Home Office (Part 3) – Remote Access

In Part 3 I am going to discuss the different ways to connect back to your office and provide the pro’s and con’s of each option. The essential piece of each one is that you need to be able to connect with a secure Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection. This type of connection provides an encrypted connection between you and your network firewall and secures this connection from unwanted snooping or tampering. If you don’t have this capability it is not a total loss but we do suggest that you have one.

1. Log-Me-In – If you have our PAconnect Security Suite package then you have this tool. You will need a machine to be available for you to log in to at the office. Once the connections are setup and the service is turned on for you, you will be able to easily connect to a workstation in your office from your home machine. The steps are as follows:
   1. Login to your company portal for our Suite
   2. Enter your Two Factor Authentication (TFA) code
   3. Log into the machine on your network at the office through it’s authentication pro
   4. Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) – Pre-requisites for this are as follows: a workstation in the office for you to log into or Remote Access Server that has been setup and a RDP License if you are logging into the server. You service provider needs to setup your VPN access, open access on the computer you will be remoting on to or setting ups a session that you will be accessing on the Remote Access Server. The process you will then go through to get connected is easy.
      1. Start up your VPN Connection
      2. Start up your preprogrammed RDP Application
      3. You are on!
      4. Direct Connection to your Server through VPN Access – This process works for simple connections to document access but if you are running any kind of database this is the worst method for accessing this kind of data. So if you need this for accessing your accounting program or any kind of client management system these are examples of when not to use this method. Once your VPN access is established all you need to do is connect your VPN and then log into your server and then you will have access to the drives and data on your server. This is a great process for anyone that needs simple document access but other than that do one of the other methods as described above.

If you have any questions about what the best method for you is please don’t hesitate contacting us at sales@paconnect.com or support@paconnect.com.