Does anyone remotely connect to RE using a VPN? BB doesn't support VPN, presumably because they want clients to purchase their hosting services or RE:Anywhere. (We used to have RE:Anywhere but dumped it because it was way too clunky to use effectively.) Nicole D. McMorrow Database Administrator Women's Foundation of California 340 Pine St., Ste. 302 San Francisco, CA 94104 www.womensfoundca.org  [Email Removed]

I do not use it myself but I do have staff who use VPN and have sucessfully gotten into RE and worked with no problem to my knowledge. *** I can spell, I just can't type. Where is spell check? Melissa S. Graves Manager, Development Database & Direct Mail Planned Parenthood of Connecticut [Email Removed] 203-752-2804

I work remotely using VPN every single day. Have never had a single problem. Can do everything that I could do if I was at the office. I love it. If you have more specfic details I can try to answer them or ask my IT guy. Denise Stengl School Sisters of St. Francis Milwaukee, WI [Email Removed] Don't forget to check out the RE Users Forum at: http://www.reusers.server-planet.com/forum.php

Hi Nicole, We used a VPN in an early attempt to get our small band of remote workers access to Raisers Edge. In the end we couldn't make it work effectively for direct RE access from the remote client and elected instead for a Terminal Server. The terminal server effectively allows our remote staff to access Raisers Edge from a local terminal and has massively improved the speed of access which is an acceptable tradeoff for the slight quirk of opening a terminal session in Windows XP to access RE. However, we were limited to a single broadband circuit which was shared between other network services and you may find that if you have the resources for a dedicated broadband service for your VPN then the performance could well be acceptable. Hope this helps, Michael Allen Technical Data Analyst Open Doors UK e: [Email Removed]

I had a similar experience to Michael. I have used VPN regularly to create an encrypted link to the office network. It enabled me to access all my files and software as I would from the office. However the performance with RE was terrible. It is OK if you want to load a Word or Excel document as you go to open the document and it brings it back to your own computer. However RE relies on transmitting data back and forth regularly from your computer to the database (as any client server application does). This means that if your connection is not very high spec it is very slow. The organisation that I worked for also switched from accessing RE directly over the VPN connection to accessing a remote terminal server over the VPN. RE runs remotely but the user sees it at the home computer. It worked really well. Again I don't think that this is supported by Blackbaud but it works very well. David Zeidman Development http://www.zeidman.info

I've had mixed results using VPN with RE. I used it quite a bit when I was at home recovering from surgery. My only problem was with dropped connections. It seemed to do thsi fairly frequently, but I was always able ot reconnect and keep going. I did not have much difference in response time from actually being at my office. Jo Ward Neuhaus Education Center (713) 664-7676 ext. 233 [Email Removed]

Wow, I can't speak to any of the technical aspects but I have never had any of the problems mentioned here. I have been using VPN for over a year now. Denise Stengl School Sisters of St. Francis Milwaukee, WI [Email Removed] Don't forget to check out the RE Users Forum at: http://www.reusers.server-planet.com/forum.php

I have used it (though not very frequently) and have had no problems at all - including doing global adds, changes etc. Raja Mukherjee Database Manager & Coordinator of Prospect Research Worcester State College Worcester, MA 01602 [Email Removed]

We have used RE in a VPN environment for 5 years however what is NOT addressed is the speed of the VPN. VPN is nothing more than a secure encrypted tunnel between sites. This VPN can run over the public internet OR be part of a VLAN (virtual local area network)VPN over public internet is subject to multiple switches as it bounces from point to point before it hits its final destination. VPN can run over the low end 1.5Mbps cable/internet or over much faster networks. VLAN is more costly and is where you run on a single providers highway (Allstream, Bell etc) thus cutting down on traffic however it can be double the monthly cost or above of your standard 1.5MBps service. We ran RE over a higher speed (5Mbps) and it was slow even then. Buildings were a mile apart and used the public internet but were part of a "managed provider" system. With the low end cable/DSL we run RE Web and have rolled out to the site where we originally did the straight RE across the 5Mbps - much faster and we run the REWeb with an Intranet over the VPN not InTERnet. Our VPN is Sonicwall firewall appliances. Hope this helps Leslie Kilpatrick CCNA, MCSE Manager, Information Technologies The Arthritis Society, BC and Yukon Division

I am constantly remote connect to VPN and using RE at the same time. The way our VPN works is that we required to have a workstation instead of using the server to remote in. Workstation must be able to accept VPN. You will either have to look at the server to see if it allow the user ID to remote into their workstation. I am currently using 1.5 MPS and it is not to bad but sometime it gets worst. BB would never support VPN because that has nothing to do with their software. You can get help from Micorsoft about VPN. your workstation, users right must be setup to allow VPN for order you to remote into RE. Another way is if you dial into the server using IP address and REDEPLOY the software on your personal computer. That would work but it will lag a little bit.

The trick is to set up a MS Terminal server running RE workstation client and access it over a VPN connection.