Newbie Q: Networking across states/provinces?

[darkconz]

Hi there, this might sound stupid but I am interested in how do those large companies network across cities, states countries etc. Say there is one company who has stores in two cities... and each of the stores share the same database (inventory count etc). How do they network like that?

I heard there is a thing called Virtual Private Network (VPN) but that requires the access to internet... If the database is huge (say like 300MB) how could the internet be fast enough to communicate with the server (with the all the data)?

Thank you very much in advance for answering my question. I am going to start a new shop somewhere distant but I need the control or at least the inventory count in each of the shops.

 

[JackMDS]

Welcome to the Network Forum.

It is to different issues.

1. Connecting thought the Internet to ?Combine? the systems is one thing, and it is quit simple. How ever simple connection is not safe since others might intercept you data.

2. VPN is a protocol that might use to insure the Security (privacy) of this connection.

Given your post I would suggest professional help.


:sun:

 

[darkconz]

Thank you for replying JackMDS. I think security is what I need too. Is there any suggestion you can provide? Or do I have to rely on professional help out there to set up this kind of "networking" for me since I cannot do it myself?

 

[Garion]

There are really three traditional ways to build a Wide Area Network (WAN)

1: Get Internet circuits at each site and create a VPN - This encrypts the data between the VPN devices and sends it across the Internet.

2: Get direct circuits from the telco that terminate in each end - Called a "point-to-point" and terminate it on real routers (i.e. Cisco, etc.)

3: Get private circuits at each site, but hook them up to a frame relay network. Frame Relay is a large private mesh network that the carriers run and you can buy transit across it cheaper than you can get private lines.

WAN circuits are typically quite slow compared to LANs. Many apps that run great on a LAN don't work well on a WAN - A good example of this is a file-based database (Access, Filemaker, Foxpro, etc.). There are, however, a lot of apps that run very well across a WAN - Client/Server databases (SQL, Oracle), e-mail, basic file sharing, instant messaging, etc.

There are solutions to make non-WAN-friendly apps work across a WAN (like Citrix) but they aren't cheap.

What are you looking to accomplish? Give us more details and we might be able to make some basic recommendations.

- G

 

[darkconz]

Ok, I use QuickBook to keep track of my inventory and sales. I want to start a new shop in another city but I need both sites to share the common database (in this case the QuickBook file). I need to know the total inventory count that both sites have and the sales made each day in total.

How can I accomplish that? It seems to me VPN is what I should go for, correct?

Thanks again guys.