Hello!

I got some excelent help on a previous post that I decided to try again.

The situation is that one person wants to work 50% from home.
We have two choices, either vpn or terminal server.

This person vill mostly do registration work, entering new data. Not
heavy searches and such.

I've been advised by a computer firm that Terminal service is the way to
go as vpn will create a lot of traffic. They admit to having no
experience with filemaker but has seen it on other databases.

The problem is that vpn would be a better way as email and other files
would be available. Also our 2003 Windows server wasn't built for
running Terminal Service.

The client would have a ADSL 0.5 Mb or 2.0 Mb at home. Workline is 5 Mb.

I would appriciate it if you could share your experiences with me.

This is not a design question but I believe you can still help me.


Thank you for your time.

Jonas Pärtma

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Hi Jonas - I've set 5 users up to do this already. In our scenario we VPN
into a terminal server! (best of both worlds!).

We found using filemaker straight over a VPN was unusably slow with our
database (which admittedly is complex and has lots of relationships, files,
calculations and sprawling value lists).

We decided to use Terminal Services on a Windows 2003 Standard Server -
which with dual 2.8ghz processors and 1GB of RAM is more than enough with a
2MB SDSL connection at both ends! Our users are blown away and are more than
happy. In fact, I would go as far as saying that at my LAN end where the
machine is, its actually quicker for me to log into the Terminal Server and
do my database work there than opening the database up from my own machine
even though the Filemaker database resides on yet another machine
altogether!

In your case then it really wouldn't hurt to test opening the database
straight from Filemaker over a VPN connection and see if its fine. If your
database is relatively simple I would say for data entry purposes it would
be fine. It really just depends on the amount of graphics and screens your
user would need to switch between (each graphic on each screen is downloaded
and cached the first time filemaker is opened in a session).

Good luck.

In article <42c56990_2 (AT) spool9-east (DOT) superfeed.net>, jonas (AT) esfoto (DOT) se
says...
One person? Go terminal server, but don't set it to application server
mode, just use remote administration mode. (Called that because its
designed for a maximum of 2 remote users to administer the system.
However, they don't need to be administrators, and they don't have to be
able to administer anything, its effectively a 2-user terminal server
out of the box with no additional licensing encumbrances.

I'd agree. But computer firms generally make more money selling
(managed) Terminal Services solutions so they almost invariably favour
TS.

Actually, there is no reason the terminal server wouldn't have access to
the other files, and moving files back and forth between a terminal
server session and the local desktop isn't bad at all if they aren't
excessively large. You could also install office or whatever and let the
user do a fair bit of other work directly via TS as well.

Good, that's how you want it. For one person you can just use the
'remote administration' features, which is basically a two user terminal
server without having to change it to Terminal Services mode, and
without having to jump through the licensing hoops.

If i recall correctly this is setup by default, all you have to do is
run the RDP client on a winxp box and point it at the server. (On the
lan this should work right now, through the net you may need to port
forward or firewall config to get it working...)

The other posters suggestion to use a VPN to connect to the terminal
server is also a good idea, but may or may not be overkill. Depending on
how much security you need.

There are a few caveats to FM via Terminal Services... theres a paper at
filemaker.com on the subject. The main thing is that the fm server
shouldn't be on the same box as the clients.

Jonas Pärtma wrote:
For my money, you could try setting up a webserver that the telecommuter
logged onto to do the data entry. That way most of the work would
be done on the client machine and the server would only do the update of
data when the client 'submitted' the data.

FM7 allows for 5 concurrent users with its instant Web Publishing
feature. Since its a work machine you wouldn't need a domain name, just
the ip address and by the looks a 5Mb adsl should have a static ip
address. If not request on from you ISP.

This would be cheap to set up. I have a web server running on an old IBM
ps box. Runs just fine.

Bignoel

Thank you for your answers.

All three were very helpful. I have a good grip om the situation now.
Exectly what I was looking for.

I believe all three may be tried in due time. If it works for one person
soon others want's the same possibillity.


Thank you for your time.

Jonas Pärtma

Jonas Pärtma wrote:
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