Howdy guys here is the deal, my cousin(turned into a very large client) runs a large landscape and lawncare service. what he is looking to do is have laptops/netbooks setup in his trucks that access his quickbooks files on his main system in his office. so his guys can print invoices. now im trying to figure out the best way to do this. I was thinking get a Broadband access card on the laptops, setting up a vpn on his office system. connecting the laptops to the vpn, and accessing the necessary quickbooks files on the office system. It sounds simple enough to get running. just trying to get some feed back, anyone have a better idea?
Wireless Broadband access and vpn.
- Thread starter CHASEE
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angry_geek
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That would work ok, but it would be painfully slow. I would recommend either terminal services on a server or intuit's web services. They have a system where you can just log into the website and do your invoices. The trucks would also need mobile printers if you are printing invoices on site. Seems like a pretty expensive endeavor for a landscaping business.
Does he need his guys to print invoices on site? If so a VPN won't do it unless he has Quickbook clients installed on all the remote PCs, not only will this be expensive in licensing costs but Quickbooks is also painfully slow across a 100Mb LAN, I think it would be unusable across broadband.
You're probably better off looking at a Terminal Server solution. How many remote PCs does he need to connect?
You're probably better off looking at a Terminal Server solution. How many remote PCs does he need to connect?
yes i forgot to mention the whole reason for this is so his guys can make up and print invoices in their trucks. right now we are going to implement only 2 trucks to test it out. and his whole crew is doing 2 to 3 thousand invoices a week. so this is to save on postage and just generally time. I was going to install quickbooks on both of the computers, which i recently saw quickbooks 09 going for 30 dollars so if i can time it right that wont be a big expense. I have used a few VPN networks before and it was that slow, but now thinking about it, the quickbooks files that he would have to load back and forth would be massive. so that might not be the way to go. I can't say i have ever looked into a terminal server. ill go google it right now
SOHO-NZ
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the best way to setup an inexpensive terminal server is using XP Unlimited. see http://www.xpunlimited.com/
The standard Microsoft way becomes expensive once you have bought hardware, windows server software, Terminal Server CALs.
I have used XP Unlimited on one customer site (it's been running for a couple of years now), and have another in the pipeline.
(edit = the reason for the terminal server was also an accounting package - MYOB - which has the same speed issues over VPN)
The standard Microsoft way becomes expensive once you have bought hardware, windows server software, Terminal Server CALs.
I have used XP Unlimited on one customer site (it's been running for a couple of years now), and have another in the pipeline.
(edit = the reason for the terminal server was also an accounting package - MYOB - which has the same speed issues over VPN)
angry_geek
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Great minds
tartis
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Try BlueFolder. It is accessed through the web and works well with Quickbooks. You don't want you field techs to have access to your Accounting data if possible.
http://www.bluefolder.com/
http://www.bluefolder.com/
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