Terminal Server Help

[Frut02]

Wasn't really sure where to post this, but figured here would be the best place

 

OK so I work in a school and we currently use a central hosting package that the local authority provide, it allows us to all logon in school and access Sims and finance packages, we can also access it from home if we have a key fob. Now I am looking at alternatives to this and am looking at doing the same thing in house. So I need a terminal server that can be accessed from home via IE, (Somehow) not sure if that is possible.

 

So when a user goes home they logon to a website where they can logon to the server using there network credentials and access the school system. I am also looking at installing App-v on the server so that the server will run software packages that the kids need at home (licencing is another issue here but that’s to be looked into later)

 

I’m starting from the beginning and trying to work out everything if it’s possible or if there are better solutions, we are currently behind the county’s strict firewall and will have issues until we move away from them.

 

Any ideas how the above would be achieved would be great.. As i have never worked with this stuff,

 

Nick

Network Manager

[trolley01]

From the sounds of it you need to be looking at something along the lines of Microsoft Unified Access Gateway - especially if you are a dominant MS shop.

 

I know CCC offer a number of services like this, and I think it would be interesting to compare the costs of doing it alone compared to using the county's services.

 

Everything you say is possible. We currently run our own terminal server for staff access in house, but use the CCC Remote Access system to do the authentication. Our email is also hosted in house in order to give us single sign-on and integration with SharePoint.

 

TBH this saves us the headache of dealing with the external network security, but is limiting, such as not being able to directly access webmail without authenticating using a key fob, and no amount of pleading with CCC will allow you to do so.

 

I think if I were in your position, and determined to host all the solutions yourself (which I can see the benefits of) I would definitely be looking at getting your internet connection independently. I think it would take a lot of planning and time though to get the network infrastructure and security set up.