IT Support

It is said there are 3 things that are important in IT, Backups, Backups and Backups. Before you do anything, please read the link titled "Backups". After you read that you may indulge yourself in free knowledge about IT for home, small and medium business.

VPN's & remote Desktop

VPN
VPN's are Virtual Private Networks. Which means nothing to most people. However, they are actually quite useful. What it allows you to do is connect into your network from anywhere on the internet and work as if you were in your office. Well almost, it is a bit slower, depending on your internet connection speed. ADSL modems sometimes come with the ability to be VPN endpoints (termination points) or to Port Forward VPN ports. The most common type of VPN is IPSEC. Which can be difficult to setup. Microsoft use PPTP VPN's, which are much easier to setup and the type we recommend for Small and Medium Businesses. Not all ADSL modems support PPTP VPN's from either the endpoint or Port Forwarding. We recommend that you get one that will, at the very least, do Port Forwarding of PPTP (Port 1723) if you think you will ever need a VPN.

VPN's are quite a big subject in their own right and their is quite a lot about them on the internet. If you want to set one up, we recommend doing a bit of googling or getting in someone that can set them up for you.

Remote Desktops
Using Remote Desktop, also referred to as Terminal Services or RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) is another way of providing remote access. This doesn't require a VPN, but may require a Terminal Server depending on the number of people that want remote access to the network. With Remote Desktop, you connect to a server or PC on your network and actually work on that PC or server, rather than on your own PC. This requires a little more knowledge of how things work if you want to copy files to your PC where you are, but it can be done reasonably easily once you understand how it works. To get the hang of Remote Desktop (RD), it is worth while playing around with it while you are in the office so you can see how it works.

There are a number of steps you need to do to get things working.

The PC or Server that you want to RD to needs to be setup to allow RD. Only Windows XP Professional version and Windows Server 2000+ have the ability in the Windows OS to accept RD sessions. We will concentrate on XP as that is the easiest. You can Google for articles on Server versions and other OS's such as Linux and Mac.

To enable RD, right click "My Computer" and select "Properties". On the "Remote" tab tick the box under "Remote Desktop" that says "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer and select the "Select Remote Users" box and decide who can connect. Back on your own PC, click on "Start > Run >" and type in "mstsc" and hit enter. You can also get to this under "All Programs > Accessories > Remote Desktop Connection". Microsoft change the Remote Desktop Client all the time, so it will depend on which version you have as to how the next bit works.

Before connecting, select the "Options" tab and have a bit of a look around. The defaults are fine for most things. Click on the "Resources" tab. If you use many keyboard shortcuts, you will want to set this section to "On the remote computer". If you want to print from your own PC, you will need to check the "Printers" setting. If you are rarely or never going to print, then uncheck this box. "Clipboard" you will want to check and "Disk drives" if you want to copy files across RD to your PC. Drives can be found under "More" on some versions.

Type in the computer name of the computer you want to connect to and follow your nose. Spend quite a bit of time connecting with all the various options this before you need to use it, as there are quite a few little things to it that it pays to understand before you use it, not least of which is that only 1 person can RD to a Windows XP machine and two (three actually, but that's another topic) to Windows Servers. Windows Servers can be turned into Terminal Servers at just the push of a button and the outlaying of cash for licensing, which will allow any number of people to connect to them.

To use this from the internet to connect to your network, you will need to port forward Port 3389 to the PC or Server that you want to RD to.