Office in 2 locations. How to connect?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Citimouse
  • Start date Start date
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Citimouse

Hi All,

I have a problem and hope anyone can help me.

Our office is going to expand to another unit in the building. The new
office will be on a different level as the current one.

I will need to setup a network in the new office. However, I am hesitant on
the implementation of it. Our preference is to try to keep the whole office
in the same domain. However, we also can accept setting up a different
domain in the new office. We are all using Windows 2000 servers.

Now I have 2 choices.

1. Setup a new domain and establish a trust between the new domain and the
current domain. This will involve new hardware cost and there will be
difficult maintaining 2 domains.

2. User will log on into current domain. We will need to open up the
firewall port on this and logging into the current domain in a different
location may take a long time.

Now I am quite confused on which option to choose. I would prefer option 1.
If we were to choice option 1, may I know what are the things I will need to
take note of? And what about option 2? Is it feasible and what to take note
of too?

Thank you.

Wei Yu
Singapore
 
You certainly don't set up a new domain.

Perferably you run cat5e between the units. You don't just connect the two
over the internet without tunnelling and encryption.

|
| Our office is going to expand to another unit in the building. The new
| office will be on a different level as the current one.
|
| I will need to setup a network in the new office. However, I am hesitant on
| the implementation of it. Our preference is to try to keep the whole office
| in the same domain. However, we also can accept setting up a different
| domain in the new office. We are all using Windows 2000 servers.
|
| Now I have 2 choices.
|
| 1. Setup a new domain and establish a trust between the new domain and the
| current domain. This will involve new hardware cost and there will be
| difficult maintaining 2 domains.
|
| 2. User will log on into current domain. We will need to open up the
| firewall port on this and logging into the current domain in a different
| location may take a long time.
|
| Now I am quite confused on which option to choose. I would prefer option 1.
| If we were to choice option 1, may I know what are the things I will need to
| take note of? And what about option 2? Is it feasible and what to take note
| of too?
|
 
If you don't have a private line between the two locations consider setting
up a VPN. I would not suggest you expose your MS networking services on the
internet by opening ports on your firewall. Major security risk.

Then depending on the speed and quality of your internet links on both ends
you could have the clients in location 2 log on to the domain and servers in
location 1. Just keep in mind if the internet links on either end go down
then your users in location 2 will be stranded.
 
OK, but the new unit is in the same building. There should be no need to
expose the network to the outside world, this should simply be a physical
extension to the network.
 
Hi,

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I really appreciate it.

The building landlord refuse to allow us to run a cable to link between 2
office units. To make matter worse, I cannot even make the VPN to work for
our current users (working from home). Our Firewall hardware vendor is not
providing much help either. That's why I suggested 2 domains. The new server
located in the new office would most probably is Windows 2003 Server and the
current server is Windows 2000.

One thing to note is that our current Windows 2000 server is currently being
utilized at over 100% (running low in hard disk space and memory) and it is
a very low end server (running IDS Hard disk). Therefore, I would like to
use this new server to improve the performance of the whole network, or at
least the network in the new office.

Honestly, my AD background and Windows 20003 knowledge is not strong.
Therefore, I do not have much confidence building this WAN.

Any further suggestions from you guys out there?

Thank you very much.

Best Regards,

Wei Yu
 
You have a great landlord. If you have less than 328 feet between the
offices, you could might get around you landlord by having the local
telco provider run a "telephone line" ( cat5 ), I mean who stops the
telephone company. Can a landlord legally restrict a telco line? What if
the telco maintains ownership of the line and you only lease the line?

VPN without very serious hardware and broadband costs are out, too slow,
unless your remote users only need occasional small file access. Even
with cable broadband you won't be able to run a normal database program

I have no experience wth 802.11g wireless, may be a possiblity. Antennas
near windows might be needed.

Paul Meiners
 
The building landlord refuse to allow us to run a cable to link between
2 office units.
Click to expand...

Just do it, screw the landlord. Chances are he wouldn't know a cable
exists between the two points in the building anyhow. If the landlord
wants your money every month, you need this link. Stick to your guns,
whether you are dealing with the landlord directly or with your company's
management.

The cost of running and terminating a single cable should be roughly $150
from a local contractor (actually, run a couple while your at it - you can
never have enough cable in the walls!) unless you are in some odd scenario
(too far, no direct path between the two units). Explain to your
management the immediate and long term costs associated with adding
additional WAN links or domains to address the issue. No one in their
right mind wouldn't agree if you explain the situation properly.

--
John LeMay
kc2kth
Senior Technical Manager
NJMC | http://www.njmc.com | Phone 732-557-4848
Specializing in Microsoft and Unix based solutions
 
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