Small Business Netwroking System Help

[AJ_J]

Long story short, I'm a high school intern who became the IT guy at a local engineering firm and I have some questions....

 

Prior to my being there, the company of about 15 employees with about 20 workstations was using an 8 year old, middle-of-the-road, Windows 7,  pre-built computer, as the source of a file share over the local network to store and collaborate on primarily AutoCAD files, PDFs, and Excel spreadsheets. That was painfully slow and eventually crashed, losing a bunch of data. So, through my own research, I had them buy a Dell PowereEdge T330 tower server running Windows Server 2016 Standard Edition. I also upgraded the switch allowing for an ideal Gig LAN speed. This whole system is running much better than before, with me working out any kinks along the way.

 

Now, I am looking to find a way to connect to the network from a remote location allowing for secure file access while travelling and Remote Desktop Connections through something like VPN or another alternative that I'm not aware of. Currently, we've got a Workgroup setup as most computers are running Windows 10 Home and a domain isn't an option at this point. 

 

What are your opinions on the direction I should go with this? Is a VPN the best option? What would it take to set up a VPN server through Windows Server 2016 to avoid paying for a 3rd party VPN? Any other input?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Windows7ge]

I'm thinking the absolute easiest method to accomplish this would be TeamViewer. It offers file sharing & remote desktop. Since this is a business application though you are suppose to buy a key. Though the software doesn't enforce it.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Get a domian, makes everything much better.

 

Get standard some day, essentals is very limited.

 

Setup a vpn server on 2016

 

 

[AJ_J]

39 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

I'm thinking the absolute easiest method to accomplish this would be TeamViewer. It offers file sharing & remote desktop. Since this is a business application though you are suppose to buy a key. Though the software doesn't enforce it.

Thanks, that program will do pretty much everything we'd need. I'll keep it in mind. I would like to try to avoid as many 3rd party software as possible. I may be wrong in thinking that but I'd like to use Windows' capabilities as much as possible. I also want to make the most out of the hardware and software that I just had the company buy, if you see where I'm coming from. 

[AJ_J]

17 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Get a domian, makes everything much better.

 

Get standard some day, essentals is very limited.

 

Setup a vpn server on 2016

 

 

Do you have any knowledge on setting up a VPN server on 2016 wihout a domain? I also mistyped, the server is running Standard, not Essentials.

Thanks!

[Windows7ge]

14 minutes ago, AJ_J said:

Thanks, I'll have to look into that program. However, I would like to try to avoid as many 3rd party software as possible. I may be wrong in thinking that but I'd like to use Windows' capabilities as much as possible.

There's nothing wrong about thinking that way, utilize as much as the built in software as you can. I believe Windows uses something called RDP or Remote Desktop Protocol. I've never used this feature though. It should be noted though that Microsoft won't always have the best software for every use case. 3rd party will serve you better from time to time.

[CiscoFan]

19 minutes ago, AJ_J said:

Do you have any knowledge on setting up a VPN server on 2016 wihout a domain? I also mistyped, the server is running Standard, not Essentials.

Thanks!

You can also set up a VPN server using a Cisco router like a 2911. They go for about $100 on eBay. All you have to do is type this config into the router. I know it is quite a handful of config, that is why I am doing the hard work for you so that all you have to do is modify the variables and copy and paste it into the router. To configure Cisco AnyConnect for the router, you can follow this guide as well. I also recommend Namecheap to get a domain name and an SSL certificate for the SSLVPN. 

 

http://www.firewall.cx/cisco-technical-knowledgebase/cisco-routers/904-cisco-router-anyconnect-webvpn.html

 

enable
configure terminal
interface GigabitEthernet0/0
 description LAN interface here.
 ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
 ip nat inside
 no shutdown
interface GigabitEthernet0/1
 description WAN here
 ip nat outside
 no shutdown
if the company has a static address then it will be:
 ip address x.x.x.x x.x.x.x
if the company only has a dynamic address then it will be
 ip address dhcp
 
ip access-list standard NAT
 permit 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.255
 
 
if the company has a block of static IP addresses and is routed to the WAN facing interface then it will be
ip nat pool NAT-POOL <start address here> <end address here> netmask <netmask here>
ip nat inside source list NAT pool NAT-POOL

if the company doesn't have a block of static IP addresses then it will just be
ip nat inside source list NAT interface g0/1 overload

username admin secret <your own password here for management>

line con 0
login local
line aux 0
login local
line vty 0 4
login local

hostname <hostname here>
ip domain-name <domain name here> (if the company has a domain name)

crypto key gen rsa modulus 1024
ip ssh version 2

 

[AJ_J]

6 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

There's nothing wrong about thinking that way, utilize as much as the built in software as you can. I believe Windows uses something called RDP or Remote Desktop Protocol. I've never used this feature though. It should be noted though that Microsoft won't always have the best software for every use case. 3rd party will serve you better from time to time.

I'll keep other software in mind. TeamViewer looks like a great alternative option. I have used RDP over the local network which works great. I now need a way to connect to the network remotely to allow for RDP connections from home or on the road as well as access to the file share. So really, a VPN...

[AJ_J]

Quote

You can also set up a VPN server using a Cisco router like a 2911.

 How secure is this method, relatively? I do like the idea of using a Cisco router. I'll follow up if I decide to go that route. Thanks!

[AJ_J]

I think my question has really morphed into asking how to configure a VPN through a Windows Server 2016 Standard Edition Machine without  a domain as it really isn't a viable option at this time for the company. 

[Electronics Wizardy]

37 minutes ago, AJ_J said:

Do you have any knowledge on setting up a VPN server on 2016 wihout a domain? I also mistyped, the server is running Standard, not Essentials.

Thanks!

boom easy vpn solution. http://techgenix.com/configure-vpn-windows-server-2012-r2/

 

 

Really DO A DOMAIN. Makes everything better. Permissions are much nicer, access logging, updataes, everything. It might seem like a pain now, but its much better than the downtime.

[Windows7ge]

@droidrzrloverIf you were going to give the whole initial setup you could have saved yourself a little trouble and wrote it all shorthand.

[Windows7ge]

8 hours ago, AJ_J said:

access to the file share

Depending on how you configure the server and if you're willing to skip desktop access you could always enable SSH & use SFTP to remote into the file share.

[AJ_J]

11 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

boom easy vpn solution. http://techgenix.com/configure-vpn-windows-server-2012-r2/

 

 

Really DO A DOMAIN. Makes everything better. Permissions are much nicer, access logging, updataes, everything. It might seem like a pain now, but its much better than the downtime.

I would like to use a domain. Itll have to wait until we get Windows 10 Pro on our current workstations though. We were going to upgrade select PCs for RDP purposes though.

[Electronics Wizardy]

48 minutes ago, AJ_J said:

I would like to use a domain. Itll have to wait until we get Windows 10 Pro on our current workstations though. We were going to upgrade select PCs for RDP purposes though.

Id probably stay away from rdp here, really not worth the hassle.

 

Look into redirected user folders.

 

Id setup the domain now, then make accounts and use those for file server permissions now, and slowly migrate them over to domain accounts.

[AJ_J]

9 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Id setup the domain now, then make accounts and use those for file server permissions now, and slowly migrate them over to domain accounts

That's a good idea, in still learning the Server OS but I should be able to do that. 

 

And the Remote Desktop Connection would be used for specific users who have a home laptop that they could use to work from their workstations software and resources offsite. Though, for the most part, just being able to access the file share remotely from work laptops would be very beneficial.

[Electronics Wizardy]

11 minutes ago, AJ_J said:

That's a good idea, in still learning the Server OS but I should be able to do that. 

 

And the Remote Desktop Connection would be used for specific users who have a home laptop that they could use to work from their workstations software and resources offsite. Though, for the most part, just being able to access the file share remotely from work laptops would be very beneficial.

yea setting up rdp will work fine, I just though you were doing something like vdi, and that would be a bad idea.

 

Make a vpn server for this, normally a much better idea than opening lots of poerts.

[AJ_J]

4 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

yea setting up rdp will work fine, I just though you were doing something like vdi, and that would be a bad idea.

 

Make a vpn server for this, normally a much better idea than opening lots of poerts.

Sounds good, I'm gonna go with a VPN. I'll try and integrate a domain over time as it would have better expandability and management for the future.