A friend needs help.... needs to acces work computer from home.

[Mucman]

I built their network so I no the innards of their company (only 5 computers but I am proud OK!!! ). She is going to be home for the next week but she still wants to update the company's webpage. She wants to do this from her house rather than going to the office for a couple hours.

She has @home, at home.
DSL at work with her own IP address.

is their a way to connect her home comp to the network, or should she use a program like PCAnywhere?

thanks

 

[helpme]

Depending on her network setup at work, you could just use a VPN connection from home to get into the internal network at work. However if you are not able to use a VPN connection (no machine to connect to), and if the machine that you are trying to get to is firewalled, you have less options. What resources do you need to get to at work, and how is the company network setup?

 

[eelw]

You could try using Netmeeting and use the remote desktop sharing option.

 

[Damaged]

http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/

Try it. It's free and should run fine over those connections. You'll need to install it on both computers. Have the server running on the computer at work, give it a password, then have her fire up the viewer on the home machine and log in. Voila! And it didn't cost you a dime.

 

[helpme]

VNC is a great option, however if the work machine is behind a firewall, you've gotta route the appropriate ports (5800 for the java app).

But you don't actually have to install it on both machines, the vnc server app will automatically send you a java app so that you can access it from any web browser, very cool!

 

[KarlHungus]

Why not just ftp files back and forth?

 

[Damaged]

Correct, if behind a firewall, AND using the java applet, the faq says 58xx, where x is the number of the machine disply from 00-99. BTW the ports for the viewer itself are 59xx. That's how I mapped my ports and it works fine.

I've found the java app problemtic at best and slower than the straight viewer, so I just stick the the viewer.

 

[helpme]

yup, the vnc viewer does kick more ass than the java app. However I stick by my terminal services or just telnet in to get inside my network

but seriously, if you can establish a VPN connection to the firewall machine, it'll just be like being part of the network.

 

[Mucman]

wow! didn't expect so many replies!

The network at work is simply DSL uplinked into a switch and a peer2peer network. Each computer is given an IP from the ISP provider. Now that I know there are many ways to do it... what is the easiest and quickest. They are running Zonealar, but it is installed on each client because they are not using a server, therefore configuring the one computer shouldn't be too difficult.

 

[Damaged]

Quickest and easiet? IMHO VNC. Yes, VPN is nice, and a far superior solution in the long term, but for a one week deal? VNC would be easier.

 

[The Stigenator]

try VPN.. its a bitch to setup, but its merits are good.

 

[helpme]

ah, so each computer has an external IP?

if so, I agree with Damaged and just use VNC.

If you were firewalled I would agree with The_good_guy with the VPN solution.

Have fun!

 

[Mucman]

cool... I will check out VNC then... I will tinker with VPN eventually because I am sure she will want it on all the time.

thanks for all the help guys!