access office computer from home

[jono261970]

Hello,

Can somebody tell how I could connect to my server from home. I have NT 4.0 server. I have a 24-7 broadband connection and host an email server and web server. I was thinking that if I put PCanywhere on the mail server which is live to the world I could connect via the internet. Is this possible. If so how would I find my server from home. I plan on installing PCanywhere at home.

thanks in advance.
cheers

jono

 

[keithschm]

use netmeeting remote desktop sharing. it free and fun

 

[keithschm]

if you need help setting it up let me know

 

[daytraitors]

WinVNC

http://www.realvnc.com

works as an alternative to PC Anywhere or X server applications. It basically transmits keyboard, video, and mouse between server and client.

 

[John Lewis]

Hmmm . . . pcAnywhere . . Netmeeting . . VNC

Biggest thing I see in common here is a real lack of security.

pcAnywhere and VNC (also see

http://www.tightvnc.com/

for a few more features) are both wonderful remote access programs. pcAnywhere can handle file transfers and is a bit faster, VNC is free. I use VNC. NetMeeting, well I wouldn't go there. Either way, none of these apps provide anything that I would really call security by themselves. They ask for and validate a password, but no real security.

The easiest way to put a level of security into this mess is to run whichever remote software you use over a VPN. Oddly enough, you posted in the VPN forum. Funny how that works.

Your NT server will do fine as a VPN server. Any recent version of Windows will work for a client.

Your bigger problem becomes finding the server if you have a dynamic IP. You mentioned that your NT box is currently running a mail server -- is it inbound, and if so how do you find it? If you have an assigned domain name, that should work fine. Otherwise, you may try a dynamic DNS server. I have never done the DDNS thing, have heard mixed results from others. On another note, if you have a cable connection, you may find that your ip is fairly static anyway.

 

[jono261970]

hello Mhkwood,

Thanks for your support.Could you tall me how I would go about setting up a VPN. Do I need extra software?
I have pcyanywhere 9 and my email server is inbound and is found via a domain name.

thanks for your help so far

cheers

jono

 

[John Lewis]

The software you need for the server comes with NT 4 server. Part of RRAS services. Can't remember the steps, but will walk through it at work Monday.

Recent versions of windows have clients built in, so you should be fine there.

If you have a firewall, you will need to open another port to your server. (If you don't have one, get one -- that's another problem.) You will also need to pass protocols through, some firewalls have a problem there, but that is the only thing that I can immediatly think of that you need to change.

Because you have a domain name for your server, you should be able to use the same for your VPN connection. Since you have a domain name, I would assume you have a fixed public IP for your server, so you could use that as well.