Accessing FF Inventory Pro Deluxe over a VPN from a Remote Location

A VPN (virtual private network) is actually nothing more than a virtual Ethernet cable. Using a VPN enhances network security by allowing remote users to connect via an encrypted “tunnel” while keeping ports on the firewall closed and secure. Any VPN product should yield similar results weather using a hardware solution such as a VPN Concentrator or a software based solution. To demonstrate how this works we will use the free “LogMeIn” client software from Hamachi as an example. This software can be found here:
https://secure.logmein.com/US/products/hamachi2/download.aspx

1. Agree to the “Conditions of Use” and download the “Unmanaged” software package.

2. Install this software on the server and on the machine you will be using at the remote location.

3. Configure the Network/Create a New Network/Create a New Client Owned Network settings with a network name and password (You can use the respective machine names).

4. Check that you have connectivity between the two clients.

5. If you want to run the server side application as a service you can right click on the file “hamachi-2-ui.exe" located in the “C:\Program Files\LogMeIn Hamachi\” directory (default). Select “Install as a Service Mill Service” (see next blog topic for details).

6. Reboot the server.

7. From an outside network (remote office, coffee shop, etc.) run the Hamachi application.

8. Once a connection is established you should have access to your FF Inventory Database as well as any other shared folders you have access to locally on the server.