Hey everyone, Is there any other way or solution that I can access shared folders on my server from a remote location other than using VPN? My VPN works but the problem is that all traffic is routed through the VPN while connected. My office just has standard business DSL so it's 1mbps upload which is so slow when I'm connected with VPN. Really the only thing I need VPN for is to access a shared folder. With Microsoft sharePoint does it let you share a folder online or is it separate? I don't care if I have to go into a web site and download the file and upload and so on, I just hate having to be connected on VPN all the time. When I had Server 2008 it had that remote web workplace which let you share files, but it was separate from an actual folder. Office users connect my mapping the network drive so I need it to work that way even if I have to access it over a site. Thanks!

You can port forward the RDP [remote desktop] port 3389 in the router to your servers static ip and gain access that way.

I have done that but the issue is more that I need to work on the files on my local machine as well, like edit them in excel and so on. I could install Office on the server but it that a good idea, to remote desktop and actually run applications directly on the server?

NO. Do not remote in to the server. I don't know about SharePoint, but generally there is no way to access folders as though you had a VPN connection without actually having the VPN connection. I see two solutions: 1) You can configure the VPN setup to not route Internet traffic through the corporate network. That means only information going to/coming from a resource on the corporate network (such as a shared folder) actually goes through the VPN connection. Going to something like google.com will not use the VPN tunnel. 2) Set up an FTP server and give yourself access to the shared folder via FTP. In Windows, you'll be able to get to the FTP space by using "ftp://servername.com" in Explorer (not Internet Explorer, but Explorer), and interact with the files almost the same way. -Ryan Adams Free Computer Tips and more:http://RyanTAdams.com Paid Tech Support: Black Diamond

See webdav. I'd consider a secure form of FTP. SFTP is easy enough to setup. See also the older free barracudadrive server. If you can find it, it offers HTTPS access to web like webdav folders with security. Even if you have to buy barracudadrive it is cheaper than any MS commercial sized product. See also the other remote access ideas such as pcanywhere, logmein and gotomypc. Server 2008 has a totally different way to let remote users access. See the directaccess doc at ms. You can also make your own "self signed" certificates and simply authenticate by installing them in your mobile systems. Playing to the angels Les Paul (1915-2009)

Hey thanks for the great tips I never thought of FTP that might work really well. Question though about routing vpn traffic, do you know where I'd look to configure that? That would be perfect if I could route just shared folders through the VPN. Right now everything goes through it, so if I do a speed test from home, it says my ISP is my work's ISP provider. Anyone know whree I'd look on how to set that up using Server 2003? If not though the FTP idea might work really well as again it's really just for sharing files and folders.

Webdav and ftp are an IIS component. Be sure you protect your files. Playing to the angels Les Paul (1915-2009)