 traffic tycoons and telecommuting  cause working in a cubicle is so 1999  the times they are achangin  to quote bob dylan  you better start swimming or you ll sink like a stone  unless you ve been living under the aforementioned rock you probably noticed that gas just doesn t cost what it used to  here s some more about that  one doesn t have to go far to realize how much things are changing in fact you need only perform the regular ritual of filling up your gas tank there you are standing amidst the line of other motorists grimly pumping liquid gold into your thirsty auto you give the price ticker your best steelyeyed gaze but it s no use the oil tycoons get paid just the same if only there was a way to avoid this painful ritual how does one alleviate some of the pain at the pump if you really are interested in getting the extra mile you could take up driving like this guy  a devoted disciple of the newly emerging driving without brakes style you could try fueling up early in the morning to net debatable savings of a couple cents or maybewell you might just give telecommuting a shot telecommuting in a nutshell is using technology to span distances which traditionally required your physical presence few people realize just how easy it is to telecommute even some of the time it s no longer in the realm of star trek technology in fact there are a lot of solutions out there some cheap as in free others are quite a bit more expensive and robust enterprise solutions telecommuting even has it s own  for dummies  book the vehicle which drives telecommuting technology is the great expansion of broadband internet connectivity has grown exponentially from the days of dialup and payperhour internet in this time of wireless internet fios cable and mobile internet devices such as verizon s wireless aircard users can be connected from anywhere that gets a cellphone signal many employers are increasingly willing to work with their staff to trade flexibility for increased productivity that comes from a telecommuting environment small companies ever mindful of expenses find that the savings are significant being an it company we work with a lot of remote desktop software day in and day out solving problems remotely because there s often little reason to appear onsite so here s a qualified report on what we ve found that we like and what we think would be better left for star trek reruns  disclaimer this is for informative purposes only we re not getting reimbursed in any form by these companies for this reason we ve not included links to any of the company homepages but you can find them easily enough via a web search logmein free fast easydid we mention free  here at netmanageit we love business names which make one word out of threeor four we use logmein frequently as it s web portal allow easy access from any machine anywhere isn t that the essence of working remotely it works like this you set up a free logmein account and install a small client on each computer you d like to remote into the resulting computers can be accessed anytime via a simple webbrowser the drawback the session s often time out in the browser window if you re not actively mousing around secondly a lot of the more robust features are disabled to encourage you to subscribe to their paying service like their slick draganddrop style ftp computer sounds remote printing and conferencing presentations still for the money it s a fast easy and we use it often despite having more fullfeatured systems available bomgar fullfeatured inhouse hardwarebased slick at netmanageit we use bomgar constantly to offer remote support to our customers some of our customers have been so impressed with the product that they ve started using it themselves to remotely and securely access their computers or to give online demos to their own clients bomgar allows you to connect with any client once they accept a key which your box generates frequently used computers such as your network or home computer can be accessed nearly instantaneously bomgar also allows you to make presentations to multiple individuals on your desktop and to have remote conferences take a look at our support login terminal which is powered by bomgar the only real downside to bomgar is it s price it s expensive to buyin to bomgar approximately 1900 user but it s a onetime cost after which you own the solution in the long run the savings in gas time and subscription fees easily make this an affordable choice vpn virtual private networks like sitting at your office pc except your wearing pj s lastly a traditional mainstay of telecommuting has been the use of vpn tunnels or virtual private networks these secure pathways take a different approach to telecommuting then either logmein or bomgar rather than hitchhiking onto another computer already connected to a network a vpn tunnel allows your computer to itself become a part of your network vpn s are a great choice if you already maintain a well established network with a sonicwall cisco box and a uptodate server if the hardware profile fits setting up vpn tunnels can be very cost effective though the setup may be a bit complex for the average user the benefits include the fullfeatured and virtually lag free ability to access your server via a secured pathway for most telecommuters it s exactly what they need the downside if your network lacks the existing infrastructure the hardware is expensive and is typically installed by professionals on the flip side the benefits of updated technology extend beyond just the ability to telecommute that s the blogpostsized distillation of what s out there telecommuting can be a great tool for cutting out the commute and maximizing not just gas savings but saving you a whole lot of time that would otherwise be spent sitting in traffic let me know if you found this post informative or give me a shout down below if you ve got more questions ben heitman design netmanageit    remote support telecommuting  