Hi guys,

Well I don't understand much in networking, so if you can please help!

We have two networks, with a main office network and a branch office network. We use an accounting program in both offices. Is it possible that I can manage/browse the accounting program in branch office from main office?

Both offices has a aDSL internet line but its not with high-speed. (poor internet connections in our country :( )

To tell the truth, I don't understand the meanings of VPN, Router etc. Just what I know is that hub,switch etc.

If you can please help with simple ways.

Is it possible that I can manage/browse the accounting program in branch office from main office?...Both offices has a aDSL internet line but its not with high-speed.

Yes, but the experience over slow lines is likely to not be practical. The bandwidth requirements of the accounting application itself will determine what options are feasible.

One option for connecting the two networks is a Virtual Private Network (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_private_network) (VPN). A traditional VPN can be expensive and complex to setup and requires a router (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Router) which supports VPN or a dedicated VPN appliance device (example: Sonicwall SSL VPN Secure Remote Access (http://www.sonicwall.com/us/products/Secure_Remote_Access.html)) at each location. The gist of the VPN is that each VPN device selects packets originating on the local network that are destined for the other branch, creates a secure "tunnel" over the public Internet which encrypts the packets and transmits them over the Internet to the other branch. The receiving branch verifies the source of the packets, decrypts them and places them on the local network segment for delivery to the destination computer. From the perspective of the two branch networks, it is as if the two networks were directly connected.

A better option for low bandwidth scenarios is remote access. An example of this would be having a second computer in the main office running the accounting application. If numerous people need access to the accounting application, it could also be placed on an application server. Any branch offices could then use a remote access solution to access this second computer/application server and the accounting application.

There are a variety of remote access solutions. Recent versions of Windows include a remote desktop client which allows connection from a local machine to another remote machine. The remote machine can then be controlled locally as if you were sitting at it (there are a few limitations). However, remote desktop alone isn't secure over the Internet but it can be coupled with a Secure Shell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell) (SSH) implementation such as copSSH (http://www.itefix.no/i2/copssh) server and PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/) client to tunnel remote desktop connections over the Internet. While inexpensive (free), this implementation is fairly technical. Similar nontechnical solutions include remote access as a service using a web browser or proprietary client such as GotoMyPC (https://www.gotomypc.com/en_US/entry.tmpl?Action=rgoto&_sf=2) or LogMeIn (https://secure.logmein.com/home.asp?hp=5) as well as others.

For this application security is paramount, hopefully, so I strongly suggest hiring a competent local person or contractor to implement this for you as doing it well isn't simple. Implemented poorly or naively, bad things can happen.

Depending on how many users need to operate the application, you may need to go to something like a Terminal Server. It can host a lot of users at one time and will run the application individually for each of your users.

You can use a terminal like the Wyse S10 or S90 (http://www.wyse.com/products/hardware/thinclients/index.asp) which is a less expensive solution than a PC.