Posted by Daryl Rinaldi on Mon, Apr 12, 2010 @ 05:30 PM
As a leading Boston area IT Support company we are often are asked to provide a way for our customers to remotely access their network. This is the 3rd part of our 3-part blog on alternative methods of remote access.
Another way to get remote access to your work PC is to install a service such as Logmein (www.logmein.com) or GoToMyPC (www.gotomypc.com). There are other such services but these are the 2 market leaders. You simply go to their respective websites and sign up for an account. Both charge for a full-featured account. Gotomypc is $19.95/month. Logmein Pro is $12.20/month. Both have annual subscriptions with a lower monthly cost. Both do the same thing and work very similarly. We prefer logmein. We use a special version of logmein for IT services companies so we are very familiar with it and can vouch for it being a very solid, robust product that very rarely has problems. Plus Logmein has a free version that you can use. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the Pro version but it provides remote access, remote printing, and file transfer which are the 3 main features most people need.
Once you sign up for an account you add the computer that you want to remotely access. To add the computer you install an agent on that computer and that makes that PC accessible via the website. Thereafter you can log into your account on the website from any computer and remotely access your work PC (where you have the agent installed). When you are remotely logged in allyour keystrokes and mouse movements are happening on your work computer. It is just as if you were sitting at your desk. You can transfer files to and from your computer and you can print from your work PC locally to a printer that is connected to the remote PC.
These services are very easy to install, they are very reliable, they are easy to use, and you will love the flexibility to be able to remotely access your work PC anywhere you can get online. Forgot that important document at the office? No need to get back in the car on a rainy night and drive back to the office. Just log in in 5 minutes and grab it.
Of course since you now have setup remote access you really should be sure to use strong passwords (remember use a passphrase not a password). But you do need 2 passwords to get access - the password to your logmein (or gotomypc) online account and then the password to access your PC. So as long os you use reasonably strong passphrases these solutions are pretty safe.
If you don't have remote access I encourage you to get it. It will simplify your life and give you a flexibility that you make you wonder why you didn't do it sooner.
PS. Teamviewer (www.teamviewer.com) is another such solution. One nice thing about this solution is that either the target or remote PC can be a Mac or a Windows PC. So you can control a PC from a Mac and vice versa. We've used teamviewer and it seems to work well and is also easy to install and easy to use.
Posted by Daryl Rinaldi on Tue, Apr 06, 2010 @ 05:52 PM
As a leading Boston area IT Support company we are often are asked to provide a way for our customers to remotely access their network. This is the 2nd part of our 3 part blog on alternative methods of remote access.
Remote Web Workplace. Starting with Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 Microsoft has included a technology called Remote Web Workplace (RWW). This feature enables users to remotely access their desktop via their web browser. You have to configure the service on the server and grant remote access permissions.
You'll need to create DNS settings to configure a URL (aka web address) that your employees can enter into their web browser to gain access to the system. You'll need to map that address to your server within your firewall. If all that sounds like Greek to you (and you don't speak Greek) then you probably need an IT technician to configure this for you.
But let me say it more simply. You define a web address such as www.gizmofish.com/remote (don't bother trying it - we don't have that setup). Your employees enter this into their browser and it takes them to a web page. They log in using the the same user name and password they use on their PCs in the office. They then click on a link to "connect to my computer at work", select their computer and log in as if they were sitting at their desk. Within their browser they will see their office PC desktop and be able to run programs, open documents, print, and access the network just as if they were sitting at their PC in the office.
Pros and Cons
PRO: RWW is pretty easy to set up and use. No special software is needed on the remote computer. And you can centrally control people's remote access permissions. And it is free if you have a Windows Small Business Server 2003 or 2008.
CON: You will still probably need an IT technician to set it up. And if it doesn't work you will probably need your IT technician to resolve the issue. And of course if you do NOT have a server then this solution is a non-starter for you.
On part 3 of this GizmoBlog article we'll discuss more user-driven remote access alternatives that do not require IT intervention to setup and maintain.
Posted by Daryl Rinaldi on Mon, Apr 05, 2010 @ 04:27 PM
As a leading Boston area IT Support company we are often are asked to provide a way for our customers to remotely access their network. Remote access provides great flexibility to business owners and employees alike. People can work from on the road, can work from home when needed, can quickly look up information without having to wait until the next business day, and it provides a fall-back in the event that something makes your offices inaccessible (ex. construction, painting, natural disasters). It also allows you to support more employees without increasing office space. The flexibility to work at home can be a great incentive when hiring new employees as well.
The good news is that connecting to your network remotely is easier than ever before. There are many different methods you can use depending upon your needs and preferences. In this 3 part post we will cover the primary ways that businesses can setup remote access.
1. VPN. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. Setting up a VPN, while easier than it used to be, still requires an IT technician. Your IT support department or company can configure a router that has VPN capability (GizmoFish prefers Sonicwall routers). This will provide a link into your internal network from the internet.
Let me explain how this works in principal. When you are inside your network your computer is attached directly to your network either wirelessly or via an ethernet (AKA network) cable. This allows you to access the network and any devices or network drives that you are allowed access to. When you are NOT in the office and you connect via a VPN it is just like you are physically connected to the network (like when you are in the office), but the connection is actually going over the internet. So you can think of it like there is a really long network cable stretching all the way from your office to your house.
You will need log in credentials to the VPN. The VPN router checks your credentials and then sets up and manages this virtual "tunnel" between your PC and the network. The VPN router can manage many of these connection simultaneously so that several people can be connected at the same time. The router encrypts all the traffic so even if someone were to intercept your traffic to and from the network they could not decipher it and therefore cannot steal any of your sensitive business information. Each user installs VPN software on their remote PC that they uses to log in to the VPN.
Pros and Cons
PRO: VPNs allow centralized control, monitoring, and management of remote access and can allow as many people to have access as your router and your internet bandwidth support. Once you have purchased the router with an appropriate number of VPN connections (some router charge based on the number of connections) there is no additional cost to allow more remote users.
CON: End users cannot setup VPNs by themselves -- An IT professional is usually required and VPNs can be tricky to configure and maintain. So if your VPN connection is not working correctly you usually require IT support to fix it. Also you must purchase a commercial grade VPN router with VPN licenses and you may need to install and maintain VPN software on everyone's PC that will be used for remote access. Also while end users can access data over the network, they cannot access applications. So if you do not have a particular program installed on your remote PC then you cannot run that program even though you may have access to the data. This limitation is not true with some other remote access technologies that we will cover later in this blog post series.
In subsequent posts we will discuss the other major ways of providing remote access to your network.
Posted by Daryl Rinaldi on Fri, Mar 26, 2010 @ 08:04 AM
Mobile Computing Security:
Security while traveling is a whole topic in and of itself. So let me just add these comments for now and we will address mobile computing security more in depth in a later post.
- Keep your laptop with you or clearly in sight at ALL times. Did you know according to a recent study by Dell and the Poneman Institute that up to 12,000 laptops are lost or stolen in U.S. airports each week? And that between 65 and 70 percent of lost laptops are never reclaimed.
- Bring a laptop lock that physically secures your laptop
- Have a strong password. Won't you feel foolish when someone steals your laptop and you tell the boss that your password was "password"?
- Encrypt your laptop hard drive. You may need an IT person to do this for you but it is not very difficult or expensive. And it just requires you to enter an extra password on startup. If someone steals your laptop they cannot read the data on the hard drive without your encryption password. Of course if you make your encryption password or your login password easy to guess/crack then it doesn't matter anyway.
- Consider Computrace which allows you to track a stolen laptop and remotely wipe the hard disk of ALL data.
PS. One last piece of advice regarding email is be sure you know how to access your email from the web (and have done it successfully) before you go. If you find yourself for whatever reason unable to use your PC or PDA to check or send email you'll feel good knowing that you can log in on any internet-connected PC and check your email.
Thanks for listening. Hope this was helpful. As always call or email me with questions, comments, etc. Road warriors what have I missed? Come on add some comments and tell me how YOU ensure you can stay productive on the road. What about any special PDA apps that help you? Please comment!
Posted by Daryl Rinaldi on Thu, Mar 25, 2010 @ 07:59 PM
While your laptop and PDA are the core of your mobile computing technology, don't give short shrift to your accessories. These can make the difference between a pleasant, successful trip and a nightmare of hellish existence! OK well perhaps "nightmare of hellish existence" is a bit strong. But you get the point.
Your Accessories Kit:
- A flash drive of at least 2GB
- An Ethernet cable
- An aircard - This allows your computer to get online using the cell phone network. No more searching for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Anywhere you can get a cell phone signal (digital) you can get online. You will pay an additional $60 or so a month for the aircard service. But for anyone who spends significant time on the road the time and cost savings for not having to hunt around for and pay for Wi-Fi hotspots is well worth it.
- An international adapter if you travel overseas
- Travel mouse (personal choice)
- Spare battery (personal choice - adds weight)
- Printed laminated sheet with all important phone numbers. "But why would I need this?" you ask. "All my numbers are in my trusty PDA." But then of course your battery runs out or you drop it in that mud puddle, or leave it on the plane, etc. etc.... Good old paper doesn't need batteries. Include numbers for:
- Airlines
- Hotel chains
- Top customers
- Travel Agent
- Car services
- Tech Support
- Home numbers for key people (especially if you will be in a different time zone)
Optional depending on nature of your work
- Projector - if you make customer presentations you take out the variable of using their equipment
- Scanner
- Printer - most hotels have a business center and there are Kinko's everywhere so this is less and less needed by road warriors.
- Digital recorder to dictate and send for transcription. You may recall that Bill Blazejowski (Michael Keaton) used an analog voice recorder to record all his great ideas (he was an "idea man") in the movie Night Shift with Henry Winkler. Perhaps that will inspire you to do likewise? No? Never mind.
Stay tuned for the last in our series of mobile computing technology tips...
Posted by Daryl Rinaldi on Thu, Mar 25, 2010 @ 09:30 AM
Proper Laptop:
Any decent blog of mobile computing tips will start with your laptop (but wait - I started with your PDA in part 1! oops). The right laptop for you is a personal choice. There is no one size fits all. The main considerations are:
- Weight
- Screen size
- CPU Speed
- Memory (get 4GB if you are buying a new Laptop)
- Most laptops have hard drives that are plenty big enough - hard drive space is rarely an issue anymore
Generally speaking the larger the screen size the heavier the laptop. So you have to decide which is more important to you. There is however an exception to this rule. Most laptop makers offer ultra portable laptops that have large screens yet still weigh around 3 lbs (rather than the 4.5-5lbs of a standard PC). BUT you will pay at least 60% more for these laptops due to all of the fancy engineering that went into cramming all that technology into such a lightweight chassis. I will add that these laptops look sleek and have a "Wow factor" that will often impress others. I'm sure something as superficial as that doesn't matter to any of YOU (ahem) - but I just thought I'd mention it.
One quick note - super portable laptops often have no built-in CD/DVD drive as a way of saving weight. But if you think you would need one on the road anyway then you will have to lug an external CD/DVD drive with you so the weight savings in moot.
Note I did not discuss "netbooks" here. These very small and lightweight portable PCs are becoming more popular. But there are tradeoffs and considerations that are too numerous to go into in this article.
Stay tuned for more mobile computing tips...
Posted by Daryl Rinaldi on Wed, Mar 24, 2010 @ 07:43 PM
Consultants and salespeople have been road warriors for a long time. Now more and more white collar professionals such as accountants, finance professionals, and other knowledge workers are finding themselves working at least some of the time out of the office.
So maybe some of you could benefit from some mobile computing advice too. You have to start with the right equipment. I will address each part of your travel toolkit in its own blog post. Part 1 will discuss your PDA. Part 2 will discuss your laptop. Part 3 will discuss the important accessories. And Part 4 will discuss security and email considerations in.
The main fact that affects all the mobile computing advice I will give you is as follows: The more you carry the more efficiently you can work and the less at risk you are of not being able to accomplish something. BUT (you knew there was a "but" coming) the more you carry the less mobile you actually become. Every additional tool takes up space and weight. So this is the fundamental tradeoff you have to make when deciding what to carry with you.
Your PDA:
I will assume if you are a busy professional and work out of the office with any regularity you will have some kind of PDA rather than just a regular phone. Whether you have Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Google Android, Palm, or iPhone doesn't really matter. What matters is:
- You are already setup to send and receive email and synch your contacts and calendar from your PDA. Don't wait until you are in your hotel to call the IT guy for help setting up your PDA so you can check email.
- Your phone plan is appropriate. If you travel will you get high roaming charges? If you go overseas does your phone support the right networks (GSM for Europe for example)? Do you have a plan that has good international calling rates?
- Does your phone provider have good coverage in the areas you need to go?
Stay tuned for more Mobile Computing advice...
Posted by Daryl Rinaldi on Fri, Jan 22, 2010 @ 10:59 AM
As you may know VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol. This means your phone calls are turned into digital packets of information and sent over the internet rather than traditional phone lines. Why should you consider VoIP?
1. Cost! VoIP phone systems are significantly less expensive than a traditional analog PBX. You can save anywhere from 30-60% on the equipment purchase.
2. Cost! VoIP phone calls are significantly cheaper than analog phone service. We have seen a small office go from a $300/month phone bill to a $60/month bill.
3. Capabilities. While cost often initially grabs people's attention they soon get excited about the capabilities of their new phone system. For example the Aastra Response Point system has:
- An auto-attendant with built-in voice recognition. Callers can simply speak the name of the person they are trying to reach.
- Voice recognition on the phones means that you no longer have to remember a sequence of key strokes to peform functions such as accessing voicemail or transferring a call. You can simply press the big blue Response point Button and say "voicemail" or "transfer to Dave". This also means that a typical end user can manage and administer the phone system without help from a phone or IT technician.
- Integration with Outlook. You can import your Outlook contacts into the phone and they are automatically voice-enabled. So you can just pick up the phone and say "call Daryl Rinaldi". You can even give a contact a nickname like "my wife", or "my bookie."
- Voicemail-email integration. You can get your voicemails automatically emailed to you as an audio file attachment. So you don't have to call into your voicemail anymore when you are out of the office.
These are just some of the useful features of a VoIP system. One other advantage is that often your IT support company or your IT department can install and maintain the system so you don't need to engage with another vendor.
VoIP service is highly dependent on the bandwidth and quality of your network and internet connection. If you don't have proper bandwidth or if you don't have your internet connection properly configured you will experience call problems. You can use DSL or cable modem service as long as the speeds are high enough and the service is consistent enough. While your internet surfing can stand the occasional delay or slow down without affecting you too much, a VoIP phone call has much less tolerance for delay or quality problems on the line.
You definitely should install a commercial-grade firewall that has VoIP-specific QoS (Quality of Service) features. For example a Sonicwall TZ-100 is a basic unit that costs about $300. And you will need an IT company or department who knows how to configure the firewall to prioritize VoIP traffic. This means the firewall prioritizes VoIP traffic other types of internet traffic such as web-browsing.
If you have a T1 line you can reserve a certain amount of bandwidth just for VoIP calls.
GizmoFish's customers love their VoIP phone systems (and they especially love those low monthly phone bills) and we are obviously fans of the system ourselves. Of course a VoIP system must be setup correctly and you must have the proper network in place or you will experience problems. But if correctly configured with a proper network and bandwidth you'll be very happy with your system.
Oh, one more thing. I was talking about an onsite VoIP system in this blog post. You can also buy a hosted system where you purchase the phones but the 'brain" of the system resides on the internet. A hosted system has pros and cons. The big benefit is your upfront equipment purchase cost may be less and you don't have another piece of equipment to maintain. Also with some of these systems you can take your VoIP phone out of the office and plug it in to another internet connection (at home for example) and make and receive calls just like you were in the office. There are a few caveats to that -- if your home network and internet connection is not up-to-snuff then the phone may not work very well. But if the internet connection is good enough this is a very nice benefit of a hosted VoIP solution. The downside is of course cost. You pay more per month and you pay forever - you never own the system like you do with an on-premise solution.
Please contact GizmoFish if you have any questions or would like a quote for a VoIP system for your business. Call us at 866-MY-GIZMO (866-694-4966) or locally at 617-965-6800. Or just click on the button below to have someone contact you.
