I recently asked what is the best method to network my home PCs to our
office servers. Between the list and personal e-mail responses, I
received more than 20 suggestions. I'll try and summarize what I have
learned.
Connection Speed
================
How well a remote network connection works depends in part on how fast
you can talk to your servers. Several responses indicated that
reliable 28.8K modems are now available and work well. Others are
using Advanced Digital Network (ADN) which is available from some
telephone companies. Long-term, the best solution is likely to be ISDN
(which starts at 64K and goes up from there). As Mike Casteel
([log in to unmask]) pointed out, ISDN is still not available in many
areas. For example, we cannot get an ISDN connection at our office.
Even worse, BC Tel cannot tell us when or even if we will ever get
ISDN connections at the office.
TCP/IP and VT Connections
=========================
My initial requirements were to support multiple connections to both
HP-UX and MPE servers. To do this, the server needs to support SLIP or
PPP. The client can use WRQ RNS/SLIP for TCP/IP connections and WRQ
RNS/NSOpen to run VT on top of the WINSOCK TCP/IP connection.
Jim Wowchuck ([log in to unmask]) agreed with my assessment that you
really don't want to be configuring SLIP for HP-UX (you can do it, but
it's a mess). A better solution appeared to be a modem/LAN server.
While these come in different flavors, they all appear to be a piece
of hardware/software that sits on the LAN (or is hosted on a dedicated
PC) that allows one or more modem connections.
Supporting IPX Too
==================
While it wasn't in my initial requirements, it would be very nice if
this network connection could also support IPX so that we could talk
to our Novell server. Most recommendations for a modem/LAN server
included support for IPX. Here are some of the specific
recommendations:
From Jim Wowchuck ([log in to unmask]):
The solution we found most practical was to use an
independant Async Gateway. This device, in our case an
Accton Compass Multi-port Remote Async Intellegent Bridge
provides support for up to 8 modems (though it came with
only 4 port support as standard). Not only does it support
speeds up to 56Kbps per port, it handles PPP protocol. This
made configuring much easier. It also supports routing
IPX/SPX packets, as well as TCP/IP. And it had better
support for the modems.
So now a remote PC is able to have both Netware and TCP/IP
access to our systems.
Bob Gerade ([log in to unmask]) uses a Microcom solution:
We have the 16 port Microcom LAN Express Hardware installed
here. I have FULL network access from my house. I haven't
found anything I can't do that I can do at work. I'm using a
Microcom Deskporte FAST modem connected to a parallel port
of an HP Vectra 486-33. Even though my phone line is some
28,000 feet from the local CO (I had the phone company
measure it, because Microcom says the modem will support
28.8 if both modems are within 2-3 miles of the phone
company CO) , I can constantly maintain a 24,000 bps
connection (jumping to 26,400 at times). The connection is
VERY reliable(I downloaded 40 megabytes of software from our
Novell server last weekend at about 5 megabytes / hour using
the Windows file manager). Microcom supplies the PC drivers
to make the modem (just about any manufacturer) look like a
network card. I'm using WRQ's RNS for Windows for the
network software. I have FTP/Mosaic/Netscape/Telnet/
VT-MGR/Novell/cc:Mail functionality. My UNIX systems
administrator has good success with using NFS and PC/TCP as
his network layer.
Rich Trapp of DISC ([log in to unmask]) suggests Remote Lan Node:
All of our sales reps use a product called Remote Lan Node
(RLN) from Digital Commnunications Associates, Inc. (DCA).
This setup requires a dedicated PC to interface the modems
to the LAN on site and PC programs on the users site FAKE an
ethernet connect via modem. It's very slick and easy to
use.
DCA
8230 Montgomery Road
Cincinnati, OH 45236 U.S.A.
(513) 745-0500
Chuck Shimada ([log in to unmask]) and Gary Dieta
([log in to unmask]) both suggested Shiva LanRover/E as a
workable solution.
There were several other suggestions, some of which I was unsure of (I
am not nearly as network-literate as many readers of this list). Some
innovative ones for really Wide Area Networks were to obtain a
SLIP/PPP connection from a local Internet supplier and then use WRQ
RNS/SLIP to connect over the Internet to the required servers. Mark
Klein ([log in to unmask]) reports that they use this method
at Orbit for some of their remote developers (note that this requires
a high-speed Internet connection on the server side).
What about NetBEUI
==================
As I understand it (and I'm likely wrong), NetBEUI is the protocol
used in Windows for Workgroups. This supports applications like MS
Mail and Schedule+ in a workgroup environment. NetBEUI is also used
for remotely controlling Windows NT. If you want TCP/IP, VT, IPX, and
NetBEUI there are fewer solutions. If you have Windows NT on both the
client and server, you can use Remote Access Service (RAS) which comes
with Windows NT. Rick McCahan ([log in to unmask])
has used this with great success.
You can use WFWG 3.11 RAS on the client side to obtain dial-in NetBEUI
access, but this does not provide the other network protocols. But
Rick reports:
I'm presently dialed in via RAS from a WIN95 machine and it
works the same as when I boot NT (well, bugs aside ;-) !
I'm now in the process of investigating ISDN connections to
get the speed up. This telecommuting stuff is addictive!
Our Solution
============
If I had posed this question six months ago, I'm certain that we would
have gone for the modem/LAN server solution. However, recent events at
Robelle are affecting our choice of a remote network solution:
1. We recently upgraded all office PCs to be Windows-capable and in
the office we have started using Schedule+.
2. Windows NT is now part of the Robelle environment and we would
like to have more remote access to our Windows NT server.
For these reasons, we will wait for Windows '95 and try RAS to our
Windows NT server. Since we are members of the Microsoft Developer
Network, we should have a beta release of Windows '95 real-soon-now.
I'll let you know how it works out.
Cheers,
David <[log in to unmask]>
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