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Help Your Team Work From Home

With Remote Web Workplace (RWW), now available as part of Small Business Server 2003, team members can do a day’s work – without leaving their house!

By Keir Wells

A few years ago, one of my best mates and I sat down and built a test server out of spare parts we had lying around our businesses. Using Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Server we tried to get a remote access system going so someone could access the network via the Internet or a dial-up connection, gaining full but secure access to files and other resources. While we got it working after a fashion, both of us put it aside in the hope that a more effective solution would crop up in future versions of Microsoft server software. It has! It’s Microsoft Windows Small Business Server (SBS) 2003’s Remote Web Workplace (RWW); and it’s brilliant!

To operate remote client PC connection via RWW all that’s needed is an Internet connection, a PC/notebook with a Web browser and a valid network user account. Once you type in the IP (Internet Protocol) address of your server – and provided your SBS 2003 has been installed correctly – you simply log into the network and you have RWW at your fingertips.

The business benefits

OK, so why is it so exciting? Technology apart, it’s “at last” freedom for my business and no doubt, thousands of other businesses. I have always maintained a policy of employees working from the office rather than afford them the flexibility of working from home. To appreciate the new-found flexibility, let me explain what it gives my company, then see for yourself where it can take you, your employees and your business.

1. Even though I’ve already talked about OWA elsewhere, it’s worth mentioning again in this article. With OWA, everyone sends e-mails using their Exchange Server profiles e-mail. This ensures all e-mails are stored in Exchange user folders and clients don’t receive e-mails from employees using their home e-mail addresses.
2. For our office manager, Jo, Remote Web Workplace is probably the best thing I’ve given her since putting Office 2003 Professional on her PC. Jo is the mother of two young children and has occasionally had to stay at home when one has been sick and off school. With her home dial-up Internet connection, Jo is now able to log on to her work PC and run accounts, payroll…anything that’s on the PC.
3. When I upgraded my business’s IT infrastructure in early 2003 I bought myself a notebook computer, simply because I’m out of the office so much and on-site with clients. As long as I can access a phone jack, I can use the company’s backup dial-up Internet connection and essentially be back in the office for files, e-mail and even my desktop applications.

The security advantage

I have to say that one of the pleasant things about the RWW and the “client” (any computer connected to the network) connection is the security. When you log on to RWW you need to provide your network username and password (security point number 1). Then, to access a client PC, you have to enter a username and password for that PC-to-network access (security point number 2).

Once logged in to the remote PC, that machine is automatically locked and can only be accessed then by a network or PC administrator (security point number 3).

Another good security measure is that the remote PC does not need to have a user logged on to the network in order to be accessed remotely (security point number 4). As long as it’s connected to the SBS 2003 network, it’s ready for remote access.

One of the great options when logging on to a client machine via the Remote Web Workplace is the ability to map drives. What this means is that when you log on to a client machine from, let’s say, your home PC, Windows Explorer (on the remote client) will automatically display your local (home) PC’s drives as mapped network drives. The result? Simply drag and drop files between the PCs just as you would normally.

Important technical info

Again I want to reinforce the message that even though SBS 2003 is significantly easier to set up than earlier versions, it’s still a job best left to professionals.

To use the remote client access features, you will need to ensure the networked PCs to which you will be accessing run Microsoft Windows XP.

If you haven’t as yet invested in a broadband (cable, satellite, ADSL) Internet connection, then now’s the time to consider it you want to take full advantage of the SBS 2003 features discussed in this article.

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