Remote Office Overview

For the purposes of this chapter, a remote office is defined as any home office, branch office, or sole office of a small business connected to either a private network or to the Internet. In this chapter, attention is paid to the local connections within a remote office as well as to the connections from that office to either a private network or to the Internet.

Local Connections in a Remote Office

You can link several computers and other devices in a remote office together to form a local area network (LAN) that functions as a workgroup (also known as a peer-to-peer network). The LAN can be based on any of the several technologies that are covered in this chapter, and allows the sharing of resources, such as printers or disks. In such an environment, a Windows XP Professional based computer can allow several home devices to connect to school or the workplace, or it can link multiple systems at the same remote location to a central site or main office. Windows XP Professional, with its Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) functionality, allows the sharing of an Internet connection. By using a single telephone line, digital subscriber line (DSL) line, or cable modem, all the devices within the home or small office can connect to the Internet, thereby reducing the cost of access for the entire home or office.

There are now numerous technologies that you can use to connect Windows XP Professional based computers and other devices within your home and small office, including traditional LAN technologies:

• Ethernet

• Token Ring

• Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)

Windows XP Professional also supports newer technologies such as:

• 802.11x for wireless LANs

• Home Phoneline Network Adapter (HPNA)

• Infrared Data Association (IrDA) protocols

• Direct cable connection

• IP over ATM

• Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) LAN Emulation (LANE)

• Microsoft Ethernet permanent virtual connection (PVC)

Remote Connections to a Private Network

You can use a Windows XP Professional based computer to connect to a private network so you can work at home, at a field office, or at another remote location. You can dial directly to a private network using either an analog phone line with a modem or an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) phone line. You can maintain a persistent connection to the private network using either Frame Relay or a leased line such as T1. A third approach that has been gaining in popularity allows you to access a private network by means of an encrypted virtual private network (VPN) connection over the Internet.