SourceAnyWhere consists of a Server and a Client. They can communicate over any standard TCP/IP connection, including a PPP connection over a modem, an ISDN line, or an Ethernet connection on the same LAN as the Server. SourceAnyWhere does not require Windows Remote Access Service (RAS).
SourceAnyWhere is designed with client-server architecture to facilitate remote version control.
The client-server architecture eliminates many problems of Visual SourceSafe, which is file-system based, in remote access. For VSS, to share VSS documents, you have to share the whole VSS database folder, even if you only wish to share a single file in the database. Sharing the database folders exposes your valuable data totally to the outside, which may potentially cause the data to be copied or damaged. Especially in remote access, it is almost unconceivable. Also, accessing the file system in a remote environment is very slow.
In SourceAnyWhere, the VSS database folder is only exposed to the SAW Server. The client sends requests to the server and gets the result back. The security and the speed are greatly improved.
For more information about the features of the SAW, please refer to the Features and Benefits.
The SAW Client is a GUI application that resembles the SourceSafe Explorer user interface very much. SourceSafe users should find the SourceAnyWhere Client to be familiar and easy to use. Users can perform most SourceSafe operations in a similar fashion.
The SAW Client can connect to any SAW Server by simply specifying the location of that server (a host name or IP address, and a port number). Also, it supports HTTP and SOCKS proxy protocol.
The server is installed on the machine with access to the file system on which the SourceSafe (VSS) database resides. Once installed there, the Server provides access to SourceSafe operations to Clients that connect using any standard TCP/IP connection.
The server is installed as a system service, hence the server can be installed on any windows platforms which support service, such as Windows NT, 2000, XP, or 2003. It runs in the background with no user interface of any kind. Configuration of the Server is accomplished through the Server Manager utility.