Remote Outlook/Exchange User solutions

[cubiclex]

I recently installed MS Exchange 2000 and have about 25 users. 7 of these users are laptops however and are disgusted by the slowness of "Outlook Web Access" when they are out of the office as well as the PIA it is to have to connect to the Internet each time they wish to look up a contact. My next step was to set up an .OST file on the laptops and synch with Exchange each time they logged off of the network so they could view Outlook contents offline. Now the problem is that they cannot send mail until they re-connect to the Exchange server (they cannot send email while on the road). Can anyone suggest other solutions?

 

[ACraib]

VPN .... set the laptops to dial a local ISP and create a VPN to your internal network. You could let Outlook connect directly across the internet but this requires too many vulnerable ports to be opened on your firewall.