Telecommute: Preparing for Polar Vortexes, Super-Flu, and Road Closures

microISV How-To's

Weather’s changing here in Maryland. Seasonal, mostly. But we had polar vortex brutal cold last Winter. There’s bridge construction going on between here and Baltimore, with lane closures both promised and complex, changing with rush hour traffic flow. And the super-flu is working its way East. Makes me want to work from home, and connect remotely into computers for work. I’m ready to telecommute; are you?

snowplow out front? telecommute to work!

Telecommutes and remote control for business computers require software. Several types exist; not all of them work for telecommuting.

  • Remote Repair: This is for remoting into a computer for repairs or training, and it requires a person at the computer being controlled, to click a link or run a program. The software used for the connection goes away after the connection is closed, so you can’t log back in without starting over.
  • Managed Services: This is for working on computers unattended. I use a program like this, that lets me control hundreds of computers on-demand. While it can be used for working remotely, perhaps for an entire office, it’s not the economical choice for telecommuting.
  • Remote Login: This is for telecommuting. Like the managed services software, it can connect to an unattended computer, but it will generally be easier to use, and add features like remote printing (print in the office, to your home printer), and remote sound (you hear the office computer’s sounds from home).

There are some other considerations before choosing to telecommute. If your office has gone to the cloud, just log into the cloud servers directly from home. Check with your MIS (management information systems) department first, to see if they have any limitations in place; some systems will only allow logins from work locations. If you run processor-intensive programs, like dictation and speech recognition, it’s better to install those locally, and then just send the completed documents to the work machine.

In Maryland, call us at 410-871-2877 for help getting up and running with telecommuting. We’ve worked with many programs, and can recommend both free and paid products for most requirements. Outside Maryland, we may still be able to help, by remote login, of course.