Free Computer Consultant ………. Daily Insights

I just got off the phone with a client who is vacationing, but took the laptop along to get some work done and access his office workstation.

Normally, he connects using a secure IPSec VPN to the Fortinet Fortigate 60 firewall at his office. This is one of my favorite ways of connecting from remote locations and has served us well for many years.

But, (there’s always a but), his laptop seems to be malfunctioning this morning, so he called me.

“My laptop isn’t working, will that GoToMyPC we loaded last week work from the computer in the business center at the hotel?”, he asked.

Absolutely, was my reply. All he needed was to be reminded of the password – which was stored on the laptop. Fortunately I had documented that and was able to give it to him.

That’s the real beauty of remote control software like GoToMyPC. It will work from any normally adjusted Windows computer – it even works from a PDA or Cell phone with Windows Mobile!

GoToMyPC has a 30 day free trial, which is what my client mentioned above is using. They do require a credit card, but you WILL NOT BE CHARGED if you cancel in 30 days.

If you have that kind of a need to access your computer remotely, give GoToMyPC’s free trial a try.

With Windows operating systems it is common practice to have to reboot the server or workstation from time to time just to straighten things out. Add to that the times you reboot because you installed or updated a program and you can be rebooting quite often.

Don’t Touch That Dial!

I think the narrator in the TV version of Batman used to yell that out, but I could be wrong. What I mean is this: Don’t reboot without considering that the computer may not come up after the reboot.

When was your last backup?

Before you reboot, make a quick backup of at least the work you know has changed since your last good backup. Also think about your contingency plan in case the server or workstation chooses not to come alive again.

It’s just a fact with computer hardware that any time it’s running, it might be the last time. Does this happen frequently? Thankfully, no. But over the last couple of decades I have received enough frantic calls when it hasn’t to warrant mentioning it here.

Then there is the Windows operating system.

Just last week a client called me to say that their Windows 2000 server had a BSOD (blue screen of death) with 0×0000007B “Inaccessible Boot Device” on the screen. Not good.

Everything was working just fine except that a vendor support person couldn’t get in with pcAnywhere (an old as the hills remote control program). Why they haven’t joined the 21st century by using a product like GoToMyPC for tech support access is beyond me. So, without thinking about the last 3 nights backups that did NOT complete successfully, they rebooted.

After spending about 3 hours following all of Microsoft’s suggestions and Googling for any other hints, I punted. With a Windows Server 2003 CD at arms reach I couldn’t justify spending any more time trying to fix Windows 2000.

Fortunately, Windows 2000 Server was all that was corrupt; the data was all good (sigh of relief here). This is a client that does NOT hire me to monitor their server and such items as backup – that may change. A new Dell PowerEdge Server has also been ordered.

So before you click on Start | Shutdown | Restart – ask yourself what you will do if it doesn’t restart; and do a quick backup first.

For a long time I have had clients wanting to access their work computer remotely. When GotoMyPC first came available I was inundated with questions and requests to setup this program.

In my business, I have to think of security first. All of my clients have Fortinet Fortigate firewalls with IPSec VPN capability. This is a very secure way to access your corporate network and PC remotely. The downside is that you have to install the FortiClient software on the PC your are using to access your work computer. In many cases this is no big deal because the user has a laptop or home PC they are using.

Increasingly, though, these people wanted to be able to use a friend or relatives PC and not have to carry a laptop when they traveled. This poses a serious concern security-wise since I have no knowledge or control of the PC they would be accessing the corporate network with.

I performed what I considered due diligence on GoToMyPC at the time and could find NOTHING on their website or via Google to determine who they where, what security they employed and enforced on the user and in general why I should trust them or their technology. It even cost me a good client because I wouldn’t endorse it.

Today is a much different story, though. GotoMyPC has been acquired by Citrix, a name that I not only trust but has been in the business of thin client computing as the backbone of their business.

But currently another big name is on the scene as well. Webex is a trusted name on their own, but they are now owned by Cisco – the router people who provide the infrastructure for a huge part of the internet.

No one questions the reputation or security of either company, including me.

Since I have been involved in so many webinars recently and been so impressed, I decided to take advantage of the GoToMyPC 30 Day Free Trial (it does require a credit card, but you won’t be charged if you cancel in 30 days) and try it out for remote PC access.

I have to say I am both thrilled and impressed. I have one accounting client in particular that hopes to save time (and $4 gas) driving back and forth to client locations when they can us a product like this instead.

In the past, remote control has been fairly easy. PCAnywhere did a pretty good job back in the days of dial up modems (good security there, just poor speed). The problem has always been printing; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Even Microsoft’s Remote Desktop, which I use extensively but only over secure IPSec VPN, only recently got the printing part ironed out.

With GoToMyPC, printing is a breeze and so is file transfer. I not only highly recommend it but I will be doing one or more screencast videos to show how easy it is to use.

Why don’t you take advantage of the GoToMyPC 30 Day Free Trial (it does require a credit card, but you won’t be charged if you cancel in 30 days)? I think you will be impressed too.

For those of us who work remotely, telecommuting or, in my case, remote administration, being able to connect to work from wherever you are is quite important.

This week one of my clients could not access the terminal server at work because of Microsoft licensing. Now, we all want Microsoft, lovingly referred to as M$, to get the money they are due. But when that gets in the way of us using the product we paid for, it can get ugly.

“Terminal Server can not issue a license to your workstation, blah blah.” What it really means is that it WILL not. Since this user could get on with ANY OTHER PC, I figured it must have been something with his 6 month old Dell laptop, running XP. Link here.

After sorting through at least a dozen possible answers – hint to M$, this isn’t a rare occurrence, I found one that looked like it might apply.

What it boiled down to was to delete a key from the registry (after backing it up of course).

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSLicensing

That’s it. When you reboot – naturally, you MUST reboot – XP will simply recreate the key. In this case, it worked.

C’mon, guys. If it’s really that simple, why not have Remote Desktop just delete the darn key automatically JUST IN CASE that will work?