Hello there,

I have a little problem... I have a small office down the road from
where I live. In that office there is a server (G4 mac) onto which is
stored a database which I use daily to lookup info on my clients. I
often like to work from home but I find that i have tocome into the
office to access the database! I would like to work from home more
often but I have yet to find a reliable way of getting into that
database.
I have experimented in the past with VPN but never managed to get the
system to run properly. The first question I would like to ask is:
1.) Am i wasting my time? Will I ever find a cost effective solution
which will allow me to access my database from home (at a reasonable
speed, the database in question is Omnis which is operating under
system 9 (classic)).
If the answer to the above is that there is a way (which will give me
a reasonable user experience) then I have the following questions:
2.) I have an 8meg broadband connection in the office and an 2meg
connection at home (both dsl routers have static ips) can I somehow
bridge the two LAN such that they end up on the same subnet? The
reason I am asking this is because I am day dreaming that I could
simply go into the "GO-->Connect to Server" menu and simply mount the
database on the desktop.
3.) If the above is not possible than what are the alternatives? cost
and simplicity are issues. Ideally I would like to have two devices,
one at home and one in the office that talk to each other and make it
seem like there is only one LAN.
I understand that this is a long question, however should I succeed
then you can expect to be well rewarded (tips).

im not a mac user but there is a program that i use as a vpn for my
two networks its Hamachi and it works vary well. you can find it at
http://www.hamachi.cc/download/
there is a os x verson

Depends on what you consider expensive.  Buy 2 of these at about $60 each:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16833124007 
and set up a site to site vpn between your two locations.  You can
then access any machine at either end from any other machine at either
end.  No software required on anything at either end.  They will not
be the "same" subnet.  You'll have 192.168.1.x at one end and
192.168.2.x at the other.

Hum, thanks for the replies. I am wondering which is best:
1- to have a vpn client software+VPN server (i.e. netgear)
2- To have two VPN boxes

These are what I think the pros and cons are:
solution 1 
PROS-Cheaper, client can access the network from any internet
connection (no static ip needed                 for client). Easier to
do.
CONS: requires knowledge by the end user (if somebody other than
myself were to connect to the network)+ software needs to be
configured everytime a new computer wants to join network+Slower than
having a hardware based solution.

Solution 2
PROS- Quicker+easier to use once it is set up
CONS- Turning it on/off might be a bit of a bugger+more expensive+more
difficult to set up.

for solution 2 (hardware), I am wondering how it would actually work.
Would one of the box be a client and the other a server? If so does it
mean that I would need to buy to different VPN routers? Would the DHCP
server on the server side assign IPs to computer on the client side at
all time?

Anyway, as you have probably guessed I am venturing into the unknown
and I am looking for someone who could mentor me through the process.

Many thanks