* Readers suggest solution to another reader's remote-access software issues
In a newsletter last month, I mentioned a reader who asked how she might connect remote laptops securely to her firm’s headquarters over the Internet and have those same laptops also able to connect to customer networks that use a variety of remote access schemes.
Client software for different vendors’ remote access gear and for different remote access technologies would almost certainly conflict on a single laptop.
Some readers wrote in with suggestions. Several people suggested creating virtual PCs on a single hard drive and having each support a different remote access client. When a particular client is needed, the virtual PC hosting the appropriate client is booted.
One suggested putting one client each on a group of Windows XP laptops at company headquarters. The remote workers would log in to headquarters from a laptop via the company VPN, and access the appropriate laptop via a Remote Desktop connection. They would then VPN from the XP box to the client site.
Remote-control software in guest mode was suggested. A remote machine would connect via a secure remote control session to a PC on the corporate network and that PC would connect to the customer site via a centrally managed gateway set up for each customer.
One reader suggested a combination of open source Open VPN, which operates in user space and generally doesn’t interfere with standard VPN clients, and Integrated Secure Communications System (ISCS) software, which can simplify the bridging of VPN technologies.
Array Networks wrote to claim its software can live compatibly on a single laptop with other vendors’ IPSec VPN and SSL VPN clients.
Thanks for helping out. No word yet on what solution the questioner has settled on.
