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There are several ways to share
your data (or other files) with folks outside your local area network. I’ll
discuss two here:
VPN and
Terminal Server.
In terminal Server Microsoft
takes us back to the days of mainframes. The product does what it says;
serves information (running programs) to dumb terminals , or computers
acting as such. All processing is done on the server; only screen shots and
results are sent to the outside users – though it looks to them that they
are running software as they are used to – be it Access or MS Word or
anything else.
The advantage is that breaks in
connections don’t corrupt data (the field rep drives through a tunnel while
updating a record) , and that one has better control of who is
running what.
The downside is cost; one must
buy an MS Server operating system and then buy multi user licenses; if you
install MS Office , MS knows many people will be able to run it – and they
will charge you as if you bought that many copies of the program.
A more detailed explanation
is to be found
here. ( Microsoft is no place to go for information about
Microsoft products)
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