How much upload is needed to run a VPN for.. (Read)

F

fenderltd

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - July 2007
Joined
Feb 10, 2004
Messages
2,432
We are trying to connect a few people to our central server in Ohio. For now it's 3-5 users over a SonicWall VPN, that will be accessing Quick Books remotely. Currently the server has just been put up and only has a 384up! I KNOW! You can barely load QuickBooks and it takes days. I know 384 will never work, but I am curious to know what's the minimum we should be looking for. 1Mbps or 1.5Mbps? Any help is greatly appreciated!

QuickBooks is installed on all the remote users PC's, just loading the QB file off of the server.

Thanks in advance!
 
Sorta depends on several things...
*How many Quickbooks users through the VPN "at the same time"..cuz you have to divide the bandwidth by how many users there are...minus other regular web traffic..minus netbios...

*What version of Quickbooks. Older versions used to sort of barely run over a VPN...new latest versions are bloated....

If this is a full time thing...I'd look into upgrading Quickbooks and slapping it on a little terminal server..rather than risk the increase chance of regular data corruption.
 
as fast as you can get, some quickbook files are fairly large.
 
We are using Quickbooks Enterprise 7.0

Quickbooks is installed on a main server in the Ohio Office. What's as fast as you can get?

We are looking at the 1.5Mbps. Is that not enough? They do have a 2Mbps plan too. 3 users connected at once to the VPN.
 
Here's an idea... test it and find out. If you're dealing with a business-class connection/ISP you should be able to explain to them what you want to do and get some sort of trail period to look at the various speeds and test it out and see what works and what doesn't. Stuff like this is all hypothetical and doesn't mean much of anything to your setup unless you're able to actually try it out.
 
The company we have doesn't offer business solutions so we are needing to go to a different company. We are looking at Time Warner Business class. Maybe I will see if we can do the 1.5Mbps and if it's not enough, move to the 2.0Mbps
 
Also out of this main connection...how many users are at this central office? Their normal online activities will be taking a bite out of your available upload. Sonicwall does have a feature to lock in a set amount of bandwidth to be reserved for VPN connections..so the lady at the front desk sucking down the online radio station doesn't make life more painful for the remote Quickbloats users.
 
Where at in Ohio? TW is a pretty good provider here. In some of the remote areas, it can be a little more flakey. Your other option would be to use a terminal server. IIRC, QuickBooks enterprise uses SQL? If so, I'm afraid it's probably not going to work well over a WAN. Unless it is specifically designed for WAN use, the code and queries usually haven't been optimized to reduce bandwidth.

Shameless Plug: If you need help, you could always give us a call. :)
 
West Carrollton, Ohio

This company is basic... Not much knowledge towards any of the above mentioned about terminal server. I guess we would like to see if by increasing the upstream bandwidth it would be workable. 5 people in the office use QB now. I will make sure bandwidth limits are set and no one is streaming radio etc.
 
Quickbooks over VPN is HORRIBLE.

Haven't ever used the Enterprise versions over VPN but the Small Business packages are god awful slow even on VPN connections with 3-5Mbps upload.

Just make sure whoever is on the other end of the VPN that things aren't going to be very speedy.

Ninjaedit: Yea another vote for Terminal Server!!! This would be a much more reliable approach anyways because the point of failure is reduced quite a bit.

Advantages of running on Terminal Server include:

- User environment can be completely restricted to a single application such as QB
- Don't have troubleshoot QB problems that occur on remote user's PC
- Updates will be very quick and easy since its all in a central location
- Don't have to maintain a VPN (if QB was the only reason for it)
- Increased speed and reliability for end users

Oh and if you go with Server 2008 Terminal Server it includes a universal printing system so you won't have to worry about installing a ton of drivers so people can print stuff out of Quickbooks.
 
A terminal server would we cheaper in the long run than the faster internet connection. You can have a complete system for 5 users for around $2K. Bumping up to a business class connection with the amount of bandwidth you are looking at will cost you a few hundred dollars per month more.

Who are you using for the net connection now? Also, I know a couple of the Time Warner Business Class reps for the area if you need contact information. If you need that info, give me a call. I sent you a PM.
 
You can forget running QB Enterprise in conventional client/server mode over a VPN. Period. The very nature of the app means pumping volumes of data back and forth between the client and server. Not an issue on a LAN, but impossible over VPN.

But, on Terminal Server it runs great. I have a client that we set up on TS w/QB enterprise 4 years ago. Still running strong, no hiccups. They are multi-state, and we have a site-to-site tunnel with 2 SonicWalls between the locations. Both on cable internet. All clients (even in office that houses the TS) connect via Terminal Services. It is fast and seamless to the users. The only caveat, as is always the case wTS is getting printing right. Avoid the 20 zillion desktop inkjets and MFC's, and try to limit yourself to some true workgroup printers and you'll be fine. The others will work, eventually, if you have enough hair to pull out.

Back in QB Ent. 4.0, and I think even in 5.0, TS was not "officially supported" by Intuit. But now it is. Even then, it worked, you were just on your own if you had issues.
 
Another vote for terminal services server to run quickbooks on. We have had a few clients that tried to do this in the past over a VPN despite us telling them it wouldn't work that good. You would honestly need like 20Mbps to get a reasonable amount of performance out of the app over vpn. You could also do Citrix I suppose. Server 2008 is supposed to have terminal services for applications, I haven't had an opportunity to test that out yet, supposed to work like citrix or zenworks, virtualized apps....
 
LoStMaTt said:
Quickbooks over VPN is HORRIBLE.

Haven't ever used the Enterprise versions over VPN but the Small Business packages are god awful slow even on VPN connections with 3-5Mbps upload.

Just make sure whoever is on the other end of the VPN that things aren't going to be very speedy.

Ninjaedit: Yea another vote for Terminal Server!!! This would be a much more reliable approach anyways because the point of failure is reduced quite a bit.

Advantages of running on Terminal Server include:

- User environment can be completely restricted to a single application such as QB
- Don't have troubleshoot QB problems that occur on remote user's PC
- Updates will be very quick and easy since its all in a central location
- Don't have to maintain a VPN (if QB was the only reason for it)
- Increased speed and reliability for end users

Oh and if you go with Server 2008 Terminal Server it includes a universal printing system so you won't have to worry about installing a ton of drivers so people can print stuff out of Quickbooks.
Click to expand...

Listen to YOS,LoStMaTt, etc They know what their talking about. Quickbooks over a VPN is a BAD Idea... Speed and data corruption are to very real problems to deal with. What's the boss going to say when the QB file is corrupted and you have to restore from backup and have lost half a day's work for the mentioned 3-5 people?

As was said previously, by the time you pay for connections with a fast enough upload to make it sorta kinda usable, multiply that by 3-5 users per month... What's the total figure for a year? Oh and don't forget about upgrading the connection at the home office to support the those 3-5 people also... Probably quite a bit more than just ponying up for an outside consultant to setup a TS box specifically for QB. Also, as CC said, Win2k8 Server will have specific support for sharing Apps over TS. But there's also ways to pseudo accomplish this with 200 and 2003 now.
 
I 100% agree TS is the ONLY way to do this in a safe and secure mannor. If cost is an issue then use Windows 2000 server (I know its old) becuase TS licenses are included with the server License.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top