Dial-up networking

[Jim Holtzman [MS]]

Greetings,

I'm a technical writer at Microsoft working on Windows Server Routing and
Remote Access documentation. I'm scoping content revisions for the next set
of RRAS documents and wanted to get a sense of how much dial-up networking
with Windows Server is still going on. I'm contemplating reducing dial-up
networking coverage and emphasizing VPN coverage.

Please let me know your thoughts.

 

[Bill Grant]

My guess is that there are very few new setups of RAS. Most remote users
now have Internet access, whether at home or on the road.

From my memories of looking after a bank of 32 dialup modems I certainly
wouldn't recommend dialup if VPN is available.

 

[Matt Sullivan]

In answer to your question, we use VPN unless there is no broadband
available. Then its back to dial-up.

While I have your attention though I'm gonna give my plea for making the
documentation actual documentation, not the 10000 ft view. The current
documentation on VPN/RRAS that I can find uses way too many wizards to get
things done and reminds me of how I have to talk to non-technical people
about what I do.
Don't get me wrong... I use and love wizards. It's just sometimes they don't
work or need some small adjustments. When that happens I turn to
documentation to see what I need to get done and in many cases the
documentation consists of screen captures walking through the wizard
steps(ALL the MS people I see working live on stage use command-line tools
unless the purpose of the talk is how to use the wizard).
I'm a developer who got stuck doing network admin work because no one else
wants to. I don't read RFC's for fun, or study up on differences between
PPTP/IPSEC. Current ISA 2004 documentation doesn't describe which ports PPTP
uses(they say its not an MS standard). Fine.... how about a link to an RFC
describing it? something is better than the vacuum that currently exists.
Thanks for your attention. I appreciate the effort for feedback.
--Matt

 

[Bill Grant]

What documentation are you referring to, Matt? Have you looked at the VPN
Technical Reference section of the Windows Server Technical Reference docs?

www.microsoft.com/vpn will take you to a page with a direct link to it.