Project Professional authenticating remotely

[alexmoquia]

Hi,

I am trying to get a Project Server/SharePoint Portal environment up
and running. For remote users, our company has 2 VPN solutions, an SSL
and via CheckPoint client.

Now I do not know much about VPN authentication, but when users log in
remotely from either VPN solution, they are able to access our project
web access intranet URL and the sharepoint portal fine. What actually
happens is IE will prompt users for domain credentials to authenticate
to the sites. So on some level, their domain credentials are being
passed in as opposed to local accounts on their home PCs.

However, whenever they try to connect to project server via a local
program (ie. the Outlook plugin/ MS Project Professional) they get a
login failed error saying they are not authorized for access. Now
apparently when Outlook or Project Professional try to authenticate,
the local account information is being pulled rather than the domain
credentials passed into the VPN.

It seems Outlook and Project Professional only do pass-through
authentication of the local user account. How do i get Outlook and
Project Pro to authenticate the domain credentials?

If anyone can point me in any kind of positive direction it would be
greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Marc Soester]

Hi Alex,

I think my first respond got lost. Here is it again

My ( and Microsofts ) recommendation is --dont use Project Professional via
VPN -- This will give you lots of grive.
If you need to update your Project remotly use Terminal Services. This has
many differnet reasons. Believe me I have been down this road. You will cause
yourself and your users lots of "grey hairs" ( or worst -- losing your hair )

Hope this helps

 

[alexmoquia]

Thanks for the heads up, Marc.

Getting this up on Citrix is a possibility for us - but does this mean
this is the only option? It can not be impossible to get Project Pro to
authenticate domain credentials can it?

 

[Rolly Perreaux]

Hi,

I am trying to get a Project Server/SharePoint Portal environment up
and running. For remote users, our company has 2 VPN solutions, an SSL
and via CheckPoint client.

Now I do not know much about VPN authentication, but when users log in
remotely from either VPN solution, they are able to access our project
web access intranet URL and the sharepoint portal fine. What actually
happens is IE will prompt users for domain credentials to authenticate
to the sites. So on some level, their domain credentials are being
passed in as opposed to local accounts on their home PCs.

However, whenever they try to connect to project server via a local
program (ie. the Outlook plugin/ MS Project Professional) they get a
login failed error saying they are not authorized for access. Now
apparently when Outlook or Project Professional try to authenticate,
the local account information is being pulled rather than the domain
credentials passed into the VPN.

It seems Outlook and Project Professional only do pass-through
authentication of the local user account. How do i get Outlook and
Project Pro to authenticate the domain credentials?

If anyone can point me in any kind of positive direction it would be
greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Hi Alex,

You can VPN into the corporate networks and use local applications (as
you have suggested) if their remote computer is a member of the Active
Directory Domain. This is very typical with notebook users. However as
Marc has suggested, the responsiveness of the application will be slow
and slightly sluggish.

Virtual Private Networking: Frequently Asked Questions
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/network/vpn/vpnfaq.mspx

However, you could have your remote users connect to their local
computer via the Remote Desktop Connection. This will most probably
require your Network Security team to open port 3389 on the firewall.

More info on port 3389:
http://www.grc.com/port_3389.htm

Here's a couple of how-to links:

Windows XP Professional Resource Kit-Configuring Remote Desktop
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/reskit/c08621675.m
spx
OR
http://tinyurl.com/9p9dd

Here's a great illustrated step-by-step guide
http://theillustratednetwork.mvps.org/RemoteDesktop/RemoteDesktopSetupan
dTroubleshooting.html
OR
http://tinyurl.com/5335u

Good Luck

--
Rolly Perreaux, PMP, MCSE
Project Server Trainer/Consultant

TriMagna Corporation
Microsoft Gold Partner
http://www.trimagna.com

 

[alexmoquia]

Rolly,

Alright Thanks for the help.

Unfortunately a number of our engineers feel the need to blow up their
company laptops and rebuild them to how they see fit, losing any cached
domain account info.

From what I see, the only solutions are getting our guys in to join

their machines to our domain or installing Project Pro and the Outlook
plugin on our citrix farm.

Alot of our guys only work remotely so I don't know if RDP is the way
to go.

I'll kick it around with my IS guys. Thanks again!

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Alex:

XP Pro has password management feature that will overcome this problem, and
probably eliminate the initial logon as well. From Control panel, select
User Accounts and click the Advanced tab. Understand that Marc's comments
are on target with regard to performance, the acceptability of which will
vary based on connectivity, the size of your projects and how many
assignments they contain and the level of patience in each user. If you find
the open and save times tolerable, then a best practice is to immediately
use Save Offline and then proceed to work until it's time to save back to
the server. This way, connectivity is only and issue for the first open and
the final save event.

 

[Rolly Perreaux]

Hi Alex,

If I had a choice, I would go for the Citrix Farm solution first. This
way it won't disrupt your remote users too much

Good Luck!


Rolly Perreaux, PMP, MCSE
Project Server Trainer/Consultant

TriMagna Corporation
Microsoft Gold Partner
http://www.trimagna.com

 

[alexmoquia]

Thanks everyone for all the info.

We are indeed deciding to go the Terminal Services route.

-Alex

 

[Marc Soester]

Hi Alex,

Gary made a very valid point with the offline work functionality of Project
Server. You may want to investigate this some more, before making a final
decision.
Let me know if you need some assistance with the offline Projects.
Thanks

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

We have clients with projects as large as 1000 tasks and 50 resources
happily functioning with their VPN connections. There are so many network
variables in going this route, Terminal Services or Citrix provide the only
alternative for users with poor connectivity. The problem with these
technologies is two fold: 1) Users feel cheated 2) They don't offer a great
solution for mobile users operating mainly in disconnected states.

 

[Rolly Perreaux]

We have clients with projects as large as 1000 tasks and 50 resources
happily functioning with their VPN connections. There are so many network
variables in going this route, Terminal Services or Citrix provide the only
alternative for users with poor connectivity. The problem with these
technologies is two fold: 1) Users feel cheated 2) They don't offer a great
solution for mobile users operating mainly in disconnected states.

Ah Yes, but the game is gonna change with Project Server 2007 ;-)
RPC over HTTP rocks!

--
Rolly Perreaux, PMP, MCSE
Project Server Trainer/Consultant

TriMagna Corporation
Microsoft Gold Partner
http://www.trimagna.com

 

[Raquel]

Alex,

We too are using RDP for our user to connect to Project Professional.
Everything works wonderfully with the exception of saving the file "Offline".

As we know once in RDP and saving the file "Offline" saves the file on the
server under d:\Documents and Settings\<userid>\Application Data\Microsoft\Ms
Project\<bin>\<projectfile>.mpp and not on the users local machine.

I did some further testing and changed the projects file location under file
Types (located under: collaborate -> options -> save) to my local drive but
even after restarting the application the project file still saved to the
above location.

This is frustrating to my users since they travel quite a bit.

Did you find a solution yet? Has anyone solved this yet for 2003?

Any information will be most welcomed.

Raquel

 

[nilaish]

It might also be that the SQL Server ports are blocked in a VPN
connection. Project Professional communicates directly with SQL Server
when updating information and this would affect it.

Best Regards,
Nilesh Mehta