advice needed re anytime anywhere access system

[projector1]

hi one of the stratagies on the govenor's wish list is a "anytime anywhere access". Basically they want staff and pupils to be able to access their home directory from home and be able to.... let say do additional work on their gcse coursework. create new word documents and save it to their user area. Is ther such a system in place?

I would be greatful for feedback as i am sure this in place in other educational estblishments in the uk.

I know for commerce they use vpns.

[ChrisH]

Popular solutions are some kind of web based folders where they can access their work through a web browser. Look for posts about WebDav and I think Class server but dont quote me on that. There are also other solutions as well.

 

This post is a similar topic

[Joedetic]

Teksys offer this solution but it is such a simple one that you dont need to pay a company extorsionate amounts of money just to set up webdav and give you a front end to open it in webfolder view.

 

The important thing is that there is a little bit of CSS that tells the browser to open the link as webfolders view. Everytime i have tried to produce a front end for it in dreamweaver or similar it has never worked opening in webfolder view without this little bit of code in the CSS

 

A {

behavior: url(#default#AnchorClick);

}

 

The downside to it all is that it only works in internet explorer.

 

But yeah...make sure that you have webdav installed and enabled.

 

Set up the folders you want to publish with IIS basic authentication against AD and SSL encryption.

 

The publishing path is the home folders share or shared file storage area on your fileserver, and providing NTFS permissions are set up right the user that authenticated will see only the folders they have acccess to.

 

Make sure that you have set read, write, directory browsing and script source access (i'm not sure about that one but i couldnt access my .shtml's without it) set up on the IIS side of things.

 

The only problem is when people start to open things directly from the webfolder instead of copying it to their local HDD first, it asks them to accept the SSL cert and authenticate all over again.

 

But other than that it works well at my school and on my home network and i've never had any problems with it.

[Ric_]

Use Citrix

[webman]

Or RM Or Karoshi or SSL Explorer

[projector1]

Or Karoshi or SSL Explorer

any further info please

[Antp]

if your running moodle ive heard about a plugin that does that.

[smadison]

Try Access 24. We have setup desktop level access for staff and students giving them access to network based software, home drives, shared folders, etc..

 

This will also allow for single install which can be accessed from schol or home (including SIMS for staff)

 

Reply if you want more info.

[wesleyw]

Precedence does a very affordable solution. Sharepoint Services 3 (WSS) would also be able to do this I think with a web part. Free comes with Windows 2003 server.

 

Wes

[dhicks]

Basically they want staff and pupils to be able to access their home directory from home and be able to.... let say do additional work on their gcse coursework. create new word documents and save it to their user area.

 

Use WebDAV. Install a copy of Apache web server on the same server where your user's shares are, get Apache to authenticate against your central user database (i.e. probably simply your Active Directory server, maybe acting as an LDAP server), turn on WebDAV support in Apache, make sure external connections can get from the Internet to your Apache server somehow, done. If you're concerned about security, set the Apache server up outside your school and have your user areas synchronised with that server on a regular basis (every 5 / 10 / 15 / whatever minutes).

 

--

David Hicks

[Sylv3r]

Precedence does a very affordable solution. Sharepoint Services 3 (WSS) would also be able to do this I think with a web part. Free comes with Windows 2003 server.

 

Wes

 

We use the webpart from Salamandersoft for this through our Sharepoint Services.

[penfold_99]

hi one of the stratagies on the govenor's wish list is a "anytime anywhere access". Basically they want staff and pupils to be able to access their home directory from home and be able to.... let say do additional work on their gcse coursework. create new word documents and save it to their user area. Is ther such a system in place?

I would be greatful for feedback as i am sure this in place in other educational estblishments in the uk.

I know for commerce they use vpns.

 

If you are a moodle users there is a plugin that can allow access to the users home drives.