I am starting my new insurance business July 1st. I need a program that allows multiple users to
log in at the same to a off site server. I am not sure VPN can allow mutiple people at the same time.

Thanks

VPN itself sure can allow multiple users "onto" the same machine but I don't think it's what you're hoping for. That really only gets you on the network -- an IP address & at most mapped folders & printers. If you're looking for true remote control it depends on the situation you're looking at, especially if multiple users will be on a system at the same time.

Windows client Operating Systems (95/98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 7) will not allow you to serve an active desktop to more than one user at one time. The exception is "sharing" in which multiple users can see the same desktop, but I'm guessing this isn't what you're going for. Now if you don't need a desktop and just need file & print sharing, you're fine with VPN only, read no further.

Scenario 1: Picture an office environment with 10 workstations. Say these 10 people go home and want to access their machines from home. They can VPN in and then use "mstsc" (Microsoft's Remote Desktop connector app) to access their workstation - they'll need to know the IP address of the machine.

Scenario 2: You want one physical PC that many users can access and each of these users will get their desktop from server. Now you are talking big bucks, just ask Paco. You have to buy something called Windows 2008 Server. Additionally, you may need to purchase Windows Terminal Services Client Access Licenses. You will also need enough Windows Client Access Licenses as well. Microsoft sucks.

Alternatives:

1. You could look at loading one machine up with 10 virtual machines. Granted this master machine would need to be a real beefy machine. You would a legal copy of XP Pro for each virtual machine.

2. If your application is generic and runs on Linux this changes the picture altogether. One beefy Linux server running multiple VNC (Virtual Network Computing) servers can serve up a Linux remote desktop that you can access using a VNC viewer client (which can run on Windows/Linux/etc).

Better explanation,. I need to access a 32 bit program from the server remotely not really the desktop at all.

If you're sure the program will run via mapped drives then there's no problem. I'm making sure I'm driving home the point though that the program WILL NOT execute remotely on the server unless you're serving fresh desktops off the server. In essence when you execute a program from a mapped drive it will copy the EXE from the server to your PC's RAM, and then run from your PC's RAM. So you need to make sure the program you're dealing with is going to be kosher with the fact that you're running it remotely, AKA, it can access all its data files/etc. Registry entries on the remote machine won't come down to client PC's, also.

If you think that's what you're looking for:

1. Setup a VPN server and VPN clients. Test to make sure this is working.
2. Set up a share on the computer that has the program you want to share.
3. Map a drive from your VPN client to the shared folder.
4. Run program & profit?

Also for a VPN server might I recommend if you don't already have a solution OpenVPN. It's good, secure, and simple to setup for both server and client.

That is exactly What I need. the program you recommended didnt have vista support yet


Do you know any others.

Hrm, it should work on Vista... my coworker uses Vista on his laptop I thought. You may need to use the release candidate version to get it going, though. When you look at openvpn.net/index.php/...loads.html scroll to OpenVPN 2.1_rc18 -- released on 2009.06.07 -- this should work. Use the Installer method. If you have other problems, look here:
openvpn.net/archive/op...00001.html
technicalmumblings.wor...-in-vista/

Also know that this program you download is both client & server, so you have to "configure" it to work. Just like any other opensource project this means twiddling in a text file but the good news is the documentation is wonderful and there are helpful FAQ's on their main website + the entire user community.

I'm running a slightly older version of 2.09 but your install should look similar I'd think. After you get it installed you'll get some sample configuration files you can peak at to start figuring out what you need to do. You'll end up with 2 sets of configs, really, one will be your master server copy. The other will be your master client TEMPLATE copy which you will build all the client config files from.

It may sound a bit complex from what I've said there but honestly it's going to be a lot quicker & better than setting up any MS-VPN that is additionally unsecure.

One thing you'll want to watch out for is firewall rules, too. OpenVPN uses port 1194 UDP/IP for the server so that needs to be opened and any Internet router needs to point 1194/UDP -> the internal IP of the server computer. As a sidenote I prefer to configure my OpenVPN servers to use 1194 TCP/IP. There is a slight performance hit but you avoid some potential routing issues.

Last, if you have any questions about OpenVPN just to give you an idea, we have 90+ customers attached to our VPN and roll about 40 GB of data per month collectively over those connections... so if you have questions on configuration I can most likely help you out.

ok installed and saw the sample config files. I have no idea what to do now. :0 so your expertise is greatly appreciated. I am also just testing this on my PC ( running win7) but i am planning on putting the server on XP & the clients on 2 vista computers

I'd start here: openvpn.net/index.php/...o.html#pki. There is stuff above that but it's just kind of extra information for your purposes. Just know that you're going to set up your own IP scheme for your VPN network. It defaults to using 10.8.0.0-255 IP Addresses which should be OK for most people.

After reading the documentation & trying it out, let's say you pre-generate 5 client keys and deploy them... but later on you need a 6th. Here's my procedure for doing that. Never run init-config, clean-all, or build-dh after the initial server setup unless you want to totally start over. It will make any client keys you've created not work anymore since you'd basically be erasing the server's private & public key. So, do this:

1. Run "vars" (ignore the message about clean-all!!)
2. Run "build-key ClientName"
3. Copy the template client config .ovpn file to ClientName.ovpn and edit it, change the "key" and "crt" file to point to ClientName.key and ClientName.crt
4. Deploy the client.

current setup will be 1 vista server 2 vista laptops & my computer running windows 7. I am very network stupid. can you show me step by step how to setup server. and clients. i probley wont need more than 5 clients

Hi JJ - if you click the link in my previous post it should pop you right where you need to start. To be clear the first place you start is where it tells you to go to a command prompt and cd to easy-rsa directory in OpenVPN, and run the init-config. After you've created your client config files and started the server up, you just install OpenVPN on your client PC's. Then you copy over the files marked in the "Key Files" section of the documentation.

I'd be happy to advise if you get stuck at a certain point or are getting an error but I really couldn't make a more detailed guide than what is there, and it even discusses 3 clients which I believe is what you're looking for.

You can always hit me up on messenger as well, if I'm busy I'll say so. Good luck!

Did you ever get this going? I actually had to do this again today...

EDIT: Oh, I did have to screw severely hard with Win7 x64 to get this to work. Rather, I had to find someone else who already had the problem solved: www.jpuddy.net/2009/05...-7-64-bit/