Today the Ontario government announced that all non-essential businesses are to close in Ontario. Businesses that can operate remotely are encouraged to do so and must prepare quickly.
“Workplaces that can run with employees working remotely now have just under 36 hours to “adapt and prepare,” Ford said. The province is prepared to extend the shutdown order if necessary, he added.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/03/23/news/ontario-orders-shutdown-all-non-essential-businesses
Bowes IT is committed to helping businesses through this shutdown.
For clients who have not had us set up remote access in the past but need it now, we are asking you to be patient as we work through a potential backlog. Please email support@bowesit.ca with your request for remote access and provide us with:
- Who needs remote access
- What resources they need access to
- From what devices they’ll be connecting with
In most cases, we will then send you links to get us connected to the devices that users will be using for remote access and the computers they’ll be accessing remotely. We ask that you just leave the connection open as we work through the requests. In general, the process will be:
- We’ll set up a VPN connection to your router or add VPN server software to your server or an always-on computer at your office
- We’ll configure user accounts in the VPN server and connect to the device that will be used remotely and configure it to connect to the new office VPN
- Once the VPN is set up, we’ll create a remote desktop connection to the users’ office computer or, give them direct access to shared data on the office network
Each connection will be a bit different so we’ll communicate with you when the process is going to be different. Some businesses may benefit more from using OneDrive or Sharepoint and others might be a better fit for a commercial remote desktop product.
In all cases, we’ll reach out when we’re done and explain how to use your new remote access.
Thank you for your patience and rest assured, we will do whatever it takes to keep our clients’ networks accessible to them and their businesses running during this unprecedented and challenging time. Please stay safe, stay home, and wash hands often.
Finally — this will be an evolving document as we refine our process to best manage remote access installations,