Prevent VPN access - How to Share Your Microsoft Access Database Online


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Prevent VPN access

Julia Johnson

3 years ago

My company has a few remote employees who use RemotePC to remotely use office PCs when opening the front end of my database. (They only open it for a few minutes each Friday - so it's not a big enough deal to make us consider SQLServer. Most employees are in-office.)

Remote workers also connect to our office server via VPN so they can access to our file server.

Is there a way I can programmatically prevent a remote user from opening a front end via their VPN connection?
e.g. Maybe detect VPN connection at startup and quit, if found?

I fear that an employee will take their office laptop home, connect via VPN, and open the front end without using RemotePC.

Thanks in advance for any pointers!

Adam Schwanz @Reply

3 years ago

This sounds more like a question for a network administrator ;).

You could make a messagebox popup when you turn on the database just to remind people to make sure they're using it, but I don't see how it's going to tell the difference between being on VPN or on remotePC.

The few ideas that came to mind all rely on them not using the laptop they take home at the office as well. Things like limiting access to the access files to certain PCs.

If you have a different IP subnet on the VPN maybe you could check what IP Address the machine currently has, and if it was in the range of the VPNs to close the database. You probably could do that, as long as they have a separate connection at work to be on the LAN. Is there anything unique to your VPN connections like the IP range or user domain logins or anything?

	Richard Rost @Reply 3 years ago
You could make a list of the allowed usernames or PC system names from your network and only allow those names to connect.

	Julia Johnson OP @Reply 3 years ago
Thank you both! I'll investigate each of your suggestions. Possibly a firm warning (and rigorous backups) may suffice in the end.

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