Fuchsrohre

I'm normally the bloke who keeps and eye on the Win2k servers at work. I've set up a secure broadband VPN from my office at home to my office at work in order to log into and maintain various aspects of the aforementioned servers.

I'll be away in Europe in a couple of months and was wondering just how viable an option it would be to stay in touch with our LAN at work using a PDA or some other method ? I ask, as I've never used a PDA at all - had no use for one.

Q: Can a PDA run our windows VPN client (sonicwall) ?
Q: Can the PDA let me run something similar to the terminal services / remote connection I use with WinXP to connect to our win2k servers ?
Q: Is it likely I could use a "hotspot" wireless broadband connection in places like Barcelona & Lisbon ? eg. are these common place ?

...or is it feasilble to simply walk into an Internet Cafe, install my VPN client onto their PC and connect that way ?

ChrisB

SonicWall do a Global VPN Client for Pocket PCs. If it doesn't support it, you should be able to get a VPN connection using a 3rd party or built in client if it supports the common standards like 3DES / AES / MD5 etc.

Pocket PC includes a RDP / Terminal Services client. Handy snippet of info here.

Some of the newer Pocket PCs have a screen which can handle a remote desktop session. The iPaq hx4700 will do 480 x 640. The FSC Loox 718 / 720 will also do a similar res.

I wouldn't expect an Internet cafe would let you install anything on their PCs.

What about using the Remote Desktop Web Connection? Set up IIS before you leave and create a secure web site (you could use your own certificate) which you can access from the web. Thus from a PC running IE, you can use that to get a remote session to your servers. Some MS stuff here.

HTH,

Chris.

Fuchsrohre

thanks Chris - I'd never even heard of remote desktop web connection!! Sounds ideal!

Is it easy enough to setup ?

Where does the Sonicwall protecting our servers fit into this equation ?

boxst

Hello

You may also find the free version of http://www.logmein.com useful. It gets past nearly all firewalls.

Steve.

Jeff Wiltshire

The Pocket PC VPN client works very well and I've used it via wireless hotspots without a problem (assumes your PDA has 802.11b/g functionality). The RDP client is OK but the screen size is the big issue. I'd try and use a laptop if TS is what your after.