Netwoking from home to LAN at office

Presently have a LAN (think it is called peer-to-peer) at the office, both
computers use Win XP Home Edition. There will be times when I will need to
access those computers from home at night or on the weekends with the old Win
98 SE and I don't want to make the trip into the office. The office is linked
to the internet with a wired router and each computer has direct access to
internet. Access is via dsl. At home, we have only the one computer and it
accessed the internet also via dsl. I've been told that it SHOULD be possible
to set up a VPN or something similar. Need to keep things secure since
privacy is an issue. Both ends have McAfee firewall and I think the Linksys
router has a built in firewall as well. Does anyone have any suggestions?
--
Barth Buchmann

Windows XP Professional Edition supports the Remote Desktop Connection
utility, which can be used to make connections securely from outside your
work network. Windows XP Home Edition does not support this utility,
though. There are alternatives like VNC that have secure connection modes,
but may not be secure enough for your needs.

I would suggest either upgrading to Windows XP Professional Edition or using
a firewall/VPN device to make such connections.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (E-Mail Removed)
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* for the benefit of all. Private mail is usually not replied to.
* My website, such as it is ... http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Barth Buchmann" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4380AEAB-3061-43EC-8356-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Presently have a LAN (think it is called peer-to-peer) at the office, both
> computers use Win XP Home Edition. There will be times when I will need to
> access those computers from home at night or on the weekends with the old
> Win
> 98 SE and I don't want to make the trip into the office. The office is
> linked
> to the internet with a wired router and each computer has direct access to
> internet. Access is via dsl. At home, we have only the one computer and it
> accessed the internet also via dsl. I've been told that it SHOULD be
> possible
> to set up a VPN or something similar. Need to keep things secure since
> privacy is an issue. Both ends have McAfee firewall and I think the
> Linksys
> router has a built in firewall as well. Does anyone have any suggestions?
> --
> Barth Buchmann

Since I have a firewall at both ends, the VPN/firewall might work. But
everything that I'm reading refers to connecting to the "corporate server" to
make the connection. I'm a one man shop (okay, my wife works here too, so
politically, we are a two person shop) and there is no corporate server (I'm
just a serv-her). Is it still possible to make a virtual connection? It
sounds like, as long as the other party agrees, one could make a virtual
connection to anyone, the neighbor next door or a buddy around the globe. In
the help/support center for Win 98, it refers to determining the Host name or
IP address of the server or IP address. The IP address for the xp unit at the
office is dynamic, so how does that get set up? Or is there a way to set it
up that will recognize the dynamic address?

Thank you in advance.
--
Barth Buchmann


"Richard G. Harper" wrote:

> Windows XP Professional Edition supports the Remote Desktop Connection
> utility, which can be used to make connections securely from outside your
> work network. Windows XP Home Edition does not support this utility,
> though. There are alternatives like VNC that have secure connection modes,
> but may not be secure enough for your needs.
>
> I would suggest either upgrading to Windows XP Professional Edition or using
> a firewall/VPN device to make such connections.
>
> --
> Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (E-Mail Removed)
> * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
> * for the benefit of all. Private mail is usually not replied to.
> * My website, such as it is ... http://rgharper.mvps.org/
> * HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
>
>
> "Barth Buchmann" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:4380AEAB-3061-43EC-8356-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Presently have a LAN (think it is called peer-to-peer) at the office, both
> > computers use Win XP Home Edition. There will be times when I will need to
> > access those computers from home at night or on the weekends with the old
> > Win
> > 98 SE and I don't want to make the trip into the office. The office is
> > linked
> > to the internet with a wired router and each computer has direct access to
> > internet. Access is via dsl. At home, we have only the one computer and it
> > accessed the internet also via dsl. I've been told that it SHOULD be
> > possible
> > to set up a VPN or something similar. Need to keep things secure since
> > privacy is an issue. Both ends have McAfee firewall and I think the
> > Linksys
> > router has a built in firewall as well. Does anyone have any suggestions?
> > --
> > Barth Buchmann
>
>
>

On Mon, 8 Aug 2005 16:13:02 -0700, "Barth Buchmann"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>The IP address for the xp unit at the
>office is dynamic, so how does that get set up? Or is there a way to set it
>up that will recognize the dynamic address?

http://www.dyndns.org (or similar) to register a subdomain name.

http://www.palacio-cristal.com/products/DeeEnEs (or similar) as an ip
updater. There are several websites which will return your routers ip
address eg http://checkip.dyndns.org/ so select web based ip
detection.

Then remote machines can refer to your office by a fixed public name.

The rest depends on what your router is capable of. Some can handle
vpn connections, others can handle vpn pass through only (to a server
on your network) while some can't do either.


Jim.

In theory, yes you can make a connection between any two PCs anywhere on the
Internet. In reality things like firewalls and ISP-blocked ports will
usually come into play and prevent the simple theory from becoming a working
reality. But this type of connection doesn't gain you much except for the
ability to share files - and for some passing hacker or cracker to work his
or her will on the computers that are connected in this manner.

To make the theory a reality you need software on both ends to make the
simple connection something useful. For the home end that's easy - the
Microsoft Remote Desktop Client. The business end is a bit harder - and of
course, the end that you want to be really secure to keep said hackers and
crackers out of your data.

The best and easiest way is to install a server at the work end and enable
remote access on the server, that will keep the unwanted elements out and
provide full access to the internal network. The next best way is to use a
dedicated VPN device at the work end - though this will provide security it
usually doesn't provide much in the way of network access aside from opening
the hole you need, it's up to your PCs and servers on the other end to
provide that.

I see James has discussed Dynamic DNS so I won't get into that except to say
that it's the easiest solution to an IP address that keeps changing.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (E-Mail Removed)
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* for the benefit of all. Private mail is usually not replied to.
* My website, such as it is ... http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm


"Barth Buchmann" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:442714C2-F0E4-4C49-8080-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Since I have a firewall at both ends, the VPN/firewall might work. But
> everything that I'm reading refers to connecting to the "corporate server"
> to
> make the connection. I'm a one man shop (okay, my wife works here too, so
> politically, we are a two person shop) and there is no corporate server
> (I'm
> just a serv-her). Is it still possible to make a virtual connection? It
> sounds like, as long as the other party agrees, one could make a virtual
> connection to anyone, the neighbor next door or a buddy around the globe.
> In
> the help/support center for Win 98, it refers to determining the Host name
> or
> IP address of the server or IP address. The IP address for the xp unit at
> the
> office is dynamic, so how does that get set up? Or is there a way to set
> it
> up that will recognize the dynamic address?