Pcanywhere

[Couch Potato]

Yes you can set things up to access any software remotely. There are a variety of way to do the task. You can set up a traditional VPN and use Micro$oft's terminal server or Citrix server to have everyone log in to the server using their remote computer. Or you use a service like GoToMyPC or LogMein to have everyone log in to their individual desktop computers that are located in the office. If you have more than one or two people in you office and don't understand the details, I strongly advise you to get a local professional to aid in the design choices and setup. If not done properly you can really mess-up your entire network, but if done well you can enable remote access securely and increase productivity for everyone.

 

[VolcanoLvr]

OK....apparently this will work if properly set up.

One aspect that has not been discussed is the software providers are in the biz of actually doing that...selling software.

Have any of you encountered problems with your vendor regarding remote access?

From what I've been told...any I may not have the full story...our provider is pretty cagy about this. I think they'd rather sell us the $700 program to install on laptops or home computers than to admit the software can be utilized in the ways as has been discussed here.

 

[Couch Potato]

I use ClickFORMS which allows for unlimited installs by a licensed user so its a non-issue with Bradford Software.

 

[Brian E Long]

Remember that if you're remoting into your home PC and you have a router, that router is effectively a "firewall" (by default) which will block most inbound connection attempts.

GOTO is a good option because it's able to run over a standard http port, which is typically not going to be firewalled. It has some overhead that you don't necessarily need but it's reasonably fast and easy to use.

However, VNC has been free open-source software for many years. VNC is easy to install and while it has a lot of options, you're not required to configure anything except your password. You can access the remote computer using a thin VNC client, or using your ubiquitous web browser. VNC will run in the background on your PC all the time waiting for connections, but when idle it consumes almost no system resources.
The only caveat to VNC is that when you have a router (or firewall) you need to initially configure your router to forward the VNC ports (5800,5900) to the PC that you want to connect to.

 

[VolcanoLvr]

Greg Myers.....

You made an important comment that I hope you will elaborate:

"log in to their individual desktop computers that are located in the office"

I know that the workstations have unique ID numbers on a network.

Are you saying that if the ID # is known, and we set up the remote connect software properly, we can then get to our own office computer?

That will really help, as we then would be able to utilize our custom hot keys and comments, rather than the ones stored on the server.

Dave

 

[Couch Potato]

Originally posted by Dave Towne@Jan 28 2006, 12:34 AM
Greg Myers.....

You made an important comment that I hope you will elaborate:

"log in to their individual desktop computers that are located in the office"

I know that the workstations have unique ID numbers on a network.

Are you saying that if the ID # is known, and we set up the remote connect software properly, we can then get to our own office computer?

That will really help, as we then would be able to utilize our custom hot keys and comments, rather than the ones stored on the server.

Dave

That is exactly what GoToMyPC is designed to do. If you have 4 to 20 desktops to which you need to set up access, you can sign up online under the small business section. You can get a free trial on the web site. LogMein is an alternative that is priced the same on 4 to 10 machines, but I find it a bit slower and prefer the full screen of GoToMyPC versus the window of LogMein (GoToMyPC will do a window too for when that is appropriate).

The software would be installed on the individual workstations that you want to access. Each workstation will have a pass phrase to allow the access and individual preference settings. To access remotely the user goes to the GoToMyPC web site, logs into the account with a password, then selects the desktop they are going to access. The desktop will then request the pass phrase to allow access. (The pass phrase is set and stored only at the local computer that is giving access.)

If the cost is a big issue, the free version of LogMein can be used, but is lack some functionality such as file transfer between machines and printing locally from the remote machine. You can work around these limitations using web storage, email, etc., but that requires additional time. If you are busy, that time can cost you money. If you business is slow, the time can save you money.

 

[VolcanoLvr]

Thanks Greg!

By the way...is that an Idaho Russett spud, or a Yukon gold????

Dave