Ryan: I'm not a database adminstrator, I'm the Prospect Research Manager but since my IT dept. seems unable to implement BARC can you give me some guidance? We need to have the product hosted by a third party provider (any suggestions would be very welcomed) and we need it set up so that both internal people (at our main headquarters) and field personnel can access it. Within those parameters, we will have to set up a system of access levels so that some are 'read-only' and others have some have reporting functions and there is one adminstrator with rights to everything. As I said, ANY help you can give would be appreciated. Thanks. Laura

Hi, What is BARC? I've never heard that term before. Is that an acronym for a Blackbaud product? Also, I'm curious as to why you say you need a 3rd party host. Can you provide some more details about your environment? Thanks, Ryan

BARC = Blackbaud Analytics Research Center We looked at this about six months ago when we evaluated Blackbaud Analytics as a possible source of screening data for major gift prospects. If memory serves, it is a standalone desktop application that serves as a viewer for the screening data received from Blackbaud and facilitates import of the data into your Raiser's Edge database. Mark F. DeWitt, Database Manager College of Engineering University of California, Berkeley [Email Removed]

I've just recently launched BARC - Blackbaud Analytics Research Center - at my non profit. We just have a few internal clients using it internally and so far no has asked for external access. For our internal users we host the database on a server and then simply installed the client components to each workstation needing access. Once the client components were installed I simply pointed them to the database on the server. That works very well internally. For your external users I would suggest setting up a client machine within the network and allowing your external folks the ability to use remote desktop into that machine for their BARC data. Depending upon network Firewall and other setting is should be reasonably easy to implement by just turning on a single access port and then assigning the port to the client machine. Just my suggestions but I might still be on my BBQ high from the weekend! Scott A. Crow VP Information Services Girl Scouts of Glowing Embers Council [Email Removed]

Can somebody explain why I received a post from the forum (or so it seems)from a vendor but the post is not attached to this thread? I thought only BB users and Blackbaud staff were allowed on the forum. And actually I received two seperate post of the same nature. Did everyone else receive these? Following is one of the posts: **** Join the Discussion **** http://www.blackbaud.com/forums/topic.asp?forumid=124&topicid=2&nodes=40,84  Posted by: Virgil Turner **** Message Follows **** **On 05/16/06, Virgil Turner writes: ** This post is offered to assist only, and is not intended as a free advert for services. I know how hard it is for some of you to find a provider that is familier with Rasier's Edge hosting. A tried and tested out-sourced solution is available from Internet Services (EU) Limited. We already host servers running Raiser's Edge in one of our datacenter facilities. We can provide the hardware, licenses, updates and management for running Windows 2003 (+LongHorn) with Terminal Services. All security, anti-virus, backups are taken care of in our Service Level Agreement. This is a comprehensive service aimed at clients that want a totally managed out-sourced solution that just works. Feel free to contact me directly: [Email Removed], and my apologies to anyone who felt that this post was exploitive; just trying to save some of you hours of wasted time talking to other providers that don't know Raiser's Edge and have no idea of what's required! Denise Stengl School Sisters of St. Francis Milwaukee, WI [Email Removed]

I received it also Denise... And got it more then once... Doug Creek University of Alaska Database Administrator [Email Removed]

I received the two posts as well. The message is odd at the least and SPAM at the worst. If it is SPAM, he needs to be blocked. Cat Lee IT Specialist ALS Association - DC/MD/VA Chapter [Email Removed] 301-978-9855 x207 *FIGHT LOU GEHRIG'S DISEASE* Learn How: www.ALSinfo.org

Yes, that post was strange. I'm not even currently signed up to receive posts from this DA/Tech forum - and haven't posted any questions here for almost 2 yrs! Accountant McWane Center

I got it as well.. Yes very strange indeed.... Should we ask the Forum Admin to investigate? Elaine Tucker Stewardship Coordinator St. Mark's School of Texas www.smtexas.org  [Email Removed]

Good idea, Elaine. Forum Administrator, can you please let us know what you find out? Denise Stengl School Sisters of St. Francis Milwaukee, WI [Email Removed]

Although we limit postings from the forum administrator, we need to respond to Denise's question about deleted postings on this thread. The posting was placed by an individual who is associated with a client organization. Because we determined his posting to be a 3rd party solicitation, and therefore inappropriate for our site, we removed it after contacting the client to notify him of our Forum policy prohibiting advertisments. Regards, Forum Administrator

Rehashing an old forum, but I have a question. Much of what was said in the original post is available in Windows Terminal Services. I do understand that Citrix is FAR superiour when it comes to a massive amount of users (hundreds even thousands) but is there any sense in using Citrix with companies that have < 100 users? I see that low bandwidth issues are helped by Citrix, but I don't even know anyone using dial-up anymore, and, in all honesty, I wouldn't even support it as a DBA. Thanks for any more enlightenment on the reasons FOR using Citrix.

Hi Mark, In general, I've found that terminal services technology in Windows Server 2003 can work well for small-medium organizations. We use it extensively in our organization. One of the main reasons we avoided Citrix was due to its complexity and high cost. And, there are other products on the market that can help extend RDP securely and scale to a larger number of users. I'll provide an overview of what we've done as an example. For secure remote access, we opted for an SSL VPN appliance - Netilla (see www.aepnetworks.com). For one thing, we felt more comfortable with a hardened appliance than Citrix's remote access solution, which involved many different servers. This device integrates with Active Directory and allows people to run applications on a terminal server in their web browser via port 443 and a Java RDP client. It allows us to control access to applications and has a session shadowing function. For access at our office sites, we use a Citrix alternative called ProPalms TSE (see www.propalms.com). They have a lot of the features of Citrix, like seamless windows and application publishing, but at a lower cost. This allows us to deploy applications, like The Financial Edge, to users via a terminal server but to the user, it looks just like it is running on their desktop. They also have a secure remote access solution as a part of their product. All that to say... Citrix is great technology, but is not the only player in the market, particularly if your primary purpose is to provide remote access. In fact, SSL VPNs is one of the hot technologies out there for remote access, and Citrix has tried to position itself to compete directly in this area. I know I didn't provide reasons for using Citrix, but I wanted to point out that there are many other options for securing and scaling the RDP client for remote access. Thanks, David