How to set up net access from home to work?

[booger]

I've got a small business, 30 miles away, and the recent snowstorm has made me think about how I'd like to access a computer there from my laptop at home. All I have here at home is a normal cable connection w/ wireless router, and pretty much the same at work. At work though there are several PCs connected to a router, and each have access to each other as well as a large external hard drive thats connected to one of them. All this is done through Windows.

Is there a way that I can gain access to the files on the hard drive from my home without buying something? I've searched the net and tried a few things(VPN/Remote Desktop) but nothing works. TIA for any guidance here.

[Monster Dave]

I know that you don't want to "buy" anything, but a license purchase with GoToMyPC would b just what you're looking for and money well spent (especially for the ease of use). It's really a great service and we (most of my office) uses it.  

www.gotomypc.com

You can do a 30day free trial. I'd give that a shot if nothing else.  

[djrashonal]

Another good one is LogMeIn I can use it on multiple computers and from my iphone!

https://secure.logmein.com/US/home.aspx

[erkishhorde]

What do you mean when you say "nothing works?" Have you set up the proper firewall exceptions? Most remote access programs are doing things that your computer thinks are unsafe and therefor it will try to block them if you don't make the proper exceptions.

Also, I can't think of any programs that let you turn on a computer that is off. So assuming you're trying to save money in your company and turn off your computer when you leave for the day, your SOL if it snows and you can't get to work and want to remote access. Of course if you're not worried about power useage while away from work and leave your comp on all the time anyway, by all means, remote access away.

[il d00d]

RDP or remote desktop is built into all recent Windows OSes - that will give you a window with interactive desktop.  It would be like having your work desktop -in a separate window- on your home desktop, just like GoToMyPC.  There are other terminal services clients that you can run that will do the same thing for you, like FreeVNC

The only thing you would have to do get RDP or VNC to work is open up a "hole" on your work router/firewall allowing this in, along with a static NAT entry (which may sound technical and complicated but really is not.)

let you turn on a computer that is off...

That's a good point - if Wake On LAN is configurable in his BIOS, he's in good shape.

[superjohn]

What do you mean when you say "nothing works?" Have you set up the proper firewall exceptions? Most remote access programs are doing things that your computer thinks are unsafe and therefor it will try to block them if you don't make the proper exceptions.

Also, I can't think of any programs that let you turn on a computer that is off. So assuming you're trying to save money in your company and turn off your computer when you leave for the day, your SOL if it snows and you can't get to work and want to remote access. Of course if you're not worried about power useage while away from work and leave your comp on all the time anyway, by all means, remote access away.

Exactly. You probably have a firewall or Access-List blocking your access.

Remote access is great but it has to be provided for in advance since you'll likely need to make some config changes on your equipment.

The other problem is if you receive a new IP address at home every so often, in which case it would be difficult to allow you access and still maintain some security.

[cyrus buelton]

Not sure what you do for a living or what the business is but the first thing you need to look at is how secure that VPN Access is.

[derby]

Also, I can't think of any programs that let you turn on a computer that is off. So assuming you're trying to save money in your company and turn off your computer when you leave for the day, your SOL if it snows and you can't get to work and want to remote access. Of course if you're not worried about power useage while away from work and leave your comp on all the time anyway, by all means, remote access away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake-on-LAN

[The Architect]

Hamachi

It's free and we've had a lot of luck with it.

Another good one is LogMeIn I can use it on multiple computers and from my iphone!

https://secure.logmein.com/US/home.aspx

I think they are the same thing now?