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Server, VPN, Remote Desktop setup help

C

::cRim::

Weaksauce
Joined
Oct 17, 2006
Messages
88
Hey guys,

Not sure if I'm in the right place but I'm trying to help a friend setup a server to use remote desktop with VPN. Basically the server would run as a printserver to print to different sites, fileserver, and as a remote desktop to be able to access programs from multiple sites. I have never done anything like this but I do have some basic understanding of networking. Here’s a diagram of what we want achieved and how I understand it should be set up.


Code: 
+-----------------------------+                                             +-----------------------------+
| Site 1                      |           +----------------------+          | Site 2                      |
|-----------------------------|           | Server               |          |-----------------------------|
| +-----+-------->+----------+|           |----------------------|          | +-----+-------->+----------+|
| |VPN  | +------>| Router   ||           |                      |          | |VPN  | +------>| Router   ||
| +-----+ |   +-->|----------||           | Printserver          |          | +-----+ |   +-->|----------||
|         |   |   | Modem    ||           | File shares          |          |         |   |   | Modem    ||
|         |   |   +----------+|           | VPN server           |          |         |   |   +----------+|
|         |   |               |           | Domain controller    |          |         |   |               |
|  +----+-+   |               |           | DHCP server          |          |  +----+-+   |               |
|  |    |     |               | xxxxxxxxx |                      | xxxxxxxx |  |    |     |               |
|  | PC |     |               |           |                      |          |  | PC |     |               |
|  |    |    +-------+        |           |                      |          |  |    |    +-------+        |
|  |    |    |Printer|        |           |                      |          |  |    |    |Printer|        |
|  +----+    +-------+        |           |                      |          |  +----+    +-------+        |
|                             |           |                      |          |                             |
|                             |           |                      |          |                             |
+-----------------------------+           +----------------------+          +-----------------------------+



Is this correct? The server will be hosted by us at one of the sites. We're planning to use Windows 2003 or 2008 for the server and pfsense for VPN. Any tips / guides to help me educate myself would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys.
 
So you've got 2 sites, connected to each other via a VPN.

You want to place a print server at one site and use it to print to a printer at the other site.

Bad idea. Every print job will go once to the print server, then back down from the server to the printer. If server is in site A, and user and printer are in site B, you'll send the job across the VPN twice.

Instead you want direct queues from each PC to the printer, or you want a small server for each site. I think you'll find similar speed issues with file sharing across a VPN too.
 
jjeff1 said:
So you've got 2 sites, connected to each other via a VPN.

You want to place a print server at one site and use it to print to a printer at the other site.

Bad idea. Every print job will go once to the print server, then back down from the server to the printer. If server is in site A, and user and printer are in site B, you'll send the job across the VPN twice.

Instead you want direct queues from each PC to the printer, or you want a small server for each site. I think you'll find similar speed issues with file sharing across a VPN too.
Click to expand...

Yes theres 2 sites connected over VPN. I believe he wants to remote desktop into the server and be able to print to both sites. I now understand what you're saying about sending print jobs twice, thanks for pointing that out but we don't have the resources for 2 small servers. Is there a better way to do this?

As for the file share, Its just pdf forms / word docs and a small SQL database thats only accessed when needed. Do you think the speed will affect it that much?

I guess the setup should really look like this.

Code: 
+---------------------------------------+                        +---------------------------------------+
|Site 1                                 |                        |Site 2                                 |
|---------------------------------------|                        |---------------------------------------|
|                         +------------+|                        |+-------++-------------->+------------+|
|   +-----++------------->| Router     || xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ||VPN    |  +------------+| Router     ||
|   |     | +------------+|------------||                        |+-------+  |      +-----+|------------||
|   |     | |    +-------+| Modem      ||                        |           |      |      | Modem      ||
|   | PC  | |    |        +------------+|                        |           |      |      +------------+|
|   |     | |    |                      |                        |           |      |                    |
|   |     | |    |                      |                        |           |      |                    |
|   +-----+ |    |                      |                        | +---------++     |                    |
|           |    |                      |                        | |Printer   |     |                    |
|           |    |                      |                        | |          |     |                    |
|           |    |                      |                        | +----------+     |                    |
|           |    |                      |                        |                  |                    |
|           |    |                      |                        |                  |                    |
|           |    |                      |                        |                +-+---+                |
|           |    |                      |                        |                |     |                |
|           |    |                      |                        |                |     |                |
|           |    |                      |                        |                | PC  |                |
|           |    +------++-------------+|                        |                |     |                |
|           |            |Server       ||                        |                |     |                |
|           |            |-------------||                        |                |     |                |
|  +--------+----+       |Printserver  ||                        |                |     |                |
|  | Printer     |       |File shares  ||                        |                +-----+                |
|  |             |       |VPN server   ||                        |                                       |
|  +-------------+       |DHCP server  ||                        |                                       |
|                        |Domain       ||                        |                                       |
|                        |controller   ||                        |                                       |
+------------------------+-------------++                        +------------------------+-------------++

Thanks again for helping. Sorry my understanding of networking is so basic.

-cRim
 
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