Hi all,
Theoretical set-up - looking for advice on feasibility and/or potential
problems [indeed, if this is workable!]
Remote Office:
6 users
Currently running bog-standard W2K Server
Outlook clients connecting directly to individual POP3 mailboxes at ISP - NO
internal mail whatsoever
Broadband connection via Broadband Router on LAN - 512k ADSL
Head Office:
W2K Server
Exchange2K Server
Cisco 1700 Router
Cisco PIX 515E Firewall
Mailsweeper
Websweeper
McAffee EPolicy Orchestrator
McAffee Virusscan
Broadband is 2Mb SDSL
Customer is looking to have the Remote Office link with the Head Office in
the following way:
1] ALL email either incoming or outgoing to go via Head Office - they [at
present] are looking for all internal mail within the Remote Office to also
pass via Head Office, but I'm dubious as to whether this is the most
efficient method of achieving things for them
2] 'Constant' VPN access during working hours to allow file/document sharing
between sites
We've [thus far] told the customer that they've got the following basic
options:
1] Set-up the constant VPN connection between the offices either
server-server or router-router and configure all the Outlook clients at the
Remote Office as offline clients of the Head Office Exchange Server -
downside is that all the internal mails are sent to the Head Office then
back to the Remote Office which is pretty bandwidth inefficient.
2] Go SBS at the Remote Office - this will provide firewalling at the Remote
Office [at present its just the NAT on the Router!], internal mail at the
Remote Office stays within the Remote Office while external email can be
forwarded to a Smart Host of the client's Head Office Exchange Server and
incoming mail can be downloaded from the Head Office Exchange Server via
POP3 [or SMTP?]
Reasoning for SBS:
1] If the VPN link to Head Office goes down, the client in the Remote Office
still has internal mail and we could [if the outage were a long one]
configure them to send outgoing emails directly out via DNS. They'd get ISA
to protect their network [and adding a 2nd NIC] in order to provide FAR more
security than relying on the existing router's NAT. Basically to provide a
degree of fault-tolerance in addition to ease of remote administration and
increased security.
Reasoning for non-SBS [more from customer's perspective than ours]:
1] Cheaper - perhaps slightly tighter integration with their Head Office
existing set-up
Notes:
1] Client does NOT wish to go W2K3 at this stage - therefore it would need
to be SBS2K if we went down that route
Anyone got any pointers/advice/potential pitfalls?
Regards,
David