not sure what newsgroup to ask this in but...

[Guest]

I'm a systems administrator for a company that has in-house programmers.
They write applications (using VB) for remote users that enter data out in
the filed and transmit this data when they can establish a VPN connection.
The mechanism the programmers use (within their code) to transfer files is
typically a mapped drive or a unc to an internal Windows server. In my
opinion this is probably not the best way to go since netbios stuff needed to
have this work reliably is not best suited for slow connections across a WAN.
Whenever I mention this they kind of look at me like I'm crazy. Am I crazy
or are they way behind the times in how they're doing things? How would a
well-informed programmer do this sort of thing?

 

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Andrew,

On this question is it impossible to give a real good answer without knowing
all suspects of the problem (and that is to deep for a newsgroup therefore
you need consultancy).

If I understand you well is the solution you describe one that is in use for
almost 50 years now, a kind of punchcardreader solution as it is/was in IBM
mainframes.

However, it can be the best in some situations.

(The physical datatransfer part is not really a topic for this newsgroup. If
NetBIOS is needed than there is probably a better solution, why don't you
ask that in a XP or other OS newsgroup).

I hope this gives an idea

Cor

 

[Bob Powell [MVP]]

It sounds like what you really need is a web-service that can transfer
encrypted data for security. This is much better suited to the job and
doesn't require the VPN. Any access to a port 80 connection via a WiFi
hotspot for example would suffice. This would be simple to set up for
laptops and even WinCE devices.

If you're interested in having someone developing this functionality for you
the link to my consulting company is below.

--
Bob Powell [MVP]
Visual C#, System.Drawing

Ramuseco Limited .NET consulting
http://www.ramuseco.com

Find great Windows Forms articles in Windows Forms Tips and Tricks
http://www.bobpowell.net/tipstricks.htm

Answer those GDI+ questions with the GDI+ FAQ
http://www.bobpowell.net/faqmain.htm

All new articles provide code in C# and VB.NET.
Subscribe to the RSS feeds provided and never miss a new article.