Computer/internet help

kermey · 16-03-2012, 12:42 AM

Hey everyone, just after a little help. Im probably not going to be able to explain this to well but im going to give it a crack.

What I want to be able to do is have a word or excel document that I can access through the internet on 2 differnet computers. That both computers can access and edit it.

Im just not sure how I would even start to go about doing this so im after your advice.

One more problem I have just experinced is that I have just moved house and tried to get my iinet internet brough accross to the new house. They came out and connected the phone line and said some one will be out in the next few days to set up the internet. Well after a few days we get a message to say that can not supply us internet in this area.

Thats fine, so I got onto telestra to some women on the phone and she told me I can not have adsl at all and the only option I have is satelite. I tryed to ask her about it but I could hardly understand her and she just wanted to palm me off to another number to which was not even open.

So anyways my question is. If you have a phone line connected to your house surely there must be some form of internet avaliable through the telephone line?

Any help would be great, Cheers.

XR6Naranja · 16-03-2012, 01:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kermey

Hey everyone, just after a little help. Im probably not going to be able to explain this to well but im going to give it a crack.

What I want to be able to do is have a word or excel document that I can access through the internet on 2 differnet computers. That both computers can access and edit it.

Im just not sure how I would even start to go about doing this so im after your advice.

One more problem I have just experinced is that I have just moved house and tried to get my iinet internet brough accross to the new house. They came out and connected the phone line and said some one will be out in the next few days to set up the internet. Well after a few days we get a message to say that can not supply us internet in this area.

Thats fine, so I got onto telestra to some women on the phone and she told me I can not have adsl at all and the only option I have is satelite. I tryed to ask her about it but I could hardly understand her and she just wanted to palm me off to another number to which was not even open.

So anyways my question is. If you have a phone line connected to your house surely there must be some form of internet avaliable through the telephone line?

Any help would be great, Cheers.

Alright so with your first problem I can offer two things, first is Cloud Storage, the idea is that there is a "cloud" on the internet, so basically like a hard drive on the internet, you place the thing you are using on there, so a word document and save it to there as well, you can also generally open it up from there, you then go to your other place and there is a website you go to, that allows you to access this cloud as well, it's private and only yours, there's generally two sorts, pay to use and free to use, I haven't used it much myself so I wouldn't know the difference.

The second option is something called "Teamviewer" I have used this, but requires both computers to be on for it to work, basically you install it on both computers and you are able to access each computer remotely, so say I had it installed and you had it installed, I could use the password and username provided from you to access your computer, I then use your computer as normal, same idea with this, except you set up a permanent connection between the two computers.

As for your ADSL problem, if you have a phone line I believe you can get dial-up, if they say you're unable to get ADSL, then I'm pretty sure you're unlucky mate, but if I'm not mistaken the Government is offering some sort of free set up with Skynet or something, my brother is on it, and says he only pays for the monthly internet bill, the rest was free, something to look into I'd say.

Simple6 · 16-03-2012, 07:18 AM

Having a connected phone line doesn't guarentee you'll have access to ADSL. The line could have pair gain set up on it or not have enough ports at the exchange or even you may be too far from the exchange. Have you floated the possibility of 3G/4G Mobile Broad and (dependant on coverage of course)?

PimpMyHubcap · 16-03-2012, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kermey

Hey everyone, just after a little help. Im probably not going to be able to explain this to well but im going to give it a crack.

What I want to be able to do is have a word or excel document that I can access through the internet on 2 differnet computers. That both computers can access and edit it.

Im just not sure how I would even start to go about doing this so im after your advice.

Any help would be great, Cheers.

https://www.dropbox.com/features

Download this and you will get 2GB of free storage. My supplier and I use this to share documents and pictures. Can be accessed from any machine with the app on it.

AnOrangeSpider talked about "cloud" storage and Dropbox is one of the most basic. I think Google Docs is the same.

Cheers

ch33z1l · 16-03-2012, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PimpMyHubcap

https://www.dropbox.com/features

Download this and you will get 2GB of free storage. My supplier and I use this to share documents and pictures. Can be accessed from any machine with the app on it.

AnOrangeSpider talked about "cloud" storage and Dropbox is one of the most basic. I think Google Docs is the same.

Cheers

Can also sync changes - +1 for Dropbox. Can also access it on iphone/android.

flappist · 16-03-2012, 09:49 AM

Just make sure that whatever you put on the cloud has no secrets and you have a totally separate backup.

Regardless of all the assurances the data is covered by the law of the country where the server is and there are a lot of people who have found out the hard way that the whole world is not like Australia.

**cs123** · 16-03-2012, 10:13 AM

You can use MS Office online
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/offic...id=Z3dQJaf3Vm7

Jus be aware of what Flappist says. I'd never trust confidential info stored online.

As for your ADSL, ask Telstra why you failed Service Qualification. It could be that you are using pair gain as has been mentioned, or you are too far from the exchange or that there are no free ports left. In some cases things can be done, mostly not though.

I'd use 3G rather than satellite.

XR6Naranja · 16-03-2012, 02:49 PM

Yeah unfortunately clouds aren't extremely secure, but most people won't access it unless you have something of value.

flappist · 16-03-2012, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheOrangeSpider

Yeah unfortunately clouds aren't extremely secure, but most people won't access it unless you have something of value.

Yeh only criminals......

xisled · 16-03-2012, 03:29 PM

Easy thing that is very basic and free. Set up a hotmail,Gmail account.
Send the password and email address to the other computer and email your self the file.

Not all phone lines support internet connections unless you want dial up.

TheSneakiness · 16-03-2012, 05:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kermey

One more problem I have just experinced is that I have just moved house and tried to get my iinet internet brough accross to the new house. They came out and connected the phone line and said some one will be out in the next few days to set up the internet. Well after a few days we get a message to say that can not supply us internet in this area.

Thats fine, so I got onto telestra to some women on the phone and she told me I can not have adsl at all and the only option I have is satelite. I tryed to ask her about it but I could hardly understand her and she just wanted to palm me off to another number to which was not even open.

So anyways my question is. If you have a phone line connected to your house surely there must be some form of internet avaliable through the telephone line?

Any help would be great, Cheers.

I had the same problem with pair gain (no ADSL) but lucky or unlucky to some I have a Telstra coaxial point in my house so I'm running Bigpond cable.

4G mobile broadband is only good in a CBD. Otherwise it'll be 3G and you'll need to check your mobile coverage maps because some areas still do not have 3G (me being one of them, I'm literally 100mt out of good and reliable 3G service)

sgt_doofey · 16-03-2012, 05:27 PM

Surprising no one mentioned Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/
Usual disclaimer regarding cloud storage applies here too.

XR6Naranja · 16-03-2012, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgt_doofey

Surprising no one mentioned Google Docs: https://docs.google.com/
Usual disclaimer regarding cloud storage applies here too.

PimpMyHubcap mentioned it =)

But basically all these ideas work, depending on how you wanna do things one of these will suit very well.

I haven't ever used cloud sharing, I've always used Teamviewer to access my computer from the Radio Station I volunteer at, and just use my home computer to run things, all works =)

But with cloud sharing as said before, if you're a big company you may have competitors wanting to look at your stuff, illegal, doesn't happen often, main things stolen from cloud storage are passwords, card details and that sort of stuff, so don't put any of that on there.

burnz · 16-03-2012, 08:16 PM

windows remote assist can be used the same way.

kermey · 19-03-2012, 09:13 AM

Excellent, thanks for all the help everyone.
Cheers.

HLC · 19-03-2012, 12:26 PM

Why has no one suggested setting up a network and sharing the drives through the computers/net?

XR6Naranja · 19-03-2012, 12:34 PM

As far as I can gather the two computers aren't in the same building, so a network through computers/modem isn't possible, as for network over the internet, basically that's what Cloud Sharing and Remote Access does, unless you wish to set up a private VPN which most usually require one person on each computer or extra set up, and to use it for business can sometimes cost money.

Just my thoughts though.

lilmattie · 19-03-2012, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kermey

Hey everyone, just after a little help. Im probably not going to be able to explain this to well but im going to give it a crack.

What I want to be able to do is have a word or excel document that I can access through the internet on 2 differnet computers. That both computers can access and edit it.

Im just not sure how I would even start to go about doing this so im after your advice.

One more problem I have just experinced is that I have just moved house and tried to get my iinet internet brough accross to the new house. They came out and connected the phone line and said some one will be out in the next few days to set up the internet. Well after a few days we get a message to say that can not supply us internet in this area.

Thats fine, so I got onto telestra to some women on the phone and she told me I can not have adsl at all and the only option I have is satelite. I tryed to ask her about it but I could hardly understand her and she just wanted to palm me off to another number to which was not even open.

So anyways my question is. If you have a phone line connected to your house surely there must be some form of internet avaliable through the telephone line?

Any help would be great, Cheers.

If you're using Windows, then you could store the file on one computer and access it remotely from the other one using the inbuilt Microsoft Terminal Services.

Start>Run>mstsc.exe

That's how I would do it. Of course you have to open a port on the router and NAT it to 3389 but that's easy enough on most routers.

Edit: Ah.. he might not have a static IP. Dodgy way of taking care of that is dynamicDNS.

As for the internet - no. While ADSL utilizes the phone line, it doesn't necessary mean that the exchange is ADSL/2 enabled or if there is room on the DSLAM. It also depends if the line that was run to your house is pairgain etc.. theres different reasons why it might not be available.

The other internet option available to you is wireless broadband. Not necessarily the 3G/4G USB devices but something like a home wireless gateway or the business service might be worthwhile looking into. As with all things Telstra, they're a bit more expensive.

sgt_doofey · 19-03-2012, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lilmattie

If you're using Windows, then you could store the file on one computer and access it remotely from the other one using the inbuilt Microsoft Terminal Services.

Start>Run>mstsc.exe

That's how I would do it. Of course you have to open a port on the router and NAT it to 3389 but that's easy enough on most routers.

No, don't do that. That's a very insecure way of accessing computers and opens up your home PC to attacks from the outside world.
If you want to do something along those lines, then look at setting up a VPN which you use to connect up through.

lilmattie · 20-03-2012, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgt_doofey

No, don't do that. That's a very insecure way of accessing computers and opens up your home PC to attacks from the outside world.
If you want to do something along those lines, then look at setting up a VPN which you use to connect up through.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/...ns-part-2.aspx

Quote:

Originally Posted by Microsoft MSDN

1) Myth: RDP is insecure; there is no encryption
To be clear, this is totally false! RDP has always supported strong encryption and is by default encrypted!
What has changed over the releases is the type of encryption we offer. The very first versions of RDP back in the Windows 2000 era had encryption that was based on SSL.
As early as Windows 2003 SP1 RDP we decided to introduce full-blown standards-based encryption (i.e. the same SSL as your browser uses to connect to your bank). SP1 did this by introducing standard SSL-encryption as an option.
Current versions of RDP have even stronger encryption and server authentication options out of the box. This is because they are built on top of a security mechanism in Windows called CredSSP which uses Kerberos or TLS (aka SSL) for authentication – when you use those settings RDP is using the same or stronger encryption that your browser uses when communicating with your bank.

If his computer is up to date and he uses a strong secure password - he won't have an issue. And, he could port direct a non-standard external port number to translate to the local 3389 port. These are things that should be done regardless.
And having an RDP service available to the internet is no worse than having a teamviewer or logmein service running on his PC.

There's lots of things that he could do to make it more secure. The most secure option is to disconnect his machine from the internet and transfer files using a USB memory stick. Yes, a VPN connection will make RDP more secure but I don't think it's necessary. But if he's going to do it that way, he will need to make sure that his router can terminate the VPN.

DJL351 · 20-03-2012, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lilmattie

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rds/archive/...ns-part-2.aspx

If his computer is up to date and he uses a strong secure password - he won't have an issue. These are things that should be done regardless.
And having an RDP service available to the internet is no worse than having a teamviewer or logmein service running on his PC.

There's lots of things that he could do to make it more secure. The most secure option is to disconnect his machine from the internet and transfer files using a USB memory stick. Yes, a VPN connection will make RDP more secure but I don't think it's necessary. But if he's going to do it that way, he will need to make sure that his router can terminate the VPN.

Yeah - no issues with MS stuff........
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...letin/ms12-020

Quote:

Executive Summary
This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in the Remote Desktop Protocol. The more severe of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if an attacker sends a sequence of specially crafted RDP packets to an affected system. By default, the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is not enabled on any Windows operating system. Systems that do not have RDP enabled are not at risk.

lilmattie · 20-03-2012, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DJL351

Yeah - no issues with MS stuff........
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s...letin/ms12-020

I knew someone would post that one up.

I never said there wasn't issues. That's Microsoft.. you want to use their stuff, you put up with their updates and patch fixes.. or you don't.

Quote:

Executive Summary
This security update resolves two privately reported vulnerabilities in the Remote Desktop Protocol. The more severe of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if an attacker sends a sequence of specially crafted RDP packets to an affected system. By default, the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is not enabled on any Windows operating system. Systems that do not have RDP enabled are not at risk.

Issue has been fixed.