As more businesses shift activities from in person to online, telecommuting is becoming an increasingly popular option for employees.   While the benefits of working remotely are easy to pinpoint, the challenges are not always so apparent.  From technology glitches and miscommunications to lack of motivation and isolation, the prospect of working in your jammies and slippers can come with a few pricetags.  To stay productive, it’s important to have the right tools and expectations for working remotely. Keep in mind the following tips:

1) Find a dedicated office space with minimal noise or distractions.  Comfortable seating, quality lighting and most importantly- quiet surroundings- will improve your ability to concentrate and focus on work.

2) Keep a structured “to-do” list with your team members to stay motivated and keep projects moving.  Basecamp is a great example of an online project management tool that allows team members to collaborate and complete project activities, share files and schedules.

3) Avoid burning out by scheduling breaks throughout the day.  Working from home can often make you feel disconnected from the outside world or that the work pile never ends.   When you don’t have to clock in or out, it can be difficult to relax and set work aside.  Remember to take a break or two, grab some lunch or go for a walk to get some fresh air and recharge.

4) Use the right communication tools.  Skype is an easy, free way to chat or talk with co-workers and integrates video in real-time (and is much cheaper than using valuable cell phone minutes).  GotoMeeting or Webex are also affordable conference call services with added screen share and recording capability.

Last and definitely not least…

5) Use the right connectivity infrastructure.  Dynamic DNS allows you to access your VPN or work computer using a static IP address that you can remember, which is extremely helpful when you need to access files from another computer remotely.   Also, a dependable internet service provider (ISP) will be worth it’s weight in gold, and remember to find a backup source just in case.  Make use of the nearest closest coffee shops or book stores with wi-fi in the event your ISP has service issues.  The last thing you need is to miss an important meeting or be not have access to your files when your boss or coworkers are relying on you.

Have any additional remote working tips to share?   Feel free to share with us in the comments section below!

Social network security is all the talk this month, as Firefox recently launched it’s Firesheep plugin.  In a nutshell, the new plugin makes it possible for users to hijack other people’s social network connections if they are using a public Wifi connection.

How does it work?  Most social networks, including Facebook,  authenticate clients with cookies. If someone is using a public WiFi connection, the cookies are sniffable. Firesheep uses wincap to capture and display the authentication information for accounts it sees, allowing the user to hijack a connection.

Sounds like a potential problem for social network users in airports, hotels and the other 1,000,000,000 places that offer public Wifi.  And how about businesses that employ remote agencies, consultants or employees to manage their social networks?

Fortunately, there are a few ways to protect yourself or your business from social network hijackers.  The most basic include:

1) Only visiting sites using HTTP Secure (beginning with https://), which make user cookies invisible to Firesheep.

2) Downloading the Firefox extension Force-TLS,  where you can assign and force which sites you want to use the HTTPS protocol.

3) Trying a program like HTTPS Everywhere, which forces every website you visit to use HTTPS protocol.

What about those who own or manage social network or other hijackable websites?  In order to protect your users and keep your website secure, try adding a SSL certificate to your website.  A Secure Link SSL certificate from No-IP.com shows visitors that your web site is safe for them to submit their personal data.  Regardless if you have a static or dynamic IP address or are running public or secure Wifi, No-IP offers the best value in SSL certificates.

Let’s face it–  the internet is a big, open, and sometimes scary place.  With all of it’s knowledge and  information sharing potential comes the threat of intellectual property loss, cyberattacks, and widespread security risks.  Still,  we rely on internet use every day for news, work and information of all sorts.  The rise of citizen and social media has created an open window to the state of the world we live in– Twitter has become our daily newspaper and blogs are the new memo pads.   Which is why (given the apparent risks involved) we can’t imagine completing many every day activities without it.

How would you feel if an organization had the power or authority to take control over or shut down this information for public safety?  What if they created a screen to protect us from explicit content like a parental control on cable tv?  Certain domains would be off limits like PG-13 or R ratings, or worse, the TV shuts off completely.  Would you begin to question the veracity or truth behind the internet?  Or wonder if our “open” web was starting to close?

These are questions many people are asking themselves as the recent “kill switch” bill works through US legislation.  The bill would essentially provide our government the authority to shut down the internet in times of crisis or attack.   It’s an interesting debate that has been brought up this year and continues to make headlines as new officials are voted into government this week.

Should we give up our web surfing freedom for protection from cyber attack?   What are your thoughts on issue of cyber security legislation?

Regardless if you have a dynamic or static IP address, No-IP DNS services ensure you reach your destination on-time, every-time. From basic website, blog or FTP hosting to remote device or PC access, the services are simple to use and difficult to ignore.

How do you benefit from using No-IP DNS services?

• Ease of telecommuting with remote access to PC
• Reliable hosting for my website, FTP site or blog
• Increased connectivity to devices (i.e. game servers, security cameras, handhelds)

Please take the survey or share your comments below.

A question we’re often asked by our customers is how does DDNS work?

Most people have dynamic IP addresses, which makes it difficult to access their network, website, or every-day devices (such as a home file server,  home automation system, or security camera).  To solve this issue, a DDNS service (Dynamic Domain Name Service) can supply a continually updated address, allowing the user to type in a constant, static, easy-to-remember name that ensures they will be connected.

What is a Domain Name Service?  DNS is like a white pages directory for the Internet. You supply a name, it supplies a number. The name, in this case, is specifically a hostname and the number is an IP address.

So how does it work?  Here’s an example:

John has a computer with a dynamic IP address running a webserver, and his friend Jane wants to see his web page.

1) John tells Jane that the hostname of his computer is john.ddns.net. Jane types http://john.ddns.net into her browser.

2) Her computer then contacts her ISPs DNS server to get the number for john.ddns.net.

3) Her ISP’s DNS server asks No-IP for the address of john.ddns.net.

4) She receives the number and connects to John’s web page.

5) To be sure Jane got the right number, John has an update client provided by No-IP running on his computer. This update client informs No-IP.com when his IP address changes so that Jane will get the right number. It assures that John’s often changing Internet address, his IP address, can always be found by Jane when she uses john.ddns.net. as the hostname.