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Typical Remote User

Although you can use VPN connections in a NAT solution to secure connections between some remote users, typical dial-up remote access users will not use a private IP address. Rather, they will use the public IP address assigned to them by the dial-up connection ISP.
Recognizing that there are some common data sets that are frequently accessed remotely or transported for which these requirements can become burdensome and not in the overall interest of the data center, the Information Security Standard provides further guidance on when exceptions are permitted.
The standard does not apply to people handling other data sets, such as their own personal data or simply viewing public data, but note that certain campus systems and services are only available when remote access technologies such as the VPN are used.

Setting Up Offline Files

Another challenge when maintaining user files is the need for remote users to be able to access network files when they might not be connected to the network with a decent connection, or even at all. To combat this, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 offer an Offline Files feature, which allows a user to copy network files to her local hard drives for editing, and then upload them back to the network when she has reconnected. Any offline files are stored on the user's hard drive in a folder named (conveniently enough) Offline Files.
Configuring Offline Files is a two-part process: you need to take steps to configure both the server and the client in order for the service to function.


Configuring the Server

You will configure Offline Files for your servers once for the entire server, and then on a folder-by-folder basis. To enable Offline Files for the entire server, follow these steps:
  1. Open My Computer or Windows Explorer.
  2. Select Tools.Folder Options.
  3. Place a check mark next to Enable Offline Files on the Offline Files tab.

Now you are ready to enable Offline Files for specific folders. Once you have shared a folder in Windows 2000, click Caching from the Sharing tab of the folder's Properties sheet. In Windows Server 2003, click Offline Settings from the Sharing tab. In Windows Server 2003, you can configure the availability of Offline Files in one of three ways:
  1. Only the files and programs that users specify will be available offline: This is the default, and it requires users to specify which files they need.
  2. All files and programs that users open from the share will be automatically available offline: All files that a user opens from this share will be automatically cached for offline use. If your users have sufficient hard drive space on their workstations or laptops, this might be an appealing option since it requires the least user intervention.
  3. Files or programs from the share will not be available offline: This will disable Offline Files for this particular share.
Windows 2000 offers three different options when configuring Offline Files:
  1. Automatic caching for documents
  2. Automatic caching for programs
  3. Manual caching for programs