How to support remote workers on a budget
This is a case study in how to support remote and traveling workers on a budget using "off the shelf" components. It is designed for a Microsoft network, but the principles are applicable to any type of server based network. The Site - The company in question has a network with a Windows NT ® Server and Exchange 5.5 ®. On the Local area network the clients can review e-mail and interact with the groupware functionality using the standard Outlook® client software. There were three type of remote workers to consider when designing a solution.

The permanent remote worker

The mostly remote worker

The traveling worker

Each of these categories had specific needs. The permanent remote worker would require access to their e-mail and workgroup functions as well as access to the LAN for files, through a communications link.The mostly remote worker would require both access as above as well as access from inside the network.The traveling worker would only need access to e-mail.

The scenario presented was one possible design and is not necessarily definitive, but may be a good place to think about starting.

Firstly the company invested in an ADSL line (2mb) in the head office. This has the benefit of being both cheap and high bandwidth with permanent connectivity. They also invested in a firewall with VPN capability. Such a firewall could be hardware or software based, we generally opt for software as we find the number of allowed concurrent VPN sessions of most affordable hardware firewalls to be quite small.

The permanent remote workers were issued with laptops with VPN client access as well as direct dial into the LAN for backup in case of ADSL failure. This would allow them to interact with the network and using the offline synchronization features of Outlook they could operate as part of the LAN without incurring too much communications overhead.

The Second method of gaining access was for all categories of remote workers. Exchange 5.5 ® has, as part of it, something called Outlook Web Access. Users could log into their mailboxes over the internet and use the workgroup functionality of outlook through a web page. The users log on details and session is secured using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), with a third party certificate, such as those issued by Thawte or Verisign. This could be hosted at the company offices because the ADSL is a permanent connection. WARNING - There is a security and firewalling implication to this aspect of the set up.

The third method was for all groups again. Either as a backup dial for when ADSL is not functioning or as a way of synchronizing mailboxes directly. The laptops use a combination of high speed mobile phone cards, such as those made by Nokia, and a regular modem. This method allows the remote workers the flexibility of dial up wherever they are. The mobile phone cards are PCMCIA cards with a mobile phone SIM card inserted directly into them. Depending on the carrier, these cards are typically capable of up to 28.8kbps access and are a much better solution than mobile phone only, which work at 9600bps.

The Fourth method also utilizes the high speed mobile phone cards. The solution is based around a PDA device. The Compaq Ipaq ® is a very good and popular choice for this application. With a PCMCIA jacket attached to the PDA and the relevant drivers for the phone card installed, this can make a powerful and lightweight device for traveling workers. It is capable of surfing the internet, but cannot be used with OWA as the version of Internet Explorer on board does not support the level of complexity that OWA requires to operate. An alternative was to use the POP3 functionality of exchange. The traveling worker dials directly into the LAN using the data card then downloads and uploads e-mail using POP3/SMTP. The trick with this method is to remember to leave a copy of the e-mail on the server. Otherwise the mailbox on the server will be drained and emptied. This method also looks extremely cool in the airport or on the train.

This is by no means a prescriptive method of achieving the goals of the customer. These are just some of the methods that we have used in the recent past. If you would like to explore the possibilities of remote working for your network then you can contact us on 020 7384 4980