small business - WAN

[doogan123]

I All - I just stumbled on this forum today and have been browsing through some of the history - I would like to ask a few questions ( that may have been previously answered - am still searching )

I run a small network for a mate on East coast. Stats are as follows

Windows
Dell server - about 5 y/o at this point running:

• AD - running on w2K3 ( I need to add an additional and replicate at this point
• Internal DNS
• EPO for McAfee AV

Dell Server about 2 y/o running

• File and print
• Backup exec ( single tandberg lto 2 ultarium Tape drive)
• DFS

Connectivity to Internet

• Single Ckt (T-1)
• Cisco 1726.
• PIX 506E (25 concurrent users)

Internal Network

• 2 2950T-24's

Users

• About 25 Laptop Users (with Local Admin priviliges Ugghh)

I have 2 questions:

First - they have an small presence on left coast - about 5 users. I have set them up with the VPN client and Drive mappings - however they feel and i agree that its not the best solution for a remote site. What would the best proposal to put forward consist of. I would engage a network guy to implement for me as i am not a network guy - however i want to start getting a good direction thats reliable and at a reasonable price. the issue is definetly the latency aspect.

Second. And this may not be the right place for this portion of question - but what is the best solution for these laptop users. they are heavy file users, save alot locally and over all there is poor control of the data. I do have folder redirection and offline files setup - but its really not the best solution. I was thinking some type of terminal services and fully lock down the laptops?

would ove some thoughts on these items

thanks

Doogan