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elwoos
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
2052 Posts |
 Posted - 2010-09-21 : 07:19:42
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| Anyone here work from home on a regular basis? What are the pro's and con's? and what sort of support do you get from your employer for this? Finally how do you access the servers, is it through some sort of vpn or something like that?It looks like it could be an option here soon, though I doubt it is that realistic for me, it would be nice on occasion.-----------I used to think I wasn't a morning person but it never got better in the afternoon |
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tosscrosby
Aged Yak Warrior
676 Posts |
Posted - 2010-09-21 : 09:33:38
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| Twice a week. We use VPN and the speed is more than adequate. It takes some getting used to, some self-disciplne. Nobody typically is at home when I work. Can get a little lonesome. And Oprah comes on at 9:00, I could easily lay on the sofa and watch - who would know? But then I'd feel I was cheating. In foul weather, it's a blessing not to commute but when the sun is shining, there are a million things I could be doing outdoors. Hence, the self-discipline. I do get three days a week of companionship with my peers so it's all good. The company itself has been very supportive. There are maybe a dozen or so employees who live in other states and work from home. No floor space required for them so there is the rent savings, the company supplies all the equipment to access the systems. A very good working relationship.Terry-- -- Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege. |
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X002548
Not Just a Number
15586 Posts |
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robvolk
Most Valuable Yak
15732 Posts |
Posted - 2010-09-21 : 10:33:40
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| I'm definitely not disciplined to work from home all the time, too many distractions (TV, intertubez, laundry). I've had multiple jobs with multiple VPNs, they work well enough. I can say with authority that Checkpoint VPN software SUCKS. Maybe it's the way they configured it, who knows, but you can read their "support" forums if you want an objective opinion (it's more of a support group for their customers, "Hi, my name is Rob, and I'm....a Checkpoint VPN user", "HI ROB!")I've found that TeamViewer is a good way to access your desktop remotely, works on Mac too, doesn't need a VPN as long as your company's firewall doesn't block it.Microsoft has also added Terminal Gateway to Windows 2008, if your company sets this up then you can use regular Remote Desktop without a VPN. This might be more agreeable and/or cheaper than TeamViewer, and both are a lot more secure than using VNC. |
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Michael Valentine Jones
Yak DBA Kernel (pronounced Colonel)
7020 Posts |
Posted - 2010-09-21 : 12:25:15
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I mostly use it for on-call and after hours support, with an occasional work from home for bad weather (or really good weather  )Performance is usually very adequate with a VPN RDP connection to my office desktop PC.The biggest disadvantage is the lack of face to face contact with team members, but with phone, IM, email, that is easy enough to deal with. It takes time to get used to, and it is best if you have an office space at home to keep you from distractions of family, etc. Family memebers have to understand you are "at work" and not available for chores, etc.CODO ERGO SUM |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2010-09-21 : 12:54:19
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I work from home. I don't consider myself disciplined, per se, but my problem has more to do with stopping working, rather than starting!I have direct-connections to SQL boxes (so I can run Query Analyser etc. locally), and a variety of VPN solutions. I have a Cicso router here, so probably a bit more than might be expected for a regular home-user just using their home broadband connection, and I also have Business Broadband here (8Mb I think) - probably got a contention ratio of 1:1 out in the sticks here!  Generally I use Terminal Services to get into remote servers. My wife works from home sometimes too, and she uses TS into her desktop at work (they have a TS Server too, but it suits her better to just get her work PC's Screen at home). She's hosed if it crashes out of office hours when no one to reboot it (a remote power-cycle switch would be a help). Doing her EMail remotely is definitely a better bet than synchronising her Office Exchange to her PC at home (I say that because she has both available and she almost never uses the home PC for Word, Email or Excel preferring to have all her DOCs and EMail ont he company network, rather than DUP'd on her home PC)I also use LetMeIn.com to access my home-office machine from remote locations, which is handy when all I have is a web browser somewhere. Dunno if that is relevant, its not a substitute for VPN/Terminals Services, but might be some use to you. |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2010-09-21 : 13:00:38
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| P.S. Have also used Skype for chat with colleagues - works well enough and some colleagues prefer it to Email / Phone / MSNMSN is the worst thing I use. People use it for non urgent requests and its very interruptive IMHO. |
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tkizer
Almighty SQL Goddess
38200 Posts |
Posted - 2010-09-21 : 13:37:56
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| I work from home about one time a week. It's typically due to getting paged in the mornings and stuck working on a production issue. I also WFH when my kids have doctor's appointments, and it just doesn't make sense to travel in to work when I can get more hours in by working from home. My work is not near my house.My husband works from home 3-5 days per week. We have separate desks in separate rooms, so it is not an issue if we both work from home on the same day.Both of us use a VPN solution. My company provides several solutions, so when one doesn't work, we can try a different one. I'm able to use my work laptop and my home computer to work from home. My home computer requires a SecureID token, but my work laptop does not (I assume it's got some kind of key on the hard drive somewhere). I can even use other people's computers provided I have my SecureID token with me as the "home" computer VPN solution is accessible via a web page. It makes it really easy to be on-call and not bring my work laptop in case of a page.Both my husband and I have three monitors which allows us to easily work from home. I have two monitors for my work laptop and one monitor for my home computer. I've got a blog post that describes my setup and even has a picture of it.Tara KizerMicrosoft MVP for Windows Server System - SQL Serverhttp://weblogs.sqlteam.com/tarad/Subscribe to my blog |
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dinakar
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker
2507 Posts |
Posted - 2010-09-21 : 19:50:31
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| My work setup is a little weird.. I work with customers directly.. so either I am onsite (which means travelling every week) or at home if the customer cant pay T&E. I dont have a dedicated desk or dedicated computer at work.. we have a floor with open cubes so if my home internet is crappy or I need to download lots of bytes from work or just to get out of the house we can crash on one of the open cubes.. most open cubes have a monitor lying in it.. and we can use laptop + monitor dual setup.. I do miss working with a team.. I am lone warrier in my role..Dinakar Nethi************************Life is short. Enjoy it.************************http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/dinakar/ |
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X002548
Not Just a Number
15586 Posts |
Posted - 2010-09-21 : 21:35:42
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| They call that hoteling ...and there are times I miss working on a massive project...and there are time I miss working with a small surgical in-house consulting team......but I never miss being an independent who can take care of anything...shy of working on ANY GUI nonsense...they have "artists" for that...CICS was enough....So Kristen..no Bloody Mary's for Breakfast?Brett8-)Hint: Want your questions answered fast? Follow the direction in this linkhttp://weblogs.sqlteam.com/brettk/archive/2005/05/25/5276.aspxWant to help yourself?http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms130214.aspx |
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Michael Valentine Jones
Yak DBA Kernel (pronounced Colonel)
7020 Posts |
Posted - 2010-09-22 : 00:10:55
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quote:
Originally posted by Kristen...My wife works from home sometimes too, and she uses TS into her desktop at work (they have a TS Server too, but it suits her better to just get her work PC's Screen at home). She's hosed if it crashes out of office hours when no one to reboot it (a remote power-cycle switch would be a help)...
If the main issue with remote reboot is just getting it to power up after a power loss, most recent PCs have a BIOS setting to automatically boot after power loss. I have that set on my work PC.CODO ERGO SUM |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2010-09-22 : 02:29:47
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| Hmmm ... good point MVJ, my PCs here do that. She'd be able to TS into it even if it was not logged in locally, so I think boot-on-power-on is the only issue. Thanks for that, I'll mention it to her IT warrior. |
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Kristen
Test
22859 Posts |
Posted - 2010-09-22 : 02:30:30
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quote:
Originally posted by X002548
So Kristen..no Bloody Mary's for Breakfast?
Only when we have American business guests staying |
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