Setting Up Your Office For Remote Access: Recording Existing Network Information Part 1

In this post I am going to explain how a small office can be setup for its users to securely connect to the office remotely. It may not be the best solution for every office, but it is inexpensive, easy to implement and gets the job done.

Equipment needed:

• High speed internet with static IP address at the office (Cable, DSL, etc… – if you have a business account it more than likely includes a static IP address. If not, call your service provider to see if you can have it added.)
• High speed internet at the remote locations (Cable, DSL, etc… – a static IP is not needed at the client site)
• VPN capable router (I will be discussing the Cisco RVS4000 4-port gigabit VPN router as an example, however there are other alternatives)
• Workstation at the office for each user wishing to connect running Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7. (Remote Desktop is not available with any of the “Basic” or “Home” versions of XP or Vista – to use Remote Desktop you will need either Windows XP Professional, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate, or Windows 7)

Recording existing network information:

If you currently have a router setup that you will be replacing, it is important to gather some information prior to unplugging it. Go to one of your workstations and record the IP address information:

• On Windows XP – click on Start and then Run, type CMD into the white area and click OK. (Windows Vista and 7 may not have the run box, but they will have a search box just above the Start button, you can type CMD into that and hit the Enter key) When the black window (command prompt) opens, type ipconfig /all and hit Enter. You will see something similar to:

• The important information to record is the IP Address, Default Gateway, and DNS servers. The subnet mask should be listed as 255.255.255.0 – what this tells us is the part of the IP address that belongs to my network (the subnet) is 192.168.1 and the part that belongs to my computer (host) is 222. If you have a different subnet mask than 255.255.255.0 then it gets a bit more complicated and will need another post to explain. But for a typical small office the subnet mask will normally be 255.255.255.0
• The default gateway address (in my example is listed as 192.168.1.254, but normally will be 192.168.1.1, 192.168.0.1 or something similar ending in .1) is the IP address of your current router
• The DNS server IP addresses will need to be recorded as well. DNS is what your computer uses to locate web sites on the internet. We will be statically entering these in the workstations later
• Make sure you have the static IP address information from your ISP. If you cannot locate this, it can be found by logging into the current router and obtaining it from the WAN setup. In my example, the default gateway listed is 192.168.1.254 – so I would log into it by opening Internet Explorer and typing http://192.168.1.254 into the address bar. It will ask for a username and password, which if it has been changed from the default you should have recorded somewhere. Ask the technician that originally set it up for this information. Or if it has not been changed, look up the default username and password form the documentation that came with it. If you still cannot locate it, call your ISP for the information
• You will need the static IP address as well as the Subnet mask (which may be similar to 255.255.255.252) and the Gateway IP address.

PART 2