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Trying to help setup a network connection for a telecommuter. We went through a bunch of attempts with VPN on our Linsys router and in Server 2003 with out success. All IT people in our small company are software guys, including myself, with no network/system admin experience so this has been a struggle.

Is there a piece of software independent from the windows user system that would allow a normal windows network connection to be accessed from a remote location and into our office network? We have been limping along with a combination remote desktop software an Dropbox for syncing files but need to actually run subversion requests through the network remotely and other similar file transfer needs.

Any suggestions?

Zoredache
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dmr83457
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3 Answers3

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OpenVPN might work for you, but I don't think the server side of that runs on a Windows box.

Michael Graff
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  • While I love OpenVPN but setting up an CA and jumping through all the hoops to setup OpenVPN correctly may be a bit much if they were having issues setting up the other VPN solutions. – 3dinfluence Jan 30 '10 at 01:49
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    I was under the impression you could run an OpenVPN server in Windows, but I've never tried it. –  Jan 30 '10 at 02:00
  • OVPN shouldn't be much trouble if you follow the simple config examples and use easy-rsa. – Dan Carley Jun 23 '10 at 08:22
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Option 1 would be to look at configuring the remote router to allow VPN pass-through connections. Seems like that would be simplest.

However, you might look at the Hamachi personal VPN client as another option. Install it on the remote machine and the machine at your office for them to RDP into and Bob's your uncle.

Chris_K
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Personally I would go ahead and finish setting up a real VPN of some sort. Today it's one telecommuter but in 1 year you may have 5 telecommuters. Getting things setup properly in a way that will scale some now will be best in the long term. If you lack the necessary know how to set this up then it may be worth getting a consultant in for a couple of hours to set things up for you and show you how to manage it.

3dinfluence
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  • Consultant is a good idea. It shouldn't even take a couple hours, depending on how complex a network you have. –  Jan 30 '10 at 02:02