Wide Area Network

AdamSnow

Diamond Member
Nov 21, 2002
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Hey guys...
I got a real unique question for you I think... maybe this is a very common thing, but I have no idea how to even go about it...

What I want to do is have a computer that is in another city have access to my home network all the time so we can share files, etc... We are both on high speed internet, and I have full control of both systems to do whatever I need to do to make this happen...

Here's the background: My fiancé is going to school, so we got her an apartment in the other city to avoid her driving 1.5 hours one way... Her computer will be there hooked to a high speed line and the rest of the network is going to be at my house on a high speed line... Servers, Printers, all workstations etc...

Is there any way to allow her computer to automatically connect to my network all the time? Will I need two network cards in her computer? One for her internet, one for the IP of my network? I know that I could use VPN to do this - but I'm not sure of a way to make VPN automatically connect on start-up... Would she have to double click the connect to VPN each and every time she wanted to browse for a file or something else?

The reason I don?t want her to have to double click something to connect - is if she is home for the weekend or on a break and forgets to connect before leaving she won?t be able to access her files at her apartment... Yes, I know that we could RDC in and turn on the VPN and log out and then transfer the files - but that?s just a pain in the butt...

What about VNC? Is there a way I could set that up to just connect to network drives and such, not take over the screen on her end?

I'm basically looking for any options I have at all... I don?t really know how to go about this. Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks!
 

Rapidskies

Golden Member
May 27, 2003
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If you bought a couple of el'cheapo VPN routers Linksys, netgear whatever you could set up a point to point vpn that is always on. You would need a static IP at one of the locations. Whenever the routers are on the VPN will be up. Otherwise you can rely on RDP, VNC, etc.
 

AdamSnow

Diamond Member
Nov 21, 2002
5,736
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76
Bumping for other suggestions... :)

Thanks Rapidskies... That's what I was thinking - the two routers... I'll look into that a bit more.

Edit : Or can someone point me to some information on how to make two routers connect to each other via VPN, or how to setup a router to connect to my VPN server?