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Remote access to a small work network?

Tags:
  • Remote Access
  • NAS Storage
  • SonicWALL
Last response: in Toms Network
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September 15, 2014 9:11:19 AM

I recently opened a small business and have set up a small internal network on our gigabit switch which connects 3 workstations, 2 printers and our AT&T Uverse modem. The Uverse modem is also our Wi-Fi source. This is all working great. Last weekend I added a Drobo 5N 6TB NAS device, which we LOVE. We all have access to it and now store/access our working files on it. The Drobo is basically our file server now.

What I would like to do is access the Drobo file server from home (for me + the employees), but I don’t want to spend the money right now for a dedicated server machine due to quickly rising start up costs.

From what I have read, a simple solution to this may be purchasing a Dell Sonicwall TZ 205 or similar device and placing that between our Uverse modem and our gigabit switch. Again, from what I have read, we could set up user accounts on the Sonicwall and then VPN-connect to the network from our homes via the Sonicwall and have access the Drobo NAS.

Has anyone done this or something similar? The Sonicwall documentation makes it sound like this is relatively easy to set up, but I am networking beginner at best and a lot of the jargon is new or confusing to me.

Thanks!

More about : remote access small work network

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September 15, 2014 9:25:36 AM

Yes you can either purchase a firewall device like the sonicwall or a better router with vpn features.

Once you setup your vpn connection at your busienss it is easy to set windows to add an additional connection and make your VPN conection. You can then browse your Drobo as if you are pluged ino the office.

Now when doing a VPN connection you are imited by your upload speed at your businss. I see you have uverse, so if it is fiber you are good, but if it is dsl then it might be a good bit slower then desired, espically if you have multiple VPN connections to the server. If you are just opening word documents it should be fine, but if accessing larger files then it will be very slow.
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