Access files and e-mail when away from the office

Just because you're always working, it doesn't mean you always have to be in the office. In fact many people running Small Businesses find that they can often get more work done when they are not in the office, and away from the inevitable distractions that the office brings.

Whether you just want access to your e-mail from home - or want to run the monthly invoicing run from a hotel in London - all things are possible. However there are a number of approaches you can take and they will depend on your requirements, budget and IT set up.

The following section looks at a range of different ways to enable you to access your data while out of the office. In reality, you may employ a combination of these options. Please feel free to contact us to discuss your own requirements.

Direct Dial-up connection

This is the good, old-fashioned approach. The equipment is cheap (a modem for your home PC and one in the server). The concept is simple, just like a telephone call between to computers, so once you connect, you work. Sounds fine, however the problems with this approach include:
For a dial-up connection to work, you need to have a telephone number that connects directly to a computer in your network. Unless you have a direct-dial facility on your company switchboard, this means dedicating a telephone line for this job - and paying the line rental.
Only one person at a time can connect this way. If a colleague is already using the connection when you dial-in, you will get engaged - unless you invest in more lines, more cost etc.
If you don't live close to the office, or are travelling away, then the telephone call could be charged at national (or even International) rates.
Dial-up connections are slow compared to, say, Internet broadband (ADSL) speeds.

Connecting using the Internet using a Virtual Private Network (VPN)

The most common approach these days is to use the Internet and create a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection. To understand how this works, you need to recognise that the Internet just a big network of connected computers - like your office network but much bigger (like space when compared to a walk to the shops). The next sections explains how this is done in two stages; the physical connection and the secure communication

The physical connection

Many of the computers on the Internet are there permanently. Examples are computers hosting websites that are always accessible. However, at any point in time, many of the computers on the Internet are only connected temporarily. When you dial-up to the Internet from your home computer, for the time you are connected your computer is part of the Internet - just the same as the computers hosting websites - and can be connected to by other Internet users. This is why you may have seen the annoying 'Pop-Up' messages while on the Internet and is also why you should never connect to the Internet 'unprotected' - always use a firewall.

So, if your office computer is connected to the Internet all it needs is for you to connect to the Internet from wherever you are and - hey, presto! - you are connected to your server. Well, not quite. If it was that easy then everyone could access your office computer, which would be a BAD thing. Below, we cover different methods of connecting securely, but for now let's look at how you can connect to the Internet.

A common method of connecting to the Internet is to 'Dial-up'. However, to make the connection, both the office computer and your home computer need to be connected to the Internet at the same time. So how can you make sure the office computer is connected when you want it to be? You can schedule the dial-up for certain times, or leave the line connected all the time, but this could involve cost and may use a valuable line from your switchboard. However, it is possible.

A better approach is to have an Internet Broadband (ADSL) connection for the office. The advantage of this is that it is an 'always-on' connection, so when you call in from home you know the connection into your office is there. It is also much quicker than a dial-up connection. Of course, if you have dial-up access from home, you won't see this extra speed - but you will if your home connection is also ADSL.

Given the falling cost of ADSL, it is rare that it is not the most economic solution when compared with a dial-up connection. However, ADSL is not yet universally available - and this is the west country after all! - that's why we at Westcountry Business have a range of options to suit all cases.

Ensuring secure communication

Hopefully you can now see how the Internet can be used to create a physical network connection between you and your office, no matter where you are. However, you now need to make sure that only you, and people you choose, can get into you network via the Internet. You certainly don't want any one else getting in.

The common method of doing this is to create a Virtual Private Network (VPN). All versions of Windows, since Windows 98, include the software you need to create a VPN. So setting up the connection on your home PC is quite similar to setting up any other connection - such as your Internet connection - and normally only takes a few minutes to set up.

In your office, you will need to set up a method of receiving the connection and authenticating of the user (i.e. make sure only people who are allowed in get access). This is normally done either by some software running on a computer - normally your server - or a dedicated piece of equipment, like a hardware firewall. We can supply both solutions; the server can either be a windows server or our own Westcountry Business Small Business Server, and we recommend the use of Snapgear products if a dedicated hardware is preferred.

A VPN does not only authenticate the user, but once it is established that a connection is valid, the VPN creates what is known as a 'tunnel'. This simply means that all data is encrypted as it travels between the two computers. Therefore, even though you are using the Internet - a public network - your information remains secure.

Final Note

We hope this simple explanation helps. It is intended as an overview or guide, rather than a definitive document. The key message is this - If you have a PC at home with access to the Internet, and your office also has Internet access (preferably ADSL), then you probably already have all you need to be able to access the office network from home.

So remote access could save you time and money, and can be very cheap and easy to set up. For more information contact us to discuss your own situation.