Enterprise RAS

Telecommuting is rapidly becoming an accepted employment practice by businesses large and small. It offers flexibility to both the employer and the employee, it reduces commuting time, reduces air pollution and the need for costly office space. For many kinds of jobs, it is simply the most productive way to get the job done.

Telecommuting Gaining Ground

The key to telecommuting success is the ability of the employee to access the company network from home or while on the road. Usually, this is accomplished by using a dial-up or broadband connection to the corporate computer network. Once connected, the employee is able to use the network and devices connected to it such as printers and fax machines.

The enterprise RAS or remote access server is the device that enables employees to connect their local PC to the corporate network. It can be a stand-alone piece of equipment or can take the form of an adapter card that gets plugged into a standard PCI 2.1 slot. The function of the enterprise RAS is to authenticate the user before allowing access to the network and to act as a firewall for security purposes. Because businesses can grow rapidly, it should be easy increase the capacity of the system.

Different Access Protocols

Because employees could be using different access methods such as ISDN or dial-up modems, the enterprise RAS should be capable of handling both digital and analog signals. It should also be able to handle multiple simultaneous connections. A useful "rule of thumb" is to have at least one connection port for every eight users.