Access from Home in a new School

[uffy2000]

im looking to put in some sort of system/service that gives staff and potentially students access from home. I really looking for suggestions and advise on what's out there and how easy it is to setup?

 

Any suggestions welcome!

 

Muchas Gracias!

[synaesthesia]

Home Access Plus. Very easy indeed, good support here too. You can add links to RDP if you can set up remoteapps for your SIMS etc (check licensing)

[uffy2000]

I have heard of that and had a look at it, from what I can see though there isn't that much documentation for it from a noobs perspective. For instance Im pretty sure I have to NAT the IP of the IIS server to get it available to the outside world and I think I have to get a SSL certificate for it too work properly....that's just from what I have heard on the grapevine.

[synaesthesia]

That's true and it will go for *any* service you fit. Even an out of the box VPN hardware solution means you'll need to sort out routing, firewalls etc. SSL certificates aren't too much of a pain to sort out, certainly not for windows servers so it may be worth asking round anyone local that could help you out.

[cpjitservices]

HA+

 

Great product. Dont use it personally as there is only me who remotes in via VPN. Plenty of support and documentation on here for HA+ too.

[JackCPickup]

Another +1 for HAP

[Danp]

Another + for HAP+ here too

[shadowx]

We use RD Web Access which is pretty cool. Have to agree with synaesthesia here though that any service which you host internally and want to push to the outside world we require SSL and port forwarding. Both relatively straight forward so don't let that put you off. Do keep in mind though that if you currently don't have any external services then by hosting something you will increase your attack surface massively so you'll really want to look at your security before you go live. Any new service you host will also increase the surface that's attackable from outside.

[ictstbenedicts]

We use Citrix Xendesktop (VDI), you get the full school desktop (in our case Windows 7, including Creative Suite, office etc) in a web browser on any device outside school!

[lionsl2005]

We use Citrix VDI as well. Works well. Its been here for 4 years. now teachers and students used to it. If something failed / No access users go Mad.

[uffy2000]

im taking a crack at HAP+, its fairly easy. Never setup something in IIS before so its all new too me. a little complicated with the fact it requires SSL so I have a bought a domain certificate for it and just sorting out the bindings. I have had to scrap it and start over once because the domain name in the certificate was not the same as the host name in the site so the certificate was not working.

[fiza]

We use Citrix Xendesktop (VDI), you get the full school desktop (in our case Windows 7, including Creative Suite, office etc) in a web browser on any device outside school!

 

How do you cope with the licencing issues for software you use in school. Does a site licence cover you for access from home?

[uffy2000]

That's true and it will go for *any* service you fit. Even an out of the box VPN hardware solution means you'll need to sort out routing, firewalls etc. SSL certificates aren't too much of a pain to sort out, certainly not for windows servers so it may be worth asking round anyone local that could help you out.

 

I went with namecheap which I believe you mention in another post on here. thanks for that!

[ataylor]

Another +1 for HAP - I was pretty clueless when I started to set it up, but there is plenty of help and the documentation is sufficient.