Thin Client Platforms for staff at home

[rschulz]

Whilst not directly concerning Fortinet, I am curious to know in what other forum member experiences and recommendations are for thin client platforms for the following situation/setup. A client is finding it very efficient for a number of staff to have a VPN connection at home. All work is browser, application on terminal server, or email on terminal server – for example Staff at Home -> Computer (RDP) -> FortiClient VPN -> VPN tunnel through ADSL - - - - > Company Fortigate (VPN) -> Terminal Server This works very well and the FortiClient has improved a lot over the past 2 or so years…however staff are sick of lugging laptops around and would like a more permanent setup at home. Also the life of the lap tops seems to be diminishing, i.e Staff and management would like to see a more permanent setup for staff working from home on the ad-hoc basis Ideal would be something like a low maintenance Wyse Thin Client terminal to make a VPN connection through to the companies Fortigate, then on to the terminal server, but these sort of Thin clients do not really make VPN’s (CE based systems ??) Other thoughts - Company provided workstations with FortiClient -> requires too much work for setup, control, maintenance for updates and repairs Putting the FortiClient onto staff’s virus invested, worm ridden Windows 98 home computer is to be avoided. Thin Client terminal plus Fortigate 50 to VPN through to company --> getting expensive Thin Client terminal plus low cost router (??) to provide VPN through ??? comments or suggestions

[#2]

The question is if you need a VPN in addition to RDP encryption. What about user authentication? Do you need two factor authentication? Who do you know who connected to your servers?

[mhe]

Have a look at Igel NC' s (www.igel.de); they have a PPTP client and the cisco vpn client installed. martin

[#4]

You can look at HP Thin Clients -it supports Direct Connection through Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), Point-to-Point over Ethernet (PPPoE), VPN Connection through MS Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), Layer-2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP)

[rschulz]

Currently use IPSEC authentication, as I do not think PPTP and L2TP is secure enough. The CE based HP Thin Clients comes with the IPSec, but it is the inbuilt microsoft one, which I understand to be a real dog It sort of looking like a low end HP Thin Client coupled with low-cost router that can do IPSec and talk to a Fortigate IPSec VPN

[abelio]

Hi, just a shot: did you tried SSLVPN tunnel mode ? BTW, looking the new (raised) Forticlient pricing this week..you' ll need to compare your approach thinclient+AV from another vendor for each staff user at home regards,

[#7]

I think for a tunnel you need ActiveX installed, does it work on Thin Client?

[#8]

Have you thought about using a secure virtualization platform like VMWare ACE? http://www.vmware.com/products/ace/ In combination with tunnel mode SSL VPN, you could put this on the home users' machines for a secure alternative that doesn' t involve upkeep of additional hardware.