I have a client who need to perform mvBase maintainence and I'm not
really sure how to setup up the connection. He is in California and I
am in Ohio. Here's the system stats:

Server1 running mvBase on NT4. This was done previously by using
wIntergrate. now there is no sign of any previous connection so i need
to restablish a connection. How do I go about doing this in a
reasonable time frame.

Thanks,

Scott Ellis

Cut from my reply to the same question on the 10th Nov 2005.... :


You can redirect port 23 on your firewall/router to redirect to your mvBASE
server. Providing the telnet server is running this will just give you a
login if you just telnet to your routers public ip address over the
internet.

This is VERY bad news - it's completely insecure and opens your mvbase
server to open access.

Better is to switch on VPN access on your server (if it's windows
2000/windows 2003 this can be done be configuring remoting and remote access
to do so), set up a windows user to allow remote access (make sure it has a
password), then redirect port 1723 on yuor firewall/router to your mvBase
server. Your external user can then configure windows VPN access to your
public ip address and then login with the user name and password that you've
set up in windows for remote access... Once he's connected he can then use
mvBase aas if he was on the local network.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Simon

<daddepants (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Okay then, just one more question...How do I change the firewall/router
settings? Sorry for the dumb questions, I just haven't gotten this deep
in it before. Thanks for the quick response, your info helps out a lot.

Cheers,

Scott

Depends on the firewall/ router, so I can't really comment specifically.

If you are using a low-end all-in-one ADSL router then it likely uses NAT
and has a Firewall setting which allows you to redirect tcp ports to an ip
address.... You will need to post the make/model of the router / firewall
or refer to the manual I'm afraid...

But at the end of the day, for VPN you need to open port 1723 on the router
and firewall and get it directed to your windows server..

Good Luck
Simon
<daddepants (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

daddepants (AT) gmail (DOT) com wrote:
An alternative to what Simon has described is to use a VPN connection to
simply get access to your clients machine and do the administration
logged in as a Windows viewer.

You would need something like Symantec PC Anywhere or RealVNC to do
this. Both require a server component on the host system, and a client
on the computer you use to log onto the host. Once logged on, it is
just as if you are using the computer at its own monitor - only a bit
slower!

Cheers,

Brian

--
************************************************** *
Brian Speirs
h: (04) 479 9032 c: (021) 265 5906
e: brian at rushflat dot co dot nz

I was going to recommend webex. We've been using it a lot lately (mostly
because it's part of our corporate environment and we still don't have phone
lines in our new office - 2 months now).

However, I just took a quick look at their website and the price seems a
little excessive for what it appears you want to do. It does work quite well
though. It's also very quick and easy to setup and use.

There are similar products like PCAnywhere and GoToMyPC that you could try.

If the server is already on the internet then a VPN may be a good choice -
but it's going to take some effort to set it up. If not, setting up a RAS
connection is quite easy.

hth
Colin Alfke
Calgary, Canada
<daddepants gmail com>

For Scott or anyone else that needs to dink with firewall/routers:
These devices are governed by their firmware. You might hate your
router, but it could be the firmware that really has your focus. I've
had an absolute nightmare with my Linksys BEFSX41 over the last
several months due to firmware bugs that prevent me from doing new
functions that I've been asking of it. Linksys/Cisco support are
clueless and had me "upgrade" to code that had more problems than the
base I started with. Web forums are a godsend, and with help from
other users my environment is working for me now exactly as I need it.

If anyone else has this specific device, I've compiled a list of all
known issues going back several releases. The trick is to find the
specific firmware release that has the features that you want working.
In many cases it's a trade-off, like "you get VPN as long as you don't
want to tracert outside of your network" or "you only get to use your
MSN/AOL IM clients if you give up port redirection" or "you can only
use Dynamic DNS if you give up detail logging". Other devices such as
the WRT54GS have open source Linux firmware. As a result the devices
in general behave much better in the field due to higher quality code.
Because many of us have smaller businesses, we tend to go for the SOHO
devices found in retail stores. If you're running a larger business
you may want to consider the more expensive and better supported
devices. YMMV.

Sorry to go so OT but I'm hoping my long and frustrating experience
may help someone here - and the suggestion to Scott to handle VPN at
the router end is good advice but could lead to other issues which I'm
hoping to head off. My effort has resulted in a working bug list that
is to my knowledge unavailable anywhere else, and I'm starting to work
with other users of this specific device to clean it up.

Tony
TG@ please.remove.this.mungingNebula-RnD.com

"Simon Verona" wrote:

Simon Verona once wrote in <43baff3f$0$63088$ed2e19e4@ptn-nntp-
reader04.plus.net>...
What may be easier if the client is behind a NATting router is to talk
them through installation of VNC or similar on their machine. Assuming
you then know how to operate your own kit, you set up and put VNC into
'listen mode' on your box and get them to make a connection out to you.
It's slightly messier but removes the need for any changes on the client
router and doesn't compromise security of the client's network.

Of course, this then relies on the person doing the remote support
knowing how to configure their router to let the inbound connection in
(which for VNC is, IIRC on port 5500). This link describes the process
which seems to fit the case here...

http://faq.gotomyvnc.com/fom-serve/cache/88.html

If you need to support several clients like this, you could allocate an
inbound port for each one (because each port would need to be seperately
forwarded on your firewall unless it supports forwarding ranges).

On a more long term basis, the outbound connection can be initiated from
a batch file and placed in a desktop icon.

The keywords here are: free, secure and secure (yes, I meant to put that
in twice): the first because there's little to no change of their
network being compromised and secondly in this wonderful world of SOX
compliance etc, because the end user / client is controlling who
connects and when, the auditors should be happier than just having
people being able to connect in willy-nilly.

PS: If I can talk my mother through downloading and installing VNC, I
reckon anyone with a bit of nouce can do the same to all but the most
clueless at the remote end.
--
David Morris
(who also does mv)

Interestingly, I've had similar experience with several routers... It seems
that they are all rushing features to market to tick all the correct boxes
without really testing them properly. I suppose in the next year or two it
might settle down as broadband use really settles down.

Out of interest, for a low end broadband router, I find the latest DG834
router from Netgear isn't too bad at all. At the opposite end of the
spectrum, I've had no end of grief with my Zoom ADSL-X4 router (which will
just hang once every few days and require a reboot - very useful when you
are 100 miles from home trying to VPN into a server...).

Regards
Simon
"Tony Gravagno" <g6q3x9lu53001 (AT) sneakemail (DOT) com.invalid> wrote

Just to explain and differentiate a little further I believe WebEx and
GotoMyPC are both products that effectively allow you to "break" through a
firewall without having to reconfigure it. I believe they both work by
having both the client and server PC connect to a thrid-party server which
joins them together.

PcAnywhere and VNC, by comparison, are passive in that they sit on the
server waiting for a connection - the client requires direct access to the
server so requires firewall configuration etc.

GotoMyPC is an excellent product out of interest, but is only really useful
for remote diagnostic and perhaps accessing the odd file on a pc. I
wouldn't fancy running a telnet application session in it for roo long!

Regards
Simon
"Colin Alfke" <administrator (AT) localhost (DOT) invalid> wrote