Remote office networking suggestions...
I need some suggestions on the best way to connect 2 or 3 satellite offices. Here is the layout:
Service Company
Main Office: 6 Users (2 bosses, bookkeeper, admin, sales, clerk)
Remote Office 1: 1 User (plus outside staff with no need for connection)
Remote Office 2: 1 User (plus outside staff with no need for connection)
Remote Office 3: 2/3 Users (plus outside staff with no need for connection)
Currently each site has an Internet DSL Connection.
Main Office runs Quick Books Enterprise (On users desktop), needs to have remote office access schedules/files and be able to make updates to it. A service orientated application (http://www.insightdirect.com/industr..._software.html) is being evaluated which would tie in with Quick Books and provide contact management, estimating, scheduling, and work orders. These remote offices need to access this information.
Main office has a very basic network which allows them to share the Internet Connection. 1 PC runs the QuickBooks program. I was thinking of putting a server in to run QuickBooks and the new application. Email is provided by the DSL connection carrier and Outlook is used as the PC Client. All PC's are running Win XP SP2. Blackberries are also used to receive emails for the management team.
I am looking for suggestions as to best set them up for communication between offices sharing files and applications and streamlining their environment.
this got kind of long winded but I think its useful...and necessary
Business Server is a great fit for your environment -- just make sure you buy a beefy server to run it because it will be very taxing. You're not just running Active Directory, but exchange, hosting files, DNS, (probably) dhcp, IIS, etc on this monster, so plan accordingly. My recommendation -- get a dual core server with a 2 chip capacity (only get 1 chip to start, 3ghz?), and 8gb ram capacity (2-4 to start), and probably a pair of raid1 160g SATA drives to start (scsi if you can afford it, raid5 and DEFINATELY get a 3 year warranty with the server). Should hold you over for a couple years. Don't forget backups (an external hard drive might do the trick for a small environment along with shadow copy).
As for the people to connect in, plan on getting a supplement server for this. On top of having things like office and other programs you run, running along with your server gets kind of scary. The last thing you want is Betty from "forwards everything" land to bomb your server to kingdom come because "that email" was "cute" or the dancing pigs was just too irresistible. (see : "pink slip virus" commercial ...CONGRADULATIONS!!!) Bottom line : Protect that bad boy as if it was your lifeblood ...because it is :) I would highly suggest a separate server for a TS operation for that simple reason.
Anyway, that aside and to answer your question, the TS cals are expensive, its like having a whole, free desktop license because that’s as close to a desktop experience as you can get ...without the desktop (see : thinclients). For the setup I'm running now, I planned on 25% more than I should "ever see" on my server. Why? If a user wanted to log in with their thin client and a laptop so they could copy info back and forth, I don't see a problem with that. So technically, one user could use ...3 cals at one time max. Is this super realistic? no, but could it happen from time to time? yes. So I planned for it. I ended up with 75 cals and I use about 50-60 of them in a day. I use device cals instead of user cals but you may want to consider user instead. It's your call. (you'll probably want user cals)
This is a lot of info I know, but for what you're doing, you are on the right track. If you have any further questions, do not hesistate. TS, Security, Servers and 2k3 are my friends :)