Remote computers

ATM is great in that you can start it and then go and do other things. Even travel around the world like (at least) one of my customers has done.

The question is then, how do you keep track of what ATM is doing? Or what if you want to change something while you're away?

The answer is to set your computer up so you can access it from wherever you have an internet connection. In other words, access your computer remotely.

There are a number of possible ways to do this. The one I have settled on is described below. You can do some research and decide upon a different method if you like. Just know that with accessing your computer remotely, there are two kinds of differences in the things that the software allows you to do.

1. If you can transfer files between your computer and the one you are using to access it remotely; and
2. If you can use your computer remotely without somebody being physically at that computer to press a button saying it's ok that someone is about to access it remotely ("unattended login").

LifeHacker asked readers what they used and compiled a top 5.

The simplest method is probably the free service provided by LogMeIn. And that's what I use.

That free service allows unattended login, but no file transfer. No file transfer is not really a problem if all you want to do is check on ATM and maybe alter some settings.

To organise file transfer capabilities with LogMeIn, I guess there are 2 choices. First, you could upgrade to their paid version. Second, you could use the free version of LogMeIn in conjunction with another free service called DropBox. DropBox lets you sync files across multiple computers. So you copy the files to a particular directory on your local computer, and DropBox automatically syncs any files in that directory to your remote computer. When the upload/download is complete you have now essentially transferred that file. Their free service allows up to 2Gb of storage, which suits most cases.

I chose the free services above because they are easy to install, and their restrictions don't really bother me. But restrictions there are. If you're looking for free software that does everything, then read this LifeHacker post to install TightVNC. It's a little bit trickier to set up, but if you succeed then it's worthwhile.

We won't be able to help you if you get stuck though. Google is your best friend.
 

I asked one of my customers for a brief description of how he set TS up on a dedicated server.  Here is his reply.  Thanks mate :-)

I'm with http://superbservers.net on the 'server solo package'. (after a lot of research on the net I chose this.  Make sure to choose the "East Coast Datacentre - Dulles, VA".  FYI - Oanda's servers are with Server Vault in Mclean, VA).

Details of my server......P 4 2.4 ghz, 512 ram, 1000 gb traffic and with windows 2003 standard edition.  It costs usd 104.00 a month.  Setup fee of USD$75 for the first month.  I didn't choose any additional add-ons.  This package is stil available on their site.

No additional softwares installed.  Just the ones that are required by TS.  (PostgreSQL, Oanda API files, etc etc.  The .NET framework is already preinstalled).  TS should be able to connect to the version and subscription-checking database, if not just open up IE and allow connections to www.thinkingstuff.com.

To access the database, I only use window's Remote Desktop Connection under Start/Accessories/Communications.  It's simple and easy.  I have not tried other programs like logmein.com or ultraVNC etc etc.

My local computer is on windows XP pro ed2.  If somehow the person has a different version of windows which doesn't have RDC like windows 98, they need to use third party remote access programs as mentioned above.  They can also connect to the server using Internet Explorer but that's a bit technical and I haven't tried that.

hmmm thats about it.  Alerts from TS are important especially the 'Everything is ok' email.

I get it sent to me every 30 mins.  And using Gmail and Gmail notifier detinitely helps.

Do database maintenance every weekend.  Most of the server maintenance part, I do it manually.

So I actually have to log in quite a couple of times if there are problems like server downtime (never happened), Gmail down (can't receive alerts), Oanda disconnections (never happened), or TS server down.  You can't automate everything... but all in all I'm a happy customer of TS and superbservers.net :-)

And what about anti-virus?

hehe nah I'm an anti-anti-virus person.  Only believe in firewalls (Comodo) and routine spyware and adware and virus checks.  But at the moment no, I don't do this on the server.

The only security is the default settings of the server.  I'm trying to limit the number of applications I install on it.  Afraid that anti-virus and third-party firewalls might screw things up with windows 2003.

At the beginning, I had to open up Internet Explorer to download PostgreSQL and TS and to Gmail to download Oanda's api files.  So those are the only websites that I allowed connection.  I couldn't find a way to transfer files using RDC.  But I'm aware that the third-party programs are able to do this by just 'click-drag-drop'.

Quick explanation of why you probably don't need an anti-virus on a dedicated server, is that viruses come through websites you visit, or from infected files you download.  You wouldn't normally use the dedicated server for web-browsing, or normal day-to-day use.  So if you limit your browsing to only essential, trusted websites, and you limit the software to only essential, trusted software, then theoretically you shouldn't have any problems with viruses.  It all depends on your risk profile.

And that's what he means by "opening up Internet Explorer", is that on a dedicated server, the one this customer is using at least, you need to explicitly allow access to the websites that you want to visit.