Work Network

[Nossmayo]

Hi,

Im after some advice for setting up a network, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

We currently have 2 pc's in an office connected together via ethernet.
One of the pc's (this one) is a "server" pc, although it is used for everyday use (ie. not stand alone)

I am looking at connecting (up to) 3 more off site pc's to this one. As per sketch below.

What would be the practicalities in terms of security etc and rough cost for this setup?

Thanks in advance.

 

[rick827]

So currently you just have 2 PC's connected directly together, no switch etc? What do you have for an internet connection/router etc? Are the off site PC's at 1 office or homeworkers? And what provisions do they have for connecting to the internet?

You're going to want a VPN to connect the remote users so if they're all at 1 site and you both have decent routers it should be quite simple & cheap

 

[Nossmayo]

Hi Thanks for reply.

(Bear with me its perhaps a bit more complicated than i first explained).

Firstly we are connected to the net as follows. There are actually around 10 pc's in total in this building all connected to a hub (or more specially 2 or 3 hubs) and one of the hubs is connected to a router, which is connected to the phone line (im pretty sure that's how it works anyway!!).

There are 2 departments here, this one with the 2 pc's already mentioned and the other dept with around 7 or 8 pc's. I am only interested in accessing THIS ("server") pc from outside...these will be homeworkers (not together in a separate office) (EDIT: I can see how my sketch may have suggested they are all in one office!)

If necessary i can get a separate interent account/router etc JUST for the pc's that i want to access from outside (if that will help?). The (five) pc's that i am inquiring about do not necessarily have to be connected to the other 8 or so pc's in the other department.

Hope that makes sense!

Thanks again.

EDIT#2
To answer your other question the "homeworkers" will all have (their own personal) broadband connection (if thats what mean?)

 

[Nossmayo]

(double post)

 

[blackapache]

Sounds to me like all you need is to set up VPN on the server and client machines, which they can then utilise their bb connection for.
Depending on the level of security you require you could do this through your operating system, or a third party app like cisco vpn (iv used this and its pretty good).
To bump up security you could introduce RSA rolling tags (basically used for your password, each client would have one which has a code that changes every 30seconds or so to prevent possible malicious users discovering and reusing passwords). However this can become quite complicated and more hassle than it's worth as VPNs I would say are secure enough for Small Businesses unless you deal with a lot of very sensitive information.
I worked for a large London council once and security wasn't as tight as you would expect for an organisation dealing with a vast amount of sensitive information, although I heard of no real security threats.

 

[Nossmayo]

info

Thanks for this, ive just read up on VPN's and set one up.
However, when i try to connect a connecting error comes up*
Is it possible to test this connection with this pc that is already connected to the network. Or would it only work if i used an "outside" PC to test it.
(Thanks for all your advice).

*EDIT: meaning, ive set this pc as the client but am also trying to connect to it as an "outside" connection (when its already connected!!)

Also when i look at the "server" connection settings, it says allow connections through either the internal modem or LPT1 port. My internet connection is through neither of these, its connected via the LAN. Does this make any difference?