Simply Accounting over VPN

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Karandras

[H]ard|Gawd
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Feb 16, 2001
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Hey,
I figured since this is the networking area and mostly a networking problem someone might be able to help me with this problem I'm having.

We have a client that was two different entities in one office. They recently moved to a new building so we setup a vpn over ADSL with two Cisco 871s. I guess there are two problems here, fixing one might fix the other.

Here is the setup:

Office 1 (Main)
Server - SBS2003, Exchange, AD
Cisco 871

Office 2 (remote)
Cisco 871

While the computers were still in Office 1 no body had any problem accessing or logging in. Since we moved the computers to Office 2, the log in time for Active Directory is quite long, can take up to 10-15 minutes to log in, sometimes it would be 5 minutes. I've read this might be a MTU issue and a black hole router somewhere. Since I've found my MTU through the VPN to only be 1415 would that be a problem there?

So with that issue on the table here is the 2nd issue:
Simply account is extremely slow through the VPN. It doesn't make sense why it doesn't work as these two networks are essentially one. Contacted Sage support and they don't support any type of remote access. I was thinking of setting up terminal services for the accounting people to log into the server but I would prefer not to do that if I don't have to. has anyone been able to get SA working 'fast' through a VPN? Or have any ideas on what I can try?

Thanks.
 
Your problem with the VPN is your internet connection speeds. To actually get acceptable performance you are going to need AT LEAST a 10Mbps up and down connection at both sites. My guess is your upstream about both sites is around 800Kbps??

Your best bet is Terminal Services. Unless, of course, you can get some crazy good deals on bandwidth where you are at. :D
 
I was thinking it would be the ADSL connection. I just don't see the connection pinned, that's what got me to thinking it's something else. :-/ Grrr....was hoping it wasn't going to be that and it was some software thing I could blame on someone else ;-) haha.
 
any kind of accounting over VPN usually sucks. if its just like Quickbooks not gonna be the best. they recommend Terminal Services for stuff like that.

as far as the log in time could be dns or just speed of connection. can you get a faster pipe?

cheap solution for the accounting - use or get some older machines, install xp pro sp3 yada yada, put em at location1 and have the users RWW to em.

sage should support TS.
 
They are in a small town and lucky to have DSL if you ask me. They don't want to fork over the 10k we quoted for a L2 wireless connection between their buildings. That would solve a lot of problems.

I'll be asking them on Friday if they want to grab an old machine and put it in the server room, hook it up and rdc or vnc to it, that might be an option for them. We are still dumbfounded to why simply uses sooo much bandwidth or what the problem is through a vpn, It's like two networks talking to eachother through a router...what happened to the days when you could run all of this over a dialup connection?
 
try quickbooks over vpn same thing, the programs just got way to big. quickbooks bogs down on my side and most of our clients are on 20/10 connections.

the RWW may be a good solution for you or just RDP with diff ports.

how many users at remote office?
 
Well the client just upgraded from 2007 -> 2009. So there is a mysqld dbase on the server and the clients connect to it.

There are 3 users in the remote office and 3 in the main office.

Why the hell is this stupid program transmitting 20 minutes at 50-60k/sec when our client logs off...seriously. Called Simply support and they said to adjust the dbase memory buffer from 56 Meg -> 128 Meg. it almost seems that the program is transmitting the entire buffer to the client when they log off.

I don't know what to tell these guys. Even our client said "Well all of the other programs are all working good, it's just Simly. Even downloading a large email in Exchange is faster then logging off this thing."

I can't believe how annoying this program is....grrrrr....
 
probably wont be able to fix it without doing some form of Terminal services.

either build a cheaper server for TS or do RWW.

does this client have any plans of growth?

TS mite be a great solution, keep everything on the server side, keep all data localized, yada yada.
 
The slow login for location 2 is most likely because those workstations are not using your DCs IP address as their DNS server. Gotta set DHCP at location 2 to hand out the IP of the SBS box for DNS and WINS.

Accounting apps are usually quite bloated....need a fat pipe, not very tolerant of a skinny VPN connection.

Your VPN connection is only as solid as the weakest uplink...so, say you have a 3,000/384 DSL connection at each site...your VPN tunnel is at the very most 384...actually take away a bit for VPN overhead...and other traffic such as web surfing, e-mail downloading/uploading, antivirus downloads, some lady listening to internet radio, ...now you're down to around 200 for a VPN connection....ain't much! Have you looking at getting each site at the fastest package the ISP offers?
 
YeOldeStonecat said:
The slow login for location 2 is most likely because those workstations are not using your DCs IP address as their DNS server. Gotta set DHCP at location 2 to hand out the IP of the SBS box for DNS and WINS.

Accounting apps are usually quite bloated....need a fat pipe, not very tolerant of a skinny VPN connection.

Your VPN connection is only as solid as the weakest uplink...so, say you have a 3,000/384 DSL connection at each site...your VPN tunnel is at the very most 384...actually take away a bit for VPN overhead...and other traffic such as web surfing, e-mail downloading/uploading, antivirus downloads, some lady listening to internet radio, ...now you're down to around 200 for a VPN connection....ain't much! Have you looking at getting each site at the fastest package the ISP offers?
Click to expand...


I don't have the DC's IP set for the WINS or NetBios server in DHCP but it is set as the DNS server for everyone in the network. The connection will be 4000/768, Internet is split not to go through the vpn so it pretty much leaves most of the pipe's upload for business traffic (email, ad..etc...etc.). I've checked with the ISP and they have the fastest upload we can give them. I do understand that the weakest point is the upload on these connections but it should be enough to handle the traffic they are throwing at it.

On a positive note, I tweaked the dbase on the server and how the clients access it (instructions via Simply tech support) and the client says it is running wayyyy faster. Where they would take an hour to get one cheque done, now it only takes about 3-5 minutes which they say is tolerable.

Other than TS or RWW or a faster pipe there isn't anything else I can do for them in this case...Makes me look bad but they were the ones that wanted the DSL connection (as it's the cheapest).
 
Using any kind of database program over VPN is a bad bad bad idea.

Its best practice to have a desktop/server/Terminal Server that a client can remote into to do that kind of work.
 
I just don't understand why it's a bad idea? Client sends a query, database crunches the numbers then sends a response. The query and response shouldn't be that big (unless they are returning like a 50,000 records) but this company isn't that big for that much data...

Megh, I'll let them work with what they have until they can't handle it anymore and want to upgrade the connection or try terminal services/rww.

Thanks for the info everyone.
 
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