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faq:multilocation_networking_best_practices

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Networking Multiple Locations Best Practices

Read the Networking Best Practices as a starting point. Building a network infrastructure for multiple locations may be for several reasons. You may have a second retail establishment, a warehouse, have remote administration requirements or just allowing sales people to dial in from a hotel room.

Who should read this

Your technical IT person that will be configuring or maintaining your network. This may be the company that you are purchasing your hardware from or the person that is going to get your workstations talking to each other and to a server if required.

Concept overview

Normally the database and application will reside at a “head office” server that the remote locations connect into. This connection can be in several forms with Terminal Services being the recommended solution.

  1. Windward Polling Application (RECOMMENDED with fast-paced POS environment and less than optimal internet)http://wws5.com/web_pdf/windward_polling.pdf
  2. Microsoft Terminal Services (RECOMMENDED with flawless internet at head office and remote locations) http://wws5.com/web_pdf/windward_terminalservices.pdf - Microsoft remote desktop (NOTE: Requires an un-used workstation on the same LAN as the data for each connection)

Networking principles

  1. Purchase hardware that is Microsoft 2003 or 2008 server compatible
  2. Microsoft Small Business (SBS) server does NOT allow user based terminal server sessions and can not be used for this purpose. Purchase Standard or Enterprise server solutions. http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/
  3. A VPN network is recommended but not required unless using integrated credit / debit card processing for PCI compliance. DO NOT USE VPN FOR DIRECT DRIVE MAPPING
  4. Use of strong passwords is strongly recommended

Some Useful articles on Securing your Physical Location

Printing principles

  1. There are some known issues printing through terminal services. Printers that serve multiple purposes will sometimes have printer drivers that are not supported under 2003 server. http://thinprint.com has solutions to address these.
faq/multilocation_networking_best_practices.1294154476.txt.gz · Last modified: 2011/01/04 07:21 (13 years ago) by tmatthews