Remote access and virtual private networks
Getting remote access to your office PC is not as easy as it sounds, mainly because of the security safeguards most companies use to stop hackers slipping in under the electronic wire and snooping around desktop systems. Add in the fact that a growing number of ISPs use dynamic IP addresses for their customers - a different address or cluster of addresses is allocated each time the company server logs into the Internet - and the task of gaining remote access gets quite tricky.
It is a bit like watching your phone number change each time you use the phone to make or receive calls. What you need is a central phone directory to refer to. Step into the frame a number of remote access directory services such as LogMeIn and Webex PC Now. These services allow registered users to install a small piece of code on their desktop PC which logs that machine into their servers. If you then access the service's servers - usually via a Web interface - you can log in and "see" your registered desktop PC using an on-screen menu. Clicking that menu links your IP call into the service company servers to the IP call from the servers to your registered desktop PC. This is roughly analogous to what happens when you dial another user on the public phone network - the two ends of the connection are tied together by the exchange on a temporary basis. This is the same with services like LogMeIn and Webex PC Now.
LogMeIn is available in several different versions including, incredibly, a free edition that supports basic remote access to a desktop PC of your choosing. Features like file transfer, sound and
the like cost extra, but rarely more than ten pounds a month. Webex PC Now, meanwhile, is chargeable from the get-go, though it will allow you a first month's free trial, and you can connect more than one PC to your group on the account. Prices start from around £7.00 a month.
It is also possible to download and install VPN software to carry out all of these procedures yourself. However be warned that whilst most of the software is open-source (i.e. free) you'll need to be technically-aware to install and maintain it. This is due to the support for the free
applications being fairly haphazard - as you might expect.
Here are the main VPN players:
hamachi - is free VPN software that uses a mediation server to establish peer-to-peer connections over UDP.
Open VPN - is SSL-based open source (free) VPN software. OpenVPN runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems.
Cisco VPN Client - (chargeable) supports IPSec connections to Cisco VPN concentrators. This VPN software application runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
tinc-vpn - a free VPN application that enables virtual private networking via a low-level network device configuration. Designed originally for Linux and Unix networks, Tinc also works on Windows
computers.
FreeS/wan - another IPSec VPN software solution for Linux networks. Active development of (free) FreeS/WAN has stopped, making this solution of interest mainly to students and researchers.
Of the VPN applications, the Cisco offering stands head and shoulders above the rest.
You may be better to use the free LogMeIn service however, as this is (a) free and (b) a good stepping stone to the pay-for versions of the service.
For more information, why not read the following guides;
Remote data access
By Steve Gold, News Editor
