accessing DSP, R&R from home

[gordyw]

Has anyone had any experience with accessing their work system from home with a DSL or cable,(roadrunner) connection instead of a dial up modem connection. Tech support is clueless as to if this can be done.

[sallen1]

Gordy,

Haven't done it myself but the process should work this way assuming you have DSL or T1 at the store as well:

Connect you home computer via DSL service (TELNET) to a LAN connection at the dealership and go thru that connection to you DSP. You'll need to setup the firewalls and security arrangement and perhaps only allow a single specified external connection.

Should work just like any terminal session at the store just over a longer wire.

If you are on a LAN at the store, a network person can do the rest.

good luck

scott

[jdaniel]

A few questions for you:
What type of internet connection do you have at the dealership and who is your ISP? Do you know if you have a static IP address(es) at the store? What kind of router and firewall are you running, and are they yours or your ISPs?

We just dial in to the system modem using ERALink client software. (ProComm plus works, too, just with fewer features). We have so many remote users that I have four modems for remote access. The system terminals only communicate at 9600, so the extra bandwidth that DSL provides is unlikely to make a performance difference.


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Jack Daniel, MCSE+I, CCNA
Systems Admin
South Shore Imported Cars

[CCassaday]

Gordy,

Access through the public internet is a tricky situation. You don't want just anyone to have the ability to access your DSP without the proper clearance. If your Dealership Management System is connected to the internet hopefully you will have a firewall protecting it. From there, you will need to have a VPN (Virtual Private Network) client that connects through a VPN concentrator device to allow you access to your DMS. Your best bet would be to contact the systems/hardware/network support center for your DMS provider. Primarily, your DMS sales rep should be able to provide you with the necessary information for this.

Chris Cassaday

[CCassaday]

jdaniel,

In your message you stated:

>The system terminals only communicate at 9600, so the extra bandwidth that DSL provides is unlikely to make a performance difference.

On the contrary. The DMS provider that I work for sets up clients servers on the internet behind firewalls so that we can pipe update information into the server rather than through tape or CD updates. This same connection allows me to access clients servers in a support capacity via a VPN connection over the public internet through a cable modem at my home with a VPN client on my laptop. (Keep in mind that the IP addresses of our clients servers is not "public knowledge" and the VPN client I use is supplied by my company.) Dial up modems are still used in some cases, but the speed difference between a network connection (even over the public internet) is dramatically faster than a dial up modem. (Even at 56k connect speeds.)

In fact, VPN technology stands to dramatically reduce dealers telco expense if a connection to a remote store is now done through a leased line. With VPN, a dealer with a remote store with just basic DSL or Cable modem access stands to save tremendous amounts of money and most likely improve throughput. For redundency, leased lines can be used for backup if the DSL or cable connection is cut. Reliability is preserved.

Chris Cassaday

[Matt Parsons]

EDS offers a solution known as DealerPath that works in conjunction with any DSP solution and provides for Remote VPN Access, Firewall, Email, Web Site Filtering, Spam Filtering, along with many other features. This solution has been tested by the GM IT Dealer Council (of which many members are not using an EDS supplied DMS) and has received rave reviews from a functionality standpoint and price point.

The dealer is responsible for selecting their connectivity (ISP) solution, but DealerPath supports 56K to T1.

For more information, visit www.edsarg.com

[psperry]

You're making this too hard. Go to BestBuy or some other retailer that sells DSL/Cable Routers and pickup a Linksys VPN Router. Cost you under $200. Plug it into your network, give it an IP (or DHCP) and then setup users via the web interface. Then, anyone you want can access from home via an IPSEC tunnel as long as they have an Internet connection. This, however, assumes that you have a static IP to give the Linksys box on the Internet side. Or, try any of the Snap Gear products http://www.snapgear.com. Both the Linksys and Snap Gear are extrememly easy to use and administer. At our dealership, we try and eliminate direct dials into R&R whenever possible, so a VPN is a perfect solution.

[CCassaday]

psperry,

You mean you can have as many people as you want access your R&R DMS through the public internet with this VPN router? Does your R&R DMS allow telneted users through TCP port 21 without any type of securty? (ie users can either be connected serially or through a mapped TCP/IP port?) If so, it sounds like you have figured out a way around paying user access fees to R&R for access to the server.

However, this seems like it would create performance problems on your R&R server if the system did not have enough memory or hard drive space to account for the number of users above what was originally intended.

Chris Cassaday

[dmacri]

Be careful of what you ask for - You may get exactly what you ask for!!

As technology allows us to 'be connected' 24/7 - the amount of time one works gradually eats away at your personal time.
(who within this forum works less than 60 hours a week).

I've worked with way too many people that finished their work afterhours when the load became larger than the time spent at the office. Eventually, it became the expected norm which masks a larger problem - Inadequate admin staff to support the daily volume of transactions.
It either hides the need for more headcount or protects incompetence by those that should have done things in a timely fashion the first time through.

Personally (and this is only my opinion), if my name was on the sign, nobody but the DMS support staff (and professional 3rd parties)would have access to the data from the outside.

[jdaniel]

Chris- that may be true in your situation, but our elderly Reynolds system only communicates at 9600. Of course, when you are talking about text-only DOS programming on a *nix box, that is plenty of bandwidth. I wouldn't, however, want to think about piping any graphics over that, or heaven forbid Windows or Mac traffic. Maybe when we buy the next system it will be worth it to us.
As for IP addresses not being public knowledge, any good port scanner can run any range you tell it. It just knocks on doors until it finds one that answers and then starts probing seriously, so I wouldn't count on anonymity doing you much good.

Your comments on VPNs as a cost saving tool are a good observation for businesses which do not really need the 24/7 stability (and expense) of a leased line. We use T1 add/drop CSU/DSU units on our leased T's so that we can pipe both voice and data over separate channels on a single line to get the most out of the circuits, but unless your voice network justifies the expense that isn't a reasonable approach for most dealers.

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Jack Daniel, MCSE+I, CCNA
Systems Admin
South Shore Imported Cars