[nylug-talk] Clean Slate Remote Office Connectivity

[George Bourozikas]

On Friday 20 April 2007 15:35:12 Jim McBride wrote:
> Hi All:
>
> Clean Slate Remote Office Connectivity:

Here's my experience doing something like that between NY (main office) 
and SF (satelite):

1) DSL is not practical.  ADSL is no good (it's geared towards browsing 
but you have traffic going both ways) and SDSL is almost as expensive 
as a T1.  Go with a T1.

2) Latency can be an issue.  Try using the same ISP in both locations.

3) Setting up a VPN is trivial.  Any CISCO appliance will do.  I had 
good luck with a Soekris/m0n0wall combination on both ends.

4) Don't even think of doing remote Windows domain logons - too much 
traffic.  Web apps, of course, use much less bandwidth.  If you have 
to, use remote desktop.  The linux client is excellent.  You could 
install X-servers in the remote office and remote administration should 
be a breeze.

5) Try to have the same (reputable) ISP on both ends.  This can reduce 
latency.

--george