Following up on our conversation about Citrix, Tibuktu, and off-site solutions...

Why couldn't one run a solution remotely through VPN?

You can. However, the VPN doesn't necessarily mean a speed increase over a regular WAN connection (though it does mean more privacy and security).

Several months ago, I asked about the VPN thing in this forum, and I believe it was Ender who took the focus toward Timbuktu and VNC.

At this point, I'm wondering why one would want to go the remote desktop route over VPN. What am I missing here?

(bear with me, I'm a CEO turned part time solution developer, not an IT guy)

Nate

The VPN puts a security wrapper around a regular remote connection; this on its own does nothing to speed the connection up. So you can open your FileMaker files remotely over the internet, or over a VPN, but it may be slower than you want.

Things like TB2, Citrix, and VNC address the speed issue directly by sending the screen over the network instead of sending the FileMaker packets themselves.