Telecommuting and ADT...

[owynter]

Hi all, have a little question here. Originally, I'd planned to post this in the Buzzsaw forum, but I think the cost alone is too much to even consider going for it (we're a very small firm). Anyway, the question is this: does anyone here telecommute (work remotely)? I've been working with my current company for two years now and I'm about to relocate in a couple weeks. They want to retain my services and I'd like to continue working for them, so we're considering telecommuting, with me doing drawings from home. It'll be a nice set up for me as I can work on my own schedule.

The only problem is that of sharing information and making sure each person has the most current version of drawings. Right now, we're about to experiment with using the company's FTP server to store drawings. I'd download the information, work on it locally, then upload the finished product (or progress). Does anyone have any experience with this, and how did you go about doing it?

Another option we looked at was me connecting to the office's server via the VPN, but our ISP isn't the greatest and speeds are prohibitive.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[tedg]

Hi all, have a little question here. Originally, I'd planned to post this in the Buzzsaw forum, but I think the cost alone is too much to even consider going for it (we're a very small firm). Anyway, the question is this: does anyone here telecommute (work remotely)? I've been working with my current company for two years now and I'm about to relocate in a couple weeks. They want to retain my services and I'd like to continue working for them, so we're considering telecommuting, with me doing drawings from home. It'll be a nice set up for me as I can work on my own schedule.

The only problem is that of sharing information and making sure each person has the most current version of drawings. Right now, we're about to experiment with using the company's FTP server to store drawings. I'd download the information, work on it locally, then upload the finished product (or progress). Does anyone have any experience with this, and how did you go about doing it?

Another option we looked at was me connecting to the office's server via the VPN, but our ISP isn't the greatest and speeds are prohibitive.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

I only have a little experience with working remotely through the server via the VPN option. You're right, it can be very slow and clunky. If you're used to working fast, it can get frustrating. Sometimes it would "disconnect" (the screen would go gray) and then "reconnect". I would think working locally and uploading to an FTP site would be the way to go if you we're going to do it full time.

My two cent anyway..

[Chuckyd67]

I have done remote work on the other side of the world from the home office, and have had no problem. We worked through several avenues of connecting to the home data base, and it seems that the most reliable is using a collaborative website. It's a little annoying to upload and download information, but to me, this is the best thing outside of a VPN.

Connect that with a conference call and net meeting, and you're there.

[owynter]

I have done remote work on the other side of the world from the home office, and have had no problem. We worked through several avenues of connecting to the home data base, and it seems that the most reliable is using a collaborative website. It's a little annoying to upload and download information, but to me, this is the best thing outside of a VPN.

Connect that with a conference call and net meeting, and you're there.

Care to elaborate on that "collaborative website" bit? I stop working at the end of this week, and within two weeks, I'd have completed my relocation and should be starting up, so I'd like to discuss this as an option before I leave.

[Chuckyd67]

I think it's just an FTP site that is password protected and is used as and exchange repository for files. If you have slow connections you can sometimes achieve smaller files with compression.

[owynter]

I think it's just an FTP site that is password protected and is used as and exchange repository for files. If you have slow connections you can sometimes achieve smaller files with compression.

Oh, well, that's what we have now anyway. I thought you had some new-fangled method that we hadn't thought of before. Thanks again, though. We're just going to have to see how this all works out. The physical/hardware/software part of it has been taken care of, now it's to get the mind in on the whole thing - I can go from inspired to lazy at the click of a mouse.

[Chuckyd67]

I did some digging here at the office. It is NOT an ftp that we use. It is a part of our company's website, and it has been internally built to operate smoothly, according to our needs. One the site is built, it requires about a half hour of IT time to set up an account with permitted users. Email can be sent to team members from within the website, announcing placing of documents there.

A website such as the above can be built from scratch, if you have the patience and knowledge, or through third party vendors, such as punchnetworks.

We like what we have because we know for sure that it is not secretly accessible via third paties. Everything resides on our hardware in our offices, and is about as secure as it gets, without getting silly about it, or slowing down transfers.

The VPN route works, also, though not as well, in my opinion. Using the VPN is the most similar to using the LAN internally, int that you have direct access to your core files.