program to access work files at home?

[minofifa]

sorry if this is the wrong forum but...

My father has a businss downtown but is sick right now. He would like to access some of his work files on my home computer. Is this possbile? i don't know much about networking so i'm looking for the simplest way if this is possible. I have windows XP home on my home computer, and he uses windows 200 professional at work. Both computers have access to the internet.

Thanks for any help

 

[BlueWeasel]

Short of installing software on each system, there's no other way of doing it that I know of. There are numerous options available, but a good, free solution is UltraVNC. It would allow your father to connect to his work PC, control it (if necessary), and transfer files directly between home and work.

 

[Crusty]

Using a VPN would be a better solution IMO, do you have any idea what kind of networking equipment he has at his office?

 

[minofifa]

thanks for the help guys. I think i might try the ultraVNC idea. I have the program installed and everything seems to be ok. THe only thing i don't understand is when i open the "viewer" app, it asks for the "VNC server (host display or host:ort). I'm not sure what i'm supposed to enter here. Say i open the viewer app at home, do i enter the IP address at work? By this i mean simply enter the xxx.xxx.xx.xx IP and nothing else? This is not explained well on the ultra vnc homepage.

Thanks again.

 

[minofifa]

no that didn't work. still says failed to connect. anybody know what i might be doing wrong?

 

[n0cmonkey]

You put in the IP address of the computer at work that you installed VNC onto followed by the port it is listening on, if non-standard. ie. 172.26.4.12:5959

 

[EagleKeeper]

Do you have the VNC on the Work system also?

 

[minofifa]

sorry, i probably should have supplied more info. here is what i wrote on another board

I have a computer at work, on a network, that i want to control from home. On the work computer i have windows 2000 professional, and at home i have XP home. I have installed the latest version of ultra VNC on both computers today (v 1.0.0 from the sourceforge website). At work i have the VNC server running. Now at home i open the viewer and try to connect to the computer at work by entering the work computer's IP address in the "VNC server (host display or host:ort). In other words, i enter the work computer's IP in the format xxx.xxx.xx.xx into that field (nothing else). Then i click connect, and i get an error message saying "failure to connect".

As i mentioned, the computer at work is on a network, probably with a firewall, i'm not sure.



I'm thinking that there is no port open on the frewall at work. how would i go about openin a port? what kind of security implications would there be by doing so?

thanks

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: minofifa
sorry, i probably should have supplied more info. here is what i wrote on another board

I have a computer at work, on a network, that i want to control from home. On the work computer i have windows 2000 professional, and at home i have XP home. I have installed the latest version of ultra VNC on both computers today (v 1.0.0 from the sourceforge website). At work i have the VNC server running. Now at home i open the viewer and try to connect to the computer at work by entering the work computer's IP address in the "VNC server (host display or host:ort). In other words, i enter the work computer's IP in the format xxx.xxx.xx.xx into that field (nothing else). Then i click connect, and i get an error message saying "failure to connect".

As i mentioned, the computer at work is on a network, probably with a firewall, i'm not sure.



I'm thinking that there is no port open on the frewall at work. how would i go about openin a port? what kind of security implications would there be by doing so?

thanks

Have the security admins do this. They deal with this stuff all the time.