The major USP of our small business customers is the capacity to access their workplace computers and network from home. Everybody loves working from home, as it saves them the commuting time and allows you to complete lot of your tasks from home. This can be achieved in either of the two ways: VPN (Virtual Private Network) and Terminal Services.
VPN lets you connect to your office network as though you were physically present in your office. However you need to configure your PC for the same. Start by enabling the incoming VPN connections on the remote computer (normally office computer). If you are using Windows XP Professional, right click on "My Network Places", then left click "Properties", select "Create New Connection", followed by "Setup Advanced Connection" and then "Accept Incoming Connections". Click “Next” twice and then choose "Allow Virtual Private Connections", followed by a user on that computer that becomes your login info. Ensure the user must have a password. Now click “Next” and ensure "TCP/IP" is highlighted. Then click “Next” and the job is finished. If the access to your remote computer is restricted by a router/firewall then you need to configure port forwarding to the remote computer. Port forwarding implies opening port 1723 to the remote computer.
Next you have to configure your home computer. Right click on "My Network Places" and then left click on "Properties". Choose "Create New Connection", followed by "Connect To The Network At My Workplace". Now choose "Virtual Private Network Connection" and type any name. Type the public IP address of your office for host name or IP. You can get the IP address by starting your web browser and visiting www.whatismyip.com from your office. Note down is number because you are going to type it in the hostname field. Click “Next” and “Finish”. Now you can login with the user name and password.
