Setting up a connection to home network (VPN?):

ED!

That seems to be the word Google is throwing back at me when I do a search. Right now I have all my equipment talking to each other at home, but am now in a situation where I am needing to be on the go, and didn't want to have to download several copies of information onto my laptop, and would just rather do what I do now (access on network). I am taking a look at this guide and my eyes glazed over at the seemingly unnecessary technical talk (isn't a guide meant for people who DONT know what these things mean).

Does anyone have a no-fuss, layman tutorial for getting this set up? All I am interested in is being able to log on from lab on campus, and access home network from there.

Giggles_Funsworth

I don't have a tutorial but all you really gotta do is use a service like Dyndns to get a static IP, then setup VNC so you can access your home computer remotely.

Myiagros

You can also run Teamviewer. I use it all the time to access my home computers to run stuff, download files, make network changes, etc. It's a client that runs on both computers and you can log in and take over the screen, keyboard and mouse. It's quick and best of all, free.

Djeet

2nd TeamViewer. I use it for work so I ponied up for the commercial use license, but still worth it.

ED!

I remember using something like that a LONG time ago; it was quite laggy. Is that all dependent on the computer or connection speed? And might not this be overkill if I just want file access?

Djeet

TV has by far the best responsiveness of any desktop sharing app I've ever used and makes file transfer pretty easy. Setting up a VPN between machines that have the agent is a built in feature. I'd think setting up separate file servers and then publishing them or setting up application/port forwarding at each location would be way more a PiTA.

Inquisitor77

Yeah, the first question is what it is you actually need to do. It may end up that you really only need cloud storage or OneNote...

Myiagros

I also just use dropbox for any small sized files that I know I'll need for sure, and if I forgot to put something on there before leaving home I just TV back in and move it to the dropbox folder and wait for my work computer to sync up.

ED!

Yowza; that TV is kinda pricey. . .anything a bit more manageable? I suppose I could use Google Drive, but I'd rather go the direct route if I can.

TheKoolEagle

Teamviewer is free except for commercial use I thought?
edit: teamviewer is indeed free for all non-commercial use as it says on the website.

unless you need this for commercial use, then you should talk to your company about purchasing a license for you.

personally I use Dropbox and LogMeIn for personal stuff, great combination for cloud storage/remote access.

ED!

The TV works good; now I need a solution for my computer not waking up when it gets a request to connect. Apparently my router needs a "Wake on Lan" thing, but my router is (fairly) new (last two years) - I can not believe this bit of technology isn't included.

For what its worth my route is the DLink 615.

Essee

I don't have personal experience with this, but don't you need to turn on "Wake on LAN" on the computer as well? I don't remember whether it'd be in the BIOS or somewhere in Windows unfortunately, but I'm sure you can find it.

Great Scott

You'll need to check in the BIOS that "wake on LAN" is enabled, but you'll also need to check that Windows is set up for that too. It's in the Power control panel applet.