Hello All!

Thank you for your input on the previous Remote Access Thread. It
looks like many people had additional questions, too. Very cool!

Okay, let me expound a bit on my dilemma.

My client has a router in a building across the street. He has DSL
access from this connection. Then, from there, he has hard wire to
ANOTHER router in his actual building. From there, it connects to a
macintosh (system 9) that is functioning as: 1. Daily work computer 2.
Filemaker Pro server 3. Appletalk file server (not really important
here). So, I want to be able to get through the two routers, and have
my FMP at home connect to my clients computer and update records in
FMP.

My questions is this: How do I connect to this computer, without
sacrificing security of the non-FMP files on the computer. Do I need
to do anything with the routers? How do I get this Mac to be seen to
the outside world?

**I am very limited in my networking knowledge, so please be verbose.

Many, many thanks in advance! Viva la Internet!

Ben

Ben,
In my experience with DSL you don't get a static IP unless you pay big
bucks. With cable internet the ISP usually binds the MAC address of your
router or pc to an IP and 99% of the time it never changes, you can pay for
a static but that would be for web hosting applications. With DSL, it's
basically a dial up connection and you get a new IP every time you connect
after u/n and p/w verification, with cable they disable you're MAC address
on the WAN if you don't pay your bills, with DSL they disable your u/n and
p/w.
To avoid running a web server to allow your client to update the FM db at
the office you need to set up a virtual private network connection to the
first router, this will require an IP address that never (or almost never)
changes so that your client doesn't have to change his VPN settings every
time he wants to connect from outside the office. It also requires a router
capable of serving Network Address Translation and has VPN capabilities. (A
note on DSL - although it's pretty fast downstream, upstream transfers [i.e.
updating FM db's from outside the LAN] is about 56k, in other words -
deathly slow).
Once you overcome the outside networking problems, setting up the server in
the office so your client can see it is quite easy.

Jason
jason (AT) mccuaig (DOT) ca

"Ben" <benross7 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote