Our company allows us to work from home but we can't take code off our work PCs and, due to various regulations we have to meet, any connection between our home and work PCs must be secure. I'd also like to have multiple screens available at home.
We currently use a Cisco offering to provide remote access to our work PCs but it is slow and keeps on dropping out. Do any of you guys know of any good quality secure remote access software we could use?
You can try one of these:
Remote Utilities
Radmin
Related
Here's the issue...
I work in a remote area of Alaska where cell service can be... questionable. We do have decent WiFi, however, is not openly available to staff because it has a low enough data limit that we don't want to deal with people streaming Netflix and running out the company data.
The big issue is that we want to use an app like Slack or Discord to communicate more effectively across the business. Because the cell service is spotty and the WiFi is currently off-limits, I was wondering if there was a way for me to create a WiFi network that was whitelisted to only allow Slack, for example. Then we get the benefits of using the WiFi without risking running out of data.
Thoughts? I was thinking about setting up a network proxy, but I wanted to get the internet's take on it before I dive down the rabbit hole.
The best way I can think of to handle something like this is to use a router that you can configure the dns server settings and block all dns entries that aren’t on your allowlist. This doesn’t strictly block traffic to everywhere but it will do a pretty good job.
You could also block all dns traffic that’s not going to the local dns server which would help not allow people around it. To have a hard block on things you would need to block specific options addresses which with services such as slack or discord could change randomly which would be hard to keep up on.
Another option that would work well is use your own self hosted version of mattermost, rocket.chat, or riot/matrix that you would have control over and knowledge of the IP address so that you can allowlist only those up addresses. The other advantage with this is if the business is just localized communication and you don’t need to chat across long distances then you could set this to work completely on a network with no internet access so you wouldn’t have to do any blocking because the wifi is completely separated from the internet.
Things are heavily based on your situation but I hope this gives you a good place to start
I'm looking to establish a connection between my laptop and a remote PC in such a way that I can ping other devices connected to one of its network cards from my laptop.
That might be a little unclear- let me be more specific:
I am a PLC programmer, and my company just migrated to a brand of PLC that requires individual software licenses for each "station." So we're not going to be spending the money for the programming software at each location- instead, each technician will have a laptop, and he can physically visit whichever location needs troubleshooting.
However, that gets to be a lot of travel (international, in some cases), and I'm looking to come up with a way (using a VPN or something) so that I can connect to a PLC remotely.
Our setup is a Windows 7 Industrial PC at the customer's location with two network cards- one is hooked up to the customer's network (and the internet), and the other is hooked into the various PLCs, all with static IPs in the same range. I'm trying to minimize the amount of software I'll have to install/purchase for this project- we already use Teamviewer, but its VPN connection doesn't seem capable of accomplishing what I want (at least, I've never been able to manage a successful ping to one of the PLCs, no matter how much I mess with settings, and their support consists mainly of "buy our newest version").
I've seen lots of posts about this kind of stuff on the internet, but a lot of it seems directed to people who either already know how to set this stuff up and just want to know which software is cheapest, or it is specific to the brand of PLC (I'm using Lenze, which is not very common in english-speaking countries, or at least in america).
Anybody who has managed something like this- I'd really appreciate some sort of walkthrough, or at the very least some pointers in the right direction.
VPN is for TPC/IP communication. Whenever you need layer 2 from ethernet, you're stuck. I know that Step 7 TIA from Siemens can not find for PLCs via VPN. Explaination from support is that searching goes via layer 2. And this list can be made longer.
Most brands can now handle programming via memory cards. Just program local, write it to a memory card and plug it into your PLC.
Just contact the companies and see what they have to offer. The times are still here that PLC brands are fighting for customers. Let them do the work for you and enjoy. It works for our company. :)
Sorry if this is a dumb question that's already been asked, but I don't even know what terms to best search for.
I have a situation where a cloud app would deliver a SPA (single page app) to a client web browser. Multiple clients would connect at once and would all work within the same network. An example would be an app a business uses to work together - all within the same physical space (all on the same network).
A concern is that the internet connection could be spotty. I know I can store the client changes locally and then push them all to the server once the connection is restored. The problem, however, is that some of the clients (display systems) will need to show up-to-date data from other clients (mobile input systems). If the internet goes down for a minute or two it would be unacceptable.
My current line of thinking is that the local network would need some kind of "ThinServer" that all the clients would connect to. This ThinServer would then work as a proxy for the main cloud server. If the internet breaks then the ThinServer would take over the job of syncing data. Since all the clients would be full SPAs the only thing moving around would be the data - so the ThinServer would really just need to sync DB info (it probably wouldn't need to host the full SPA - though, that wouldn't be a bad thing).
However, a full dedicated server is obviously a big hurdle for most companies to setup.
So the question is, is there any kind of tech that would allow a web page to act as a web server? Could a business be instructed to go to thinserver.coolapp.com in a browser on any one of their machines? This "webpage" would then say, "All clients in this network should connect to 192.168.1.74:2000" (which would be the IP:port of the machine running this page). All the clients would then connect to this new "server" and that server would act as a data coordinator if the internet ever went down.
In other words, I really don't like the idea of a complicated server setup. A simple URL to start the service would be all that is needed.
I suppose the only option might have to be a binary program that would need to be installed? It's not an ideal solution - but perhaps the only one? If so, are their any programs out there that are single click web servers? I've tried MAMP, LAMP, etc, but all of them are designed for the developer. Any others that are more streamlined?
Thanks for any ideas!
There are a couple of fundamental ways you can approach this. The first is to host a server in a browser as you suggest. Some example projects:
http://www.peer-server.com
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/browser-server/
Another is to use WebRTC peer to peer communication to allow the browsers share information between each other (you could have them all share date or have one act as a 'master' etc deepening not he architecture you wanted). Its likely not going to be that different under the skin, but your application design may be better suited to a more 'peer to peer' model or a more 'client server' one depending on what you need. An example 'peer to peer' project:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/API/WebRTC/Peer-to-peer_communications_with_WebRTC
I have not used any of the above personally but I would say, from using similar browser extension mechanisms in the past, that you need to check the browser requirements before you decide if they can do what you want. The top one above is Chrome based (I believe) and the second one is Firefox. The peer to peer one contains a list of compatible browser functions, but is effectively Firefox and Chrome based also (see the table in the link). If you are in an environment where you can dictate the browser type and plugins etc then this may be ok for you.
The concept is definitely very interesting (peer to peer web servers) and it is great if you have the time to explore it. However, if you have an immediate business requirement, it might be that a simple on site server based approach may actually be more reliable, support a wider variety of browser and actually be easier to maintain (as the skills required are quite commonly available).
BTW, I should have said - 'WebRTC' is probably a good search term for you, in answer to the first line of your question.
httprelay.io v.s. WebRTC
Pros:
Simple to use
Fast
Supported by all browsers and HTTP clients
Can be used with the not stable network
Opensource and cross-platform
Cons:
Need to run a server instance
No data streaming is supported (yet)
My church has a management software that we would like to have several people access at the same time but over the internet. We have a website but it is hosted by another company. Is it possible to create a hyperlink on our website to access this program on our office computer? The hyperlink would be setup so that it is not visible to those who don't have access to the program. We have tried several remote access program such as TeamView and Go2MyPC. These give access to the entire computer and that is not something we want either. If we can't do the hyperlink is it possible for us to turn this computer into a server and access it that way> Again the focus is for at least 5 people to be able to use this software at the same time should that need arise.
Our church management software is designed to be run on a network. We have already setup the user IDs and passwords for the group who currently have access to the it. The problem is that we only have one office computer and all of or group can't use it at one time because the each have access to different parts. I.e. Treasurer can only acces financial module, clerk can only access membership roster and so on. The goal is to find the path of least resistance that will allow as many of these people to access this software at the same time as possible remotely. I understand the security issues so to that I ask if anyone thinks we should get another computer to make into a server or turn this on we have into one.
Is there an advantage to hosting our own website on our machine where the management software is already located?
You actually have three different problems:
You are trying to use a "nonserver machine" as a server. I assume it doesn't have a static IP address; a static hyperlink will fail. Since you have a web site, you can set up your Management Software Server (for lack of a better name) to check in with your web site server, which will hold the latest IP address for your MSS. Your users can then check in with the web server and then connect to your MSS.
You are trying to keep most people out, but some people in. You need an authentication scheme. This usually means a login name and password, and a secure way to transmit it. SSL is probably what you want to look at. You'll need a SSL certificate (you can make your own), and a client program (web browsers work) that can make SSL connections.
You are trying to allow your users to do only some things, but not others. You need an authorization scheme. This is provided by the server application, such as the Windows Remote Desktop. Without knowing how much granularity you need, it's hard to say exactly what you need.
#bdares hit a bunch of your issues right on the head...
And then some... As a church, sounds of funding already ringing that they won't have that type of funding to handle... especially opening up a channel to the church management and possible accounting. Even if offering your own SSL certificate, getting hacked is getting easier and easier. If its a low budget operation with financial data readily easy for the taking, I'd hate to see a church (or any other legitimate non-profit organization) get messed up.
There are a lot of security issues to deal with and you can NOT take it lightly.
I have run into a difficult situation.
I do not want to do my development based on an emulator, so I want to be able to have my phone (Android), to connect to my local PC to make sure what I am developing comes out the way I want it to.
Issue #1 - I need to be able to connect to my network, not internet, I can't have my PC internet facing, this limits me from opening my PC to the internet.
Issue #2 - No WiFi allowed at my work, security issues.
Issue #3 - I can't publish this to a internet facing site, since the procedure to get it to one, take a few days each publish and will put my development to a crawl.
What I'm looking for, is a way to get my phone to connect to my local PC, maybe via USB/Bluetooth but have access to my local IIS, does anyone have any idea how to accomplish this?
Any hack you use is going to take your environment away from the "reality" you seek.
I would really encourage you to ask your employer to give you the proper means to do your duties. For instance:
Getting you a cheap VPS on the Internet you can push updates to yourself
Setting up an encrypted AP separated from the rest of the company network.
Those two options are extremely cheap and would let you do what you need.
Can't you just use an Android emulator?
This is a generic problem that most mobile developers face, especially when there are big server interactions and I am afraid, in this case, there are no perfect answers. There are only workarounds.
I can see that you have tried most of the workarounds. I will suggest one more.
If your plan is to test client side code / UI, then mock up your server on any cloud based server ( eg : google app engine / amazon ec2) and get you device to access server code over the cloud.
Let me know if this approach works.