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[gamegreen]

I see people wondering what to do when they are away from home, yet wish to safely access their freebie accounts without being in danger of getting put on hold. One way to do this, and the way I do it is to set up your home computer for remote access, then you can get to your freebie accounts by going through your home computer. That way you can access your accounts from anywhere, yet the site still sees your home IP address when you connect.

I want to discuss various ways of accomplishing this task.

REMOTE CONTROL:

Perhaps the easiest way of doing this is to use a remote controll program. There are commercial programs like PCAnywhere, but for most people I recommend using Windows Remote Desktop, as it's freely available, and most likely already on your system. The following tutorial has some great information about how to set it up, and also other issues you may face with remote access such as setting up a dynamic DNS hostname, and configuring your router to accept and forward incoming connections for remote desktop:

Windows Remote Desktop Connection | Team Tutorials

Remote control programs allow you to control a computer remotely exactly as if you were sitting in front of that computer. They consist of a server that you run on your home computer, and a client that you run on the computer you are at remotely. You point the client at your home IP address (or hostname if set up) and then you can run programs on your home computer, while the interface is displayed on the screen you are using remotely. When you run your browser this way, the sites you connect to will see your home IP address. All of the programs I know of that provide this functionality cost money, though some offer free trials. Here are a few examples:

http://www.gotomypc.com
http://www.logmein.com
Access Remote PC -- Home

VNC (Virtual Network Computing):

Another way of doing the same thing is with VNC software. VNC makes it possible to view and use the desktop of one computer from any other computer. The remote desktop is called the server, while the machine that you're using to access the remote desktop is called the client. Very similar to the above mentioned software, though configuration and use is probably slightly more complicated. You can however find free implementations of VNC for most platforms.

VNC software:
Chicken of the VNC - Geekspiff (Mac)
SourceForge.net: TightVNC (multi-platform)

VNC Howto:
VNC HOWTO

SSH (Secure SHell):

This is what I use. When I am away from home, and I want to check the status of one of my sites or my referrals, I log in to my home computer remotely, then check the status of my site from there. I can just log in to the SSH server running on my home computer, then use lynx (a text based web browser) to access my accounts and the site sees the ip of my home computer and all is well. I prefer to do it this way because with text based applications there is much less information to transfer through the network, and this makes using this method more responsive.

SSH software:
Secure Shell / Copy (SSH/SCP) Server for Windows (ssh servers and clients for windows)
PuTTY: a free telnet/ssh client (ssh client)
Cygwin Information and Installation (unix tools for windows including text based browser)

Resources:
Secure Shell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PROXY:

Another way of routing your connection to a site through your home computer's IP address is through the use of a proxy. I know, you're going to tell me that proxy servers are not allowed. Well what I'm talking about is different in that you can run the proxy on your home computer. The reason proxies are not allowed is that if you route your connection through a proxy it hides your true IP address (the site can only see the IP of the proxy). This can work in your favor when the proxy is running on your own computer because then the site sees the IP of the proxy, which in this case is your home IP address. Setting up a proxy is a little more complicated than the remote control or VNC options mentioned above, but is nice because you don't need to install a client on the remote system you are working on. You can simply set the browser to connect via the proxy by pointing it at your home IP address.

Setting up a proxy server for this purpose is something you'll have to learn how to do, but it is not very difficult. Here are some resources to get started if you are interested in doing this:

Proxy software:
http://www.privoxy.org Privoxy (multi-platform)

Resources:
Proxy Howto
Proxy server - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Other resources:
40+ Ways To Access Your Computer Remotely (general remote access options)
mikeash.com: Using ssh as a SOCKS proxy on Mac OS X (SSH/Socks info)
Pure Mac: Remote Access - Software for Macintosh (Mac remote access options)

Of course, any time you run any remotely accessible service on your home computer, you have to be aware of the security considerations, but for me the benefits far outweigh the risks which can be kept to a minimum if you just take some basic precautions. Security is a complex topic, and there are many measures you can take to protect yourself. Just put a little effort into researching it and you should be fine, but feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.

For all of these solutions, you will need to know how to set up port forwarding if you are behind any kind of firewall. Check your router or firewall documentation for information on how to accomplish this.

I hope this post was informative and helpful to those looking for a way to continue trading effectively when out and about or traveling. If you have any questions, helpful additions or corrections to this information, by all means please post them. You may also PM me if you have any questions or would like advice for your personal situation.

[teenyvikingchild]

Wow! This should be a STICKY and in the TUTORIAL section! Thanks so much! That is all really great information! Great to know as I am going to be traveling soon!

[detect2173]

Good stuff...there is also remote desktop built into the Windows OS as well (Unless you are running Vista Home) which is both easy to set up and easy to use. Thanks for the info!

[gamegreen]

Originally Posted by teenyvikingchild

Wow! This should be a STICKY and in the TUTORIAL section! Thanks so much! That is all really great information! Great to know as I am going to be traveling soon!

No problem. I don't think they accept stuff in the tutorial section anymore, but perhaps that's because there was starting to be so much duplicate information. I haven't seen any information about this anywhere in the forum yet, so who knows, maybe they'll make an exception...

[detect2173]

I would hope so. This is the type of information people really need! (Although it may cause you to get a ton of "how do I..." PM's lol)

[gamegreen]

Originally Posted by detect2173

I would hope so. This is the type of information people really need! (Although it may cause you to get a ton of "how do I..." PM's lol)

Right now, I'm answering about 50 emails a day, so I'm use to it

[detect2173]

Originally Posted by gamegreen

Right now, I'm answering about 50 emails a day, so I'm use to it

Wow are you an IT guy?

[gamegreen]

Originally Posted by detect2173

Wow are you an IT guy?

Yeah, a bit, though not tech support. Computers have been a hobby for a long time, and I do a fair amount of computer related work too. Plus I started working on a degree in IT/Networking recently.

The emails I'm answering lately have nothiing to do with IT, but it's kind of all the same to me :)

[detect2173]

Originally Posted by gamegreen

Yeah, a bit, though not tech support. Computers have been a hobby for a long time, and I do a fair amount of computer related work too. Plus I started working on a degree in IT/Networking recently.

The emails I'm answering lately have nothiing to do with IT, but it's kind of all the same to me :)

That's exactly how I've done it...screwing up computers over the years! lol I would love to get certified, but don't have the time or money right now!

[FisherPerson]

Wow nice post thanks!