How to: Running application software via VPn Connection

[jhedge]

I hope this question is within the bounds of this forum and thanks for your time..

I can connect from my home office using a VPN connection (2) 1721 routers.

This is fine for running a emulator to connect to a Risc-Box using text base software. (Unix)

What I need to do is to run a application program such as MS-word on my local computer and retreive files from my server at the main office. (Novell NetWare server 6.0)

I know there are companies like Cyrix that do that sort of thing, but do I really need them?

How can I pass data over IP / Vpn Connections and run window applications.

Again thanks for your time.

Jim

[lgijssel]

When you sufficient bandwith, it will be no problem to share a drive over the VPN. As you are using NW6 it is possible to use IP for this. A more basic method would be to revert to some FTP client. Retrieving .doc files i.e. Word should be no problem. It all depends on the bandwidth.

[jhedge]

I guess my question was not clear. I can connect to my Novell server and see the network drives ect, but when I run a progarm such as Word from my workstation at my office I can see the file or doc that I want ti use thats on the server but when I open it I get a time-out or some error. So, yes I can connect

and see drives and files but not able to open them.

Jim

[lgijssel]

That is a different issue indeed. Looks like a typical MTU problem:

Due to the tunneling, your max packet size has fallen below 1500 and the server does not handle this properly.

I suppose that you can do a ping from one router to the other? Or, perhaps even better, to the server. You can use an extended ping to check what your max MTU is. Do an extended ping (requires enable mode) from the LAN-side of your homerouter to the server. Take care that the packets traverse the tunnel. With an extended ping you can also set the size of the packet. Set this to 1500 and check for a reply. If there comes none, do the same for a size of 1400. If you are successful now, your MTU lies somewhere between 1400 and 1500. Repeating the test with other sizes will allow you to determine the max MTU supported over the link. I expect this to be somewhere around 1480.

If it works for 1500 bytes also, doublecheck that the packets are sent through the VPN and not alongside of it.

Good luck, have fun.