Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Best(cost effective) remote access solution for a small business?

Here's what we have:

- Cox business internet with their modem

- Modem goes to our wireless router

- Switch plugged into that where all desktops(about 12), phones(about 12) and a couple printers, and a server.

When this was all first set up, all desktops were setup like home PCs and there was a NAS(not an actual server) that they grabbed files from. I was hired on as partly an IT guy(have experience as a desktop/server tech and got into networking a little). I have since, ditched the NAS and now we have a server that is basically just a file server and a domain controller. Only two of the computers have been converted to domain computers but most are still just homegroup computers. I have accounts that everyone uses to access the file server but not to log into their computers.

My goal is to put everyone on the domain and introduce a secondary DC for safety reasons. After that I want a handful of employees to be able to access their computers and the file server from home or wherever. Maybe 7 total but it would probably only ever be 3 or 4 on at the same time tops. This is where my experience starts to fall apart and I don't know much about outside access.

- Do I need a firewall?

- Is VPN the way to go?

- Can I achieve what I want just using the windows server 2016 server/s that we have?

- If I get a firewall can that handle outside connections so I don't have to mess with the servers?

- Does any of this involve a monthly fee?

What did I miss? and Thank you!



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