April 29, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Hello
I want to know that is it possible in following situation:
A server machine with following:
- Windows Server 2003/2008
- SQL Server Express 2008
- Internet access
Some client machines are accessing SQL Server 2008 express
through a desktop application (say DApp) on Local Area Network (LAN)
Now the question is
if a machine which is not on LAN but on Internet having desktop application (DApp) installed, can access the SQL Server data ?
Most of the transactions will be held on LAN and remote internet machine will access (to server through DApp) is less (only for reports for the BOSS)
To know this is important for me to go in right direction.
Thanks
April 29, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Yes it is theoretically possible, however there are a goodish number of security issues you will need to address.
It's typically not a good idea to just open up your SQL server instance to the rest of the internet. You would need to look into firewall it, filtering traffic to and from it to help reduce it's attack surface.
If this is truly just reports for the boss, have you thought about using SQL Reporting Services? Then you could look into hosting the reports and not have to worry about your entire database being exposed to the web.
You'd still want to secure it and there are plenty of best practice docs out there for setting up a secure web server, the NSA and FBI have some decent ones.
-Luke.
April 29, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Will VPN setup will help here ?
April 29, 2009 at 2:12 pm
A VPN Could help. There are literally 100s of different ways you could set something up that would be secure and give you the required functionality.
If keeping the desktop Ap is a priority then a VPN would probably make sense. But if this is a small office that doesn't have a static Public IP address (typical with Cable or DSL access) that can have it's own issues.
If you do a VPN then you don't have to expose your SQL server box to the internet, and as far as it knows the app coming from the LAN or from the VPN would probably look like exactly the same traffic.
A lot of it really comes down to resources, both in money for hardware and such, and people (skills, time for maintenance, management, etc). And just like anything else a decent VPN solution can be a inexpensive or as costly as you make it.
It really all depends.
-Luke.
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