Remote Access - Network / OpenDental Setup

[opensource]

Hello Team,

I have been trying out an interesting setup (atleast from my perspective) and I was almost there but not completely

I have setup my mysql on a windowXP server. I have configured my router to allow remote access to the database. I have setup a dyndns.org service to make my office network accessible through a virtual host service.

I am able to access my Mysql database server through mysql GUI (sqlyog) from my home computer using the host address as "xyz.dyndns.org" and port of 3306. This part works great . I can see the opendental database and access the data there-of.

when I tried to use opendental to do the same...I think it is able to connect to the database without any problem but it presented the "Edit Paths" window for the opendental data folder since it does not find the network path..etc. I can understand why this comes up but do not know how to take care of the situation without requiring to change the path each time I try to go back and forth from outside office network vs from within the office network.

Also, my other MAJOR concern is...how secure is the above method to access the data. Even if I change the user id of the database or setup a password for the "root" user id so that only I can access the data on my opendental database, will the data be encrypted by opendental during the fetch over the internet/network.

I know I can access opendental on my office computer through service such as logmein.com or through VPN but I was wondering if I can avoid all of that by simply doing the above remote access as long as I can address the two issues above.

Once I can make the above work, I can just have the open-dental client setup on a machine outside of the office network and yet be able to acess the data in the office network (performance will be little slower..but I think I can deal with that). Also, If I write any php/reporting scripts and put them on my webserver (on the internet), i would possible generate reports online.

The above setup might be getting closer and closer to the open-dental web server setup...I have not dug into the details of the opendental web version as yet.

Thoughts ?..ideas ?


Cheers,

OpenSource
p.s. Dr. Jordan - Not sure if this qualifies as a "Advanced" topic or in this forum. I think one part of it does belong here but will let you make the call.

[jordansparks]

A good router will allow you to permit outside access from only one ip: that of your home. If you are just opening up port 3306 to the outside world, you have to have good usernames and passwords, and it's still somewhat risky. No, it will not be encrypted. I think you'll get frustrated enough with the slowness to switch to a remote access service.

[opensource]

Hello Dr Jordan / Team,

Any thoughts on how I can overcome the following issue...
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when I tried to use opendental to do the same...I think it is able to connect to the database without any problem but it presented the "Edit Paths" window for the opendental data folder since it does not find the network path..etc. I can understand why this comes up but do not know how to take care of the situation without requiring to change the path each time I try to go back and forth from outside office network vs from within the office network.
---

Cheers,

OpenSource

[jordansparks]

You can set an explict path override for any workstation in the path edit window. There was a bug in that option which was just fixed yesterday, so make sure to update first.

[DavidWolf]

I don't know much about this subject, but isn't performance going to be an issue with this setup.
Seems to me that using a terminal server setup which only has to transfer the screen dumps, mouse and keyboard data would be the way to go....instead of trying to pass all the data over the WAN???

I have a WinXP Network with a Windows 2003 Server my Internet Connection has a Fixed IP Address and I am able to simply login through MSTSC (setup by my IT guy, so I don't know the specifics of how he opened the access) it seems to work fine, definitely slower than the LAN performance.

If your setup works better than terminal services setup it would be good know.
One thing that would be nice about your setup is that it seems as though you would be able to run an off site backup through the internet to your home hard drive using the Open Dental Backup Utility. It would then be easy to test the backup from home as well as keep your home version updated to the same version as the office.

Best Regards.

[jordansparks]

The performance will be worse than with TS.

[drtech]

yes, I already tried this setup over the internet, for direct access and it was REALLY slow. logmein (FREE) (or TS i guess, but I haven't ever used it) is much better solution at the moment from a remote location.

[parksjdp]

yes, I already tried this setup over the internet, for direct access and it was REALLY slow. logmein (FREE) (or TS i guess, but I haven't ever used it) is much better solution at the moment from a remote location.

Do you not have limitations with Logmein as far as printing goes? I did not think the free version had print capabilities.

[drtech]

right, there is no printing with the free version, only if you pay. But if you still want free and are a little savvy, (they really do make it pretty easy) you can download a program from logmein called HAMACHI. https://secure.logmein.com/products/ham ... p?lang=ent

It will allow you to set up a VPN network (local network access over the internet) and you can do your program work over the Logmein screen and just use the VPN for printing. (much faster than trying to use the VPN for direct database connection.)

[parksjdp]

Ahh, I see. Your a sneaky one aren't you.