You have to work in the home office. You need these tools and you should pay attention to them.The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is spreading more and more, more and more people have to be quarantined because of a Covid 19 case in their area. And more and more companies are sending their employees to their home office as a precaution. So that you can work from home just as efficiently and reliably as in the office, you should prepare your home computer for working in the home office in good time. We present the necessary tools and tell you what else you need to pay attention to.
- Table of ContentsTeamviewer: access to your office PC
- VPN access to company network / server applications
- Citrix access to services and applications
- Bitrix24: Collaborate online free of charge without limiting the number of users
- Use Microsoft Office online
- Microsoft teams for free
- Alternative office and chat programs
- Important: security on the home computer
- Telephone: Don't forget forwarding or telephone software
- Cisco Webex
To work in the home office, you have to distinguish between two fundamentally different variants: You access your workstation PC in the office from home or you access the servers of your company
Teamviewer: access to your office PC
If you access your workstation directly from home and want to work on it as if you were actually sitting in front of the PC in the office, Teamviewer is the product of your choice.
Teamviewer is developed by the German company Team Viewer AG, the software is a flagship product from Germany, which is not always the leader in terms of software and IT. However, if you want to use Teamviewer for professional purposes, there is a big limitation: Teamviewer is only free for private use, but the software is quite expensive for professional use. You can find the prices here.
Ask your IT department whether they have a Teamviewer license and can provide them to you.
Teamviewer supports all common desktop systems such as Windows, Linux and macOS and can also be used on Android and iOS. The PC-WELT tests Teamviewer from time to time, our conclusion: A reliable and powerful remote access solution.
VPN access to company network/server applications
If you do not have to access your workstation PC directly, but want to use applications and services that are on your company's servers, then a VPN (Virtual Private Network) should be the means of choice. You then access your company's servers from your home computer via an encrypted connection, a “tunnel”.
If you want to use this solution, you usually have to request VPN access from your IT department. Important: Inquire beforehand whether all the services and programs you need can be reached via VPN.
Then install a suitable VPN access software with the appropriate certificates on your home computer and enter the access data. You then start this and then enter the corresponding URL of your company services in your browser in order to be able to work with them.
Such VPN access should not be confused with the use of VPN tools for home users. You connect to their VPN servers and surf through them. This makes sense, for example, if you want to watch films, series or sports broadcasts that are not offered for your country. Example: Series and films that are not available in Germany can often be seen at streaming providers in the USA (unless you are using).
Citrix access to services and applications
Citrix is an alternative to VPN access. You can also access programs and services that run on the company server (Citrix farm) via Citrix. To do this, your company must have licensed Citrix and you must install the Citrix client software on your computer. The newer version of the Citrix client software for your PC at home is the Citrix Workspace app. But be careful: If your Citrix service was set up on the company servers some time ago, it may not support the Citrix Workspace app. In this case you have to download the older Citrix Receiver instead.
In any case, the Citrix client software on your computer must firstly be compatible with your Citrix farm and secondly must be compatible with the operating system on your home computer. Clarify this with your IT department at an early stage and have Citrix access set up.
As an alternative to the Citrix receiver, you can also access Citrix from a modern Internet browser if the free Java runtime environment is installed. Citrix Receiver Apps for iOS or Android are available for smartphones and tablets.
Alternative: Local second installation of desktop applications
If you cannot access your workstation computer via Teamviewer and still want to use programs that are not available via VPN, Citrix or as an online version, then you should install them on your home computer in good time. This is especially true for expensive application programs such as professional video editing programs, development environments or database systems.
Communication via mail, messenger & collaboration tools
If you cannot access your workstation PC via Teamviewer and accordingly cannot use the mail or chat programs installed on it: Think about how you want to communicate with your work colleagues, superiors and subordinates from the home office. There are various possibilities.
Bitrix24: Collaborate online free of charge without limiting the number of users
Bitrix24 is a comprehensive online solution for task and project management including cloud storage. Bitrix24 offers various tariff models. The “Free” tariff is permanently free of charge for individuals and small companies with up to 12 employees. However, in line with the corona virus crisis, Bitrix24 temporarily lifted this upper limit for the number of users. Currently, an unlimited number of users can work with the free Bitrix24 tariff.
he free version offers 5 GB of online storage space. In addition there are around 35 tools with which you can digitize your work processes: Calendar, project management and task management, Kanban, Gantt, CRM, reports, invoices, chats and messages, employee directory and social network. The edited files can not only be selected locally or in your own Bitrix24 cloud, but also in Dropbox, Google Drive or Microsoft Onedrive.
What happens after the Covid 19 pandemic ends? Bitrix24 wants to inform users about any changes to the Free tariff in advance, so that they have at least 30 days to save their data locally. According to the GDPR requirements, users should be able to request a complete deletion of their data from the Bitrix servers if necessary.
If your company uses Microsoft Office, the company licenses usually allow multiple office installations per employee. You can then install a Microsoft Office on your Windows PC or Mac at home. You can then manage your mails in Outlook via Office 365.
Use Microsoft Office online
Alternatively, you can also receive your emails via microsoftonline.com in the browser. Microsoft also makes the other Office applications such as Word or Excel available as online versions. So you can work in the home office without installing Microsoft Office locally.
Microsoft teams for free
The Teams messenger program, which belongs to Microsoft Office, will be made available by Microsoft free of charge until January 2021. You can read more about this here at Microsoft.
Individuals can download Microsoft Teams for free after a short registration of their email address from work or school.
Owners of a Gmail or Outlook address can download the freemium version of Teams via this link (including 10 GB for team files, 2 GB for personal files per user as well as the online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote).
If you want to register larger groups for teams, you can apply for a free license for Office 365 E1 for six months at Microsoft.
Alternative office and chat programs
If you cannot use an Office 365 license, you can also install another mail client such as Thunderbird on your PC at home. You must then enter the access data for your mail server in it. Obtain this data in good time. Likewise, many office tasks can be done easily with Libre Office.
Download: Thunderbird
Download: Libre Office
Important: security on the home computer
If you want to access your office computer or your company's server services from your home computer, then it is imperative that your home computer is fully protected against malware and hacker attacks. Because it would be conceivable that attackers can access your office computer from an infected or hacked home computer via Teamviewer or your company server via the VPN tunnel.
Install a current virus scanner including a firewall on your Windows computer at home. And keep the operating system of your home computer - Windows, Linux or macOS - absolutely up to date.
Telephone: Don't forget forwarding or telephone software
It sounds banal, but it is particularly important for employees who have to be predominantly reachable by phone: forward your phone from the office to your home device or to your smartphone. If you use telephony software in your company, you should also install it at home.
Cisco Webex
Cisco is also responding to the corona virus crisis trend toward more home offices. The company provides Cisco Webex for 90 days free of charge for companies that are not yet Webex customers. Cisco Webex includes functions for video conferencing, IP telephony, messaging, data transmission and screen sharing.
Cisco Webex is generally free of charge for a single user, so the new feature introduced for the corona crisis is that up to 100 users in one company can now use Cisco Webex for up to 90 days free of charge and without time restrictions. Cisco gives details of this offer here. The offer for companies is valid for 90 days and can then be converted into a paid subscription, but this is not mandatory
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