Business travelers know that no matter how much
energy they put into synchronizing desktop and laptop computers, some
application or file is always available only on the office computer, which can
be accessed only when you're in the office.
Well, not really. A Canadian company, 01 Communique Laboratory Inc., has some software for the PC called I'm InTouch. And when it's installed on your office PC, you can access it from anywhere in the world where you can fire up a Web browser.
A review copy came, and after reading the promo, the reaction was skepticism. Plus, the $99.95 U.S. price was toward the high end of what I'm willing to spend without a really good story to tell Wife when she opens the credit card statement.
But it was installed anyway, and was straightforward enough. During the installation process, you create a computer name, in this case Compubug, a login name (LarryBlasko) and a password. The program itself is on the task bar.
Left the office desktop on, survived New Jersey Transit one more time, walked the dog and fired up the home net browser. Went as instructed to the Web site locator, 01com.com, and after giving the password, wow!
The screen changed to the screen of my office computer. All the applications, from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Office and some homebrew software were there and worked exactly as though I were in AP headquarters _ but I wasn't. I was 26 miles west.
After reading e-mail, printing a few documents, forwarding some e-mail to colleagues and otherwise donating some time to the company, I logged off and was back home. Neat.
Now it probably helped that my home Internet connection is highspeed DSL, but the software worked exactly as advertised and that brought up several possibilities.
First, time to stop lugging a laptop. Walking into an AP bureau anywhere in the world and firing up the browser would put me back in the office _ even if the office was a continent away.
Second, security was enhanced. Any work or files created would be safely behind AP's security envelope, both physical and telecommunications safeguards in place. And the communication between the office machine and the browser that you happen to be using is encrypted, using 128-bit encryption techniques like ATM machines.
Finally, the inevitable calls for information while you were taking a day off were over. If you so chose, you were never away, just off, so any requests from the boss for info could be handled with ease. "Working at home" just got easier.
Well, not really. A Canadian company, 01 Communique Laboratory Inc., has some software for the PC called I'm InTouch. And when it's installed on your office PC, you can access it from anywhere in the world where you can fire up a Web browser.
A review copy came, and after reading the promo, the reaction was skepticism. Plus, the $99.95 U.S. price was toward the high end of what I'm willing to spend without a really good story to tell Wife when she opens the credit card statement.
But it was installed anyway, and was straightforward enough. During the installation process, you create a computer name, in this case Compubug, a login name (LarryBlasko) and a password. The program itself is on the task bar.
Left the office desktop on, survived New Jersey Transit one more time, walked the dog and fired up the home net browser. Went as instructed to the Web site locator, 01com.com, and after giving the password, wow!
The screen changed to the screen of my office computer. All the applications, from Lotus Notes to Microsoft Office and some homebrew software were there and worked exactly as though I were in AP headquarters _ but I wasn't. I was 26 miles west.
After reading e-mail, printing a few documents, forwarding some e-mail to colleagues and otherwise donating some time to the company, I logged off and was back home. Neat.
Now it probably helped that my home Internet connection is highspeed DSL, but the software worked exactly as advertised and that brought up several possibilities.
First, time to stop lugging a laptop. Walking into an AP bureau anywhere in the world and firing up the browser would put me back in the office _ even if the office was a continent away.
Second, security was enhanced. Any work or files created would be safely behind AP's security envelope, both physical and telecommunications safeguards in place. And the communication between the office machine and the browser that you happen to be using is encrypted, using 128-bit encryption techniques like ATM machines.
Finally, the inevitable calls for information while you were taking a day off were over. If you so chose, you were never away, just off, so any requests from the boss for info could be handled with ease. "Working at home" just got easier.
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