Remote Connections

If you have a fast network connection between sites, you can run one site's Bundle-Track system from another site. This will enable you to print or scan tickets remotely.

How fast must the connection be? Well, for ticket scanning, you need to be able to exchange small amounts of data quickly. For ticket printing, you only need it fast enough to download the graphic image of the ticket sheet in a reasonable time. For both purposes, dialup is surely too slow. Satellite Internet may be OK for ticket printing, but will impose too much delay on the ticket scanning process. DSL is probably tolerable for both purposes, but Broadband (cable) is better. T1 and faster should be just fine.

You will need to choose a connection mechanism. In order of most difficult to easiest, and most secure to least, three good choices are VPN, Microsoft Terminal Services, and pcAnywhere.

            Local
        -->  B-T  <--
       /    Server   \
      /               \
     /                 \
    /                   \
    |                   |
 Remote              Remote
  B-T                  B-T
 Client              Client 

 Local     Local     Local
  B-T  -->  B-T  <--  B-T
 Client    Server    Client
   ^                   ^
   |                   |
   |                   |
   |                   |
 Remote              Remote
Terminal            Terminal

A VPN (Virtual Private Network) would put the remote site's computer directly on the main site's local network. You would simply install a Bundle-Track Client on a machine in the remote site and configure it as if it were on the main site's local network (because, effectively, it would be). You can find guidance for VPN setup from many online sources. (Here's one.)

With pcAnywhere or Terminal Services, the remote site would use Bundle-Track by connecting to and controlling a slave machine in the main site - one that has a Bundle-Track Client installed on it. Note that the slave machine in the main site must be separate from the one that hosts the Bundle-Track database, so for each remote connection, you will need a separate slave machine in the main site.

Our team considers Terminal Services to be a more robust solution than pcAnywhere. If you have your own networking support staff that can provide adequate support for Terminal Services, we do recommend Terminal Services over pcAnywhere. However, as we are not certified Terminal Services experts (at this time), we cannot cover networking issues related to Terminal Services in our Contract Support agreements.

For those of you that are not prepared to take on Terminal Services, we recommend Symantec's pcAnywhere (website). Symantec's website offers only multi-user packs, but most software stores offer the single user pack. When last we checked, Staples (website) had it for around $200.

We welcome your comments at support@bundle-track.com.

If you would like our live assistance, you may hire us at our professional services rate.