USE VPN
VPN is a powerful tool to protect the security of your network. Your remote machines function like a local machine within your LAN. However, VPN only fixes the security issue. The slow remote access performance and database corruption issues are still there.

USE A THIRD-PARTY VSS REMOTE ACCESS ADD-ON
The final and often more feasible option is to implement a third-party add-on utility. The development team can install an add-on tool that increases the remote access performance and security of VSS. This will require less work by the development team in regards to learning a whole new system, as long as the learning curve for the add-on tool is low. Also, by choosing a remote access VSS add-on, your company can make the most of the initial investment of VSS.

VSS Remote Access Tools
There are many other VSS remote access tools on the market. Some of them are free, some of them are proprietary and some, such as Dynamsoft SourceAnywhere for VSS are available for a 30 day free trial and $199 for a 2-user starter-pack license.
There are two tools officially recommended by Microsoft as the SourceSafe remote access add-on tool: Dynamsoft SourceAnywhere for VSS and SourceGear SourceOffSite.

Both of the tools convert SourceSafe from a file based application into a client server application by having a server installed on the same machine or LAN as the VSS database and let the clients connect to the server to carry out operations. This way, there is no need to expose the file system to outside. For every operation, the client sends the request to the server and gets the result back from the server, no expensive file reading/write operation is carried out. Since only the necessary information is transferred and the compression can be used to further reduce the file size. The performance is greatly improved because the number of the bytes to be transferred over the network is greatly reduced. The server only starts operating on VSS database when the files are transferred from the client side which significantly reduces the opportunity for database corruption. Both of the tools also provide cross-platform clients to enable the development team to access SourceSafe from non-Windows platform.

Apart from the common features of SourceAnywhere for VSS and SourceOffSite, an added benefit for SourceOffSite users is the ability to display local file change status which shows how the local file compares with the file on the server. While not a feature of SourceAnywhere for VSS, the software can automatically handle this function for the user.

SourceAnywhere has the following advantages:

1. Faster: 2-10 times faster than SourceOffSite (SourceOffSite is 12 times faster than Source Safe over the Internet)
2. More secure: SSL Encryption, password policy
3. More operating system support: SourceAnywhere for VSS runs on any Java compatible platform
4. More IDE integration: Dreamweaver integration and Eclipse plug-in

About Dynamsoft
Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Dynamsoft is the leading developer of version control and issue tracking software. . Every year, thousands of customers turn to Dynamsoft Corporation for world leading version control and issue tracking technologies. At the core of these technologies are well thought out and properly executed products that align to today's development needs while offering dramatic improvements in development flexibility, speed, reliability and security. This, in turn, helps development teams build better quality products on time. Dynamsoft Corporation version control tools are used globally by thousands of developers including Apple, EMC, Fujitsu, GE, HP, 3M, HR Block, IBM, InfoSys, Intel, Olympus, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Samsung, Siemens, Symantec, Philips, Verizon, Unisys and others. For more information, please visit www.dynamsoft.com. See Sidebar.