Preserved Topic: WAN in an unwired world: suggestions?

I've got a client who has a networked business application that usually runs over a LAN. He wants to be able to use this application from his laptop. The hitch is that he wants to do this from "up north," by which he means the snowy wilds of rural Wisconsin, where the only advanced technology is dedicated to ending the lives of deer. This means that it's out of the question just to give him a network card and say "jack in at a cybercafe."

What he thinks is that he can plug his computer into a normal cellphone and use that to magically connect to his business' LAN via the Internet.

Here's what I suspect he'll need.

a) A laptop modem, possibly cellular.
b) A national dialup account, which probably means AOL or something.
c) Some way of mapping the C: drive of his server directly to the laptop as a network drive, over the Internet. This is a small business, their "server" is just a Win98 machine, it's not a web server or anything, just a LAN fileserver. What's more, it's behind a router, which might add an extra layer of annoyance to the project, since I'm fairly network-inept when it comes to ports and protocols.

I get the impression that what he needs will involve a lot of hassle. If any of you have done something similar, I'd appreciate any suggestions or insight you can offer.

For one thing, you'll probably only 9800bps using a cell phone. Sort of like a time warp to the '80s, so just ditch that idea all together.

If he can't get a dedicated land line there's no hope unless you can afford a direct satellite link, somewhere in the area of $10,000 to start.

Since his server at work is just a Win98 machine, there's no way in hell he's going to be able to enter his office network through the internet.

See, here's how I'd set it up:

First, you need a RAS (Remote Access Server). Windows NT server and Windows 2000 server come bundled with the RAS service. Then that server needs an outside IP address, i.e. an address over the internet he can connect to.

Then, you configure his machine to use VPN (virtual private networking) over the network to authenticate to the RAS, and, badabing badaboom, it's just like he's on the network at the office.


Unfortunately, from what you've told me your client is SOL (shit-outta-luck). A win98 machine is not a "server". It's like calling a rent-a-cop one a four star general.

Now, you might be able to set up a VPN between two computers as long as they both have an outside IP address, but I haven't had much time to mess with client-to-client VPN connections.

You know, if he's going up north (Up around Superior) to snowmobile.. cellular coverage aint so hot up there either. That's the only thing I have to offer.

edit: er.. yea, what he said. ^^

[This message has been edited by cyoung (edited 12-14-2002).]

As long as the area your client intends to be traveling in is within range of a cell tower he can get on the net, check his e-mail, update his calendar etc. I recently setup one of my customers with AT&T wireless internet on his handheld and laptop. He had to buy a pc card adapter and a wireless pc card modem which runs about $300. He gets about 10 meg of transfers per month which is amble for checking e-mail with the graphics striped out and transfer his schedule. If he is lucky he might be able to get a wi-fi connection which is capable of pretty high transfer rates, I don't have any experiance with mobile wi-fi though. This may be of interest to you:

[URL=http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/Page.jsp;jsessionid=9rn9sWDc437uOIbxMZixFZKSPaO2uJV9j21r5MU5Sjk2l7BYZ4go!-384130665!182751321!7005!7002?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=939423&CURRENT_ ]http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/Page.jsp;jsessionid=9rn9sWDc437uOIbxMZixFZKSPaO2uJV9j21r5MU5Sjk2l7BYZ4go!-384130665!182751321!7005!7002?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=939423&CURRENT_[/UR L] USER%]http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/Page.jsp;jsessionid=9rn9sWDc437uOIbxMZixFZKSPaO2uJV9j21r5MU5Sjk2l7BYZ4go!-384130665!182751321!7005!7002?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=939423&CURRENT _USER%3C%3EATR_SCID=ECOMM&CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_PCode=None&CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_cartState=group&bmUID=1030465341237


Thats a hell of a URL so you'll prolly have to cut and paste it. You should prolly check around with other companies that sell cellular access since quite a few of them also offer wireless internet.

[This message has been edited by dmstiner (edited 12-14-2002).]

[This message has been edited by dmstiner (edited 12-14-2002).]

[This message has been edited by dmstiner (edited 12-14-2002).]

Hmmm...don't know about the states...but here in Europe (as I happen to work for SAP, and we have this available...PC Anywhere...), in Europe, it's really no problem to do what this guy wants...we have customers who do this all the time.

The actual access will probably be the main problem, I guess...don't know the specifics in the states for that...