Remote access questions

I've been offered the option of working from home for the majority of the week since the company I work for is moving a fair distance from where I live. In order to do so, however, it is up to me to figure out how to access the work computer from home. The problem with that is I have no idea how to do it, ha ha.

I was thinking of remote accessing my work computer from home, but I have Windows Vista Home Edition at home and Windows XP Home Edition at work, so I don't have that option.

Any technical people know how I would go about setting this up?

Can you change the operating system of one of the computers?

I could request a change or upgrade, I'm not sure if the company would comply.

Assuming I cannot change operating systems, is it possible to do remote access? And for kicks, what if I can change systems? What should I change to?

Logmein has a free version that might work for you. We put it on my dad's computer and I login to his all the time when he needs help. I don't think you can transfer files etc and not sure if you can print to the remote site or not but you can get to the computer and work. You would load it on your work computer and leave it on an on the internet. You might try it out.

I think it is www.logmeinfree.com for the free version. OUr computer support people use a paid for version of this program where they can access lots of computers...that is how I found out about it.

Actually, you can use UltraVNC with Vista. It's opensource too, I believe.

How are you planning to connect? I use PuTTY and ssh into the router at one office, then use UltraVNC to open a connection to a local computer on that network. At another office, I have a VPN connection (I use OpenVPN) set up. Neither are terribly difficult, but you'll need tot talk to your sysadmin and get them to tell you how they want things done.

Cait (who also telecommutes)

I second VNC.

When we're not using the remote software his work uses, we use VNC. I can remote to Rob's desktop and he can remote to my laptop. Very useful.

Cait, I have no clue how Rob does his, but I'm pretty sure he uses PuTTY for it as well.

I recommend running a length of CAT5e cable from your house to your new work.

My job uses GoToMyPC. It gets installed on your work computer, then you just login on their website, and you're connected. You can add a shortcut to your desktop as well, so you just put in your password.

--Mia

We use this too...but you have to pay for it. It does work well though and works with multiple monitors. The logme in is free and an easy alternative if you don't know how to do all that other stuff being talked about in the other posts.

You can remotely access your work computer from home in two ways: either using hosted remote services such as logmeinrescue, gosupportnow, GoToMyPC etc. or having on premise remote support appliance installed such as RHUB or Bomgar appliances.