaning only the changes are uploaded to the server from the unit and download from the server to the unit PCs.

To be honest I haven't looked into it, however, WHS 2011 is based on the newer Windows microkernal that does the more intelligent syncing of files over network connections.
 
Not so much not a fan of, its just im not sure if I 100% trust it! Although my mission critical database for the warehouse software is all cloud based (I pay monthly subscriptions), I prefer to have the full control over the individual files, but I am inclined to change my mind. Got to embrace the future right? :)

I use DE for the discs, it is for home use after all! I have no RAID hardware on board, and like the simplicity of DE over RAID. Its an energy efficient server on a basic i3 chip with a basic board.
I store all my DVD's and music etc for playing over the network hence the massive space. The business stuff is all on its own share, to keep it seperate. Just thought it would be easy to use the hardware and storage I already have.
I know nothing of VPN's, I know of them, but thats all!
 
PhillyDee said:
Just thought it would be easy to use the hardware and storage I already have.
I know nothing of VPN's, I know of them, but thats all!
Click to expand...

If you don't need a great deal of data storing, then the cloud may actually be the ideal option.

Dropbox(2GB for free) / Windows Live Mesh (5GB for free) are popular free options. They are just folders on your local hard disk drives on each computer/the server and they are syncronised between each machine. Because they are local, they don't take up a lot of bandwidth and they are very quick to access and edit. Dropbox also has an undelete function and keeps previous versions of files.

It's simple to set up the VPN on the server, see this link. The VPN pass though shouldn't be too difficult either, should you want to still go that way.
 
mrbell1984 said:
oh my... 7TB of documents? ;)
Click to expand...

Don't laugh :P

My small office, now consisting of 20 people, has 400GB of files and is really starting to grow as business continues to roll in (about 100-150GB of data in the last year, however, the business is about 8 years old).

Also the OP mentioned propriatory files, which could be large or small, it wasn't until his last post that he clarified what was on the WHS.
 
two00lbwaster said:
Don't laugh :P

My small office, now consisting of 20 people, has 400GB of files and is really starting to grow as business continues to roll in (about 100-150GB of data in the last year, however, the business is about 8 years old).

Also the OP mentioned propriatory files, which could be large or small, it wasn't until his last post that he clarified what was on the WHS.
Click to expand...

Have you started to archieve yet? I'm not laughing but even on a 30mb vonnection I think depends how many ppl is accessing it may cause issues.

Why not local storage and a local AD?
 
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