Network Features with Dropbox

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sablackman
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Network Features with Dropbox

Post by sablackman »

Is it possible to use dropbox instead of firebird server to get the network features of essentialpim? I am looking to setup a shared calendar, address book and to-do list for a small organisation as a very simple CRM. We have a shared dropbox but no LAN as people are home-based.
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Re: Network Features with Dropbox

Post by Max »

Hi,

unfortunately this is not supported currently.
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salamander
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Remote working and EPIM - possible or not?

Post by salamander »

:?: This is a very good question and is at the core of an issue I have been contemplating.

I have set-up a basic server and client arrangement on a LAN. I am not yet able to convince myself (based on the information available in the User Guide which does not address security in detail) that this server/lan arrangement is really secure. Ignoring for a moment, as I made the mistake of doing, the fact that I am running several network clients of EPIM, the sales pitch for EPIM talks about Dropbox and EPIM cloud as being sync possibilities for the EPIM database. On the face of it, both may suggest a more robust security situation since, presumably, Dropbox and EPIM Cloud (aka ownCloud) take money to resource better security provisions than I could dream of in my little system. Security is their business, it's not my No.1 priority in life - basic staff comms is.

Forgetting that I'd installed a network EPIM system in a 'hub and spoke' arrangement, I purchased EPIM Cloud, and installed Dropbox. It's only after investing time trying to make them work that the penny dropped that I have perhaps failed to understand the interconnected relationship between the Firebird engine (on the server) and its local (server) database, accessed in a r/w arrangement over the LAN. So I have some questions which are not covered in the documentation and may benefit other users:

1: The offering of placing the database on either Dropbox or on EPIM Cloud - is this only applicable to stand-alone, one-off installations and not at all suitable for or conceived for or workable in a multi-user concurrent networked EPIM system?

2: As in the original post question, what is a remote (home) worker supposed to do to to keep in contact with the team office? What happens when he is sick, takes a holiday, a sales trip - is he expected to fall back on fax/webmail/telephone conversations and scraps of paper? EPIM in his office gets him out of the information silo problem - as soon as he steps out of the office, is he then isolated from the team again?

3: Is there any way to give a remote user an ability to access the team database other than using a VPN into the office server, providing him with access to both the server's Firebird engine and the server's EPIM database just as if he was sitting at the office server? VPN (Hamachi) into the office server (holding both the Firebird and database side by side) across the internet, incidentally works well but is rather slow.

4: Could the home user, running EPIM Network edition on his home PC and running a local copy of Dropbox, install EPIM complete with a local Firebird server (on his home PC) and point to the office database (on the office hub server via his local Dropbox), the server database having been relocated to reside on Dropbox? Would there be any sync issues doing this?

5: As far as my subscription to EPIM Cloud (inexpensive), I imagined that this could entirely replace the need for a physical (office) server hub running EPIM Network, with each user, in the office or remote at home, logging-in simultaneously to EPIM Cloud, but I have a feeling that this multi-concurrent user is not how you conceived EPIM Cloud. Correct or not?

6: Is there any other way of solving the remote access issue so that, for example, regardless of whether I am in the office at my desk or half a world away, I can keep in touch with the team with EPIM?

The documentation could do with really spelling out what is doable and what is not, and as a product development strategy, since remote working is becoming the norm, a simple and secure way of granting remote access is going to become a vital necessity. In addition, with Microsoft shortening OS support lifecycles, I am sick and tired of having to forever upgrade servers - many agree that moving to secure cloud offerings is ultimately less stressful, less hassle, cheaper and completely sidesteps OS support issues. None of us are getting any younger and there are better things to be concerned about than a ticking timebomb downwards to server out-of-support dates when cloud computing makes that someone else's problem.

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Re: Network Features with Dropbox

Post by Max »

DropBox and EPIM Cloud are on the opposite end of EPIM Network. Unfortunately EPIM Cloud will not replace the need for server. Thus if we speak about Network version, the only viable solution for remote user is to access the server over Internet and VPN, if necessary. If the ping is on the larger side, yes, it can be slow. EPIM Network was actually made for working in the LAN mainly.
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VPN and maximising remote user's experience of EPIM

Post by salamander »

Noted thank you. So, as I thought, EPIM was conceived as, and works well as a local-LAN net, with all members on the same (office) LAN.

As I mentioned, the workaround for remote connection is to use a VPN into the (office) server, and that works well too. Via the VPN, as far as EPIM on the (office) server is concerned, providing the remote user provides both the correct Windows credentials to the server (shared) folder where EPIMs database resides, and a correct log-in name to EPIM, the server treats him just as if here were in the local lan, or actually sitting at the server.

My question is about maximising the data performance of a remote user, via a VPN. He doesn't want to wait long for data to be sent over from the server via his VPN - that's frustrating. I realise that ultimately EPIM has no control or influence over the server-up, remote user-down data rate as that is governed by the service agreement the office and home user have paid for at the two ends of the chain (one man's up is another man's down). My issue is, recognising that reality, maximising EPIM performance for the remote user, and that boils down to how much data is being shuffled between him and his server, over the public internet.

Q: When the remote-user logs to the server via VPN, how much or how little data does the server actually supply him with? For example, if the remote user goes to Notes, and if he has a nested Notes structure with images on various leafs such as:

Notes:
Top level (root)
Second level (child)
Third level (child)
Fourth level (child)
Fifth level etc. (child)

assuming he opens one page on the Top level, will the server prepare and serve him any pages other than Top level? Will it anticipate that he will step down the tree and fetch (or cache) behind the scenes, the second, third, fourth and fifth level pages 'just in case' - Note pages which could have large images on them? Or will the server just send him the top level page he is on, the landing page opened by the user, and nothing more? You'll see that anticipating and sending might-be-needed pages (which are not in fact viewed or required by the remote user) could make a tremendous difference to the home user's experience.

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Re: Network Features with Dropbox

Post by Max »

Hello,

the access-over LAN and server capabilities are provided by Firebird database engine, we did not modify it and have no intention to do it. I agree, there is some room for improvement when working via VPN from remote locations, but we do not have many/enough users requesting this.
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Re: Network Features with Dropbox

Post by salamander »

With respect, you did not begin to answer my question. I am not interested in Firebird, nor VPN, nor am I complaining about remote VPN connection. My question was this:

"How much info is actually pushed or pulled from the EPIM database? Is it *only* sufficient data to display the *current item, current page, current view* on the user's monitor screen - and not a byte more than needed to render the user's screen properly - or is much more date pushed/pulled in anticipation that he may navigate to other pages later?

For example, if only 10kB is needed from the database to render a user's screen as he sits on one particular root static page in EPIM, say a Notes screen, and the database is 200MB, is only 10kB served to his PC? Or is it more? Does EPIM anticipate that he will want to view a child page and send his PC 50kB - the whole tree i.e. behind-the-scenes caching?

I am not asking for any modifications, reworking, reengineering or anything other than understanding the totality of data moveemnt and, subsequently, if I can help myself by minimising data flow to a remote user on a VPN. :cry:

If you give me this information than I am armed with the knowledge to try and structure my usage of EPIM remotely to minimise data flow. Simple as that.
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Re: Network Features with Dropbox

Post by Max »

It is quite complicated. Of course EPIM database caches a lot of info and prefetches some. It is a fairly sophisticated algorithm, trying to guess what will be needed next, based on current actions. So the answer is- "much more date pushed/pulled in anticipation that he may navigate to other pages later"
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