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]>