Extending LAN to remote office: performance questions

I asked this in a slightly different form last December - any further
comments?

Small business, currently one office, intending to expand to another office
(50km distant), with plans to expand to other offices later ...

Server, six workstations, connected by LAN. Users run typical "Office"
applications and store files on the server - currently SBS2003.

Users (probably 3) at proposed remote office want same facilities &
performance, so they can work on files held on the main office server.

Fast (100mbits/sec) link to new office probably impossible, certainly very
expensive. Slow link (VPN over ADSL) easy.

Remote clients could in principle connect to the domain via the slow VPN.
This is OK for Outlook, and theoretically possible but in my experience
unusable for browsing the server and editing files thereon.

What about Terminal Services? Would this give the remote users adequate
performance? I know head office would then need an application server ...

Clearly, users could copy files to a local workstation and return them when
they've finished work on them - but this creates file management problems.

What would appear to be needed is a document management system that "books
out" files for editing, and transparently (and pre-emptively) caches the
booked out files on the users local workstation.

Is Sharepoint a sensible solution for this, particularly in respect of local
caching of files?

TIA

--
Graham J

In demon.tech.pc, on Wed, 1 Jul 2009 11:55:19, Graham J wrote:

>Fast (100mbits/sec) link to new office probably impossible, certainly
>very expensive. Slow link (VPN over ADSL) easy.

Depends what you mean by 'expensive'.
http://aaisp.net.uk/ethernet.html

--
Jim Crowther

"Jim Crowther" <Don'> wrote in message
news:0v$ nvalid...
> In demon.tech.pc, on Wed, 1 Jul 2009 11:55:19, Graham J wrote:
>
>>Fast (100mbits/sec) link to new office probably impossible, certainly very
>>expensive. Slow link (VPN over ADSL) easy.
>
> Depends what you mean by 'expensive'.
> http://aaisp.net.uk/ethernet.html

£3000 up front plus £1000 per month buys a clever server fairly quickly.

--
Graham J