# Work form home? Simple enough



## fixidixi (Mar 27, 2014)

Working from home? Couldn't be more simple...


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## sundaymouse (Mar 27, 2014)

The title looks spam tbh


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## drmike (Mar 27, 2014)

So Linux + VirtualBox + Windows XP or?

Lots of hoop jumping just to get to work.


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## KuJoe (Mar 27, 2014)

I would rather work at my desk than work from home. It's just easier with less distractions and I can listen to my music or watch my movies as loud as I want without waking people up. Heck, even on holidays when I have the night off I still go into work with some pizza and Netflix, the conference rooms are 100x better than any movie theater I've ever been to.


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## raindog308 (Mar 27, 2014)

I use a VirtualBox VM to connect to work as well, mainly so that I can continue to access my home network (e.g., iTunes on the NAS) on the physical host while VPN'd.

But I use Win 7 in the VM, not XP


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## pcan (Mar 27, 2014)

To open my desktop at work from my home PC, I simply double click a remote desktop connection icon, with the remote desktop gateway section filled. The Windows remote desktop gateway service at the office does manage the VPN tunnel and forwards the RDP session to the relevant machine. This does not disrupt the regular networking of the home PC, because the SSL VPN is limited to the RDP session. It is not the most secure setup available, but still pretty good on a security standpoint, cheap and brain dead simple.

I still remember the time before the widespread adoption of Windows 2000, when I had to go at the office after dinner to reboot servers; the wonderful Windows NT had a scheduler, but let'say it was not perfect. That was a pain.


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## KuJoe (Mar 27, 2014)

We started using VDIs at work which is much much better than lugging around a work laptop and easier than logging into the VPN. I've got the Citrix Receiver app on my tablet so I can even use that if I don't want to power up my home laptop.


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## Everyday (Mar 27, 2014)

Virtual Desktop is the way to go! We setup a bunch for accounting firms so now they don't have to take data with them and they can work together from anywhere. 

I love working from home though.


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## drmike (Mar 27, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> I would rather work at my desk than work from home. It's just easier with less distractions and I can listen to my music or watch my movies as loud as I want without waking people up. Heck, even on holidays when I have the night off I still go into work with some pizza and Netflix, the conference rooms are 100x better than any movie theater I've ever been to.


I have one word for the work at home group: KIDS.

I ahh, like offices, sort of.  Escape from home, interact with adults... Most of us wash our hinds, put on fresh clothes, freshen up...

I'd probably be horrified stopping by to visit most of you work at homers.


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## fixidixi (Mar 27, 2014)

@drmike:

well both. i have debian+win7 installed on both my laptop and the [email protected] im using an xp image as its way much smaller then a win7 install and its only purpose is to run mstsc and the vpn client. not too long ago ive re-discovered that there is an snx client out there for linux, but still had some trouble running openvpn along that, so yea virtualbox->vpn->rdp session is the way to go. sometimes rdp2


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## drmike (Mar 27, 2014)

I avoid Winblows, too drafty for my liking.  Windows is like a portal.  If there is another dimension, entering it to reach hell surely must involve going through Windows.

Been chilling lately with this x2go which is peachy.  Can't get the audio part figured out, but hey it's all Linux, whatcha' expect?  Audio over net seems kind of abusive to me.   Like, my desktop is laggy, while I stream audio


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## TruvisT (Mar 27, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> We started using VDIs at work which is much much better than lugging around a work laptop and easier than logging into the VPN. I've got the Citrix Receiver app on my tablet so I can even use that if I don't want to power up my home laptop.


How we do it. My new laptop Lenovo Yoga Pro 2 just came in today and I am using it right now and in a few seconds I have everything like I never left it. It is so great too when you are on the go and work from 3 laptops and a desktop on a daily basis.


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## Everyday (Mar 27, 2014)

For Virtual Desktop we also use thin clients in the office so you don't even need a pc or laptop. Eliminates the need for a hardware refresh, licensing, etc.

I learned to work from home from my Dad. He said no matter what, get up, take a shower, get dressed and have a room that can be your office. When you go in there you're at work. Don't think of it as home, just think of it as a really short commute.


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## dano (Mar 27, 2014)

I think of my really short commute also...from bed, to shower, to desk, woot!


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## tchen (Mar 27, 2014)

Any suggestions for VDIs with decent GPU support? Or is the tech not there yet?


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## Nett (Mar 28, 2014)

I thought it's another Pyramid scheme scam when I looked at the title lol.


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## pcan (Mar 28, 2014)

tchen said:


> Any suggestions for VDIs with decent GPU support? Or is the tech not there yet?


It is not there, definitely. I recently tried even the most expensive solutions (it would be nice to use VDI for 3D CAD applications), but performance is barely sufficient, at best, and stability is lower than a non-virtualized setup. Citrix seems to have the edge, anyway.


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## KuJoe (Mar 28, 2014)

pcan said:


> Citrix seems to have the edge, anyway.


+1. The Citrix Receiver app is impressive and can be installed on any OS.


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## blergh (Mar 29, 2014)




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## mikho (Mar 29, 2014)

blergh said:


>


Was that in the working description from Martin?


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## Lorne (Mar 31, 2014)

Working from home is great. I spent the past 20 years in construction and oilfield work travelling all over to damn near every little shithole in Canada. I'll take working at home in my comfy chair and quiet any time. I have a small gym right next to my office and always take some time during my shifts to get a workout in.

Set of 10 chins > ticket > set of 10 chins > ticket > set of curls > ticket and so on


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## drmike (Mar 31, 2014)

^--- we have ourselves a bona fide working dude there.

Yeah after that work, pansy mode around the house with an apron is appealing.

I need in house nail staff and one of those whores to wash my feet.


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## blergh (Mar 31, 2014)

mikho said:


> Was that in the working description from Martin?


You bet it was!


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## Shados (Mar 31, 2014)

Lorne said:


> Working from home is great. I spent the past 20 years in construction and oilfield work travelling all over to damn near every little shithole in Canada. I'll take working at home in my comfy chair and quiet any time. I have a small gym right next to my office and always take some time during my shifts to get a workout in.
> 
> Set of 10 chins > ticket > set of 10 chins > ticket > set of curls > ticket and so on


There's a 24/7 gym across the road and down ~30m from my house, I'm quite interested in remote/part-time work in no small part because I'd be able to make much better use of it then .


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## KuJoe (Mar 31, 2014)

I worked from home for about 2 hours tonight and I couldn't wait to drive into work. It's so relaxing here and I'm 100% more productive, I just wish they had IPv6.


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## fisle (Apr 1, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> I worked from home for about 2 hours tonight and I couldn't wait to drive into work. It's so relaxing here and I'm 100% more productive, I just wish they had IPv6.


Wait what you have IPv6 at home but not at work? Isn't it usually the opposite..


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## KuJoe (Apr 1, 2014)

fisle said:


> Wait what you have IPv6 at home but not at work? Isn't it usually the opposite..


Correct. They plan on rolling our IPv6 here eventually but we have so many IPv4 addresses that we give each workstation an IP from the /16 we have AND we use NAT on the firewalls so those IPs are only accessible inside our own network. In reality we have less than 1000 servers that are accessible externally so a /16 will last us a long time so there's no rush for IPv6 yet.

At home on the other hand, I only have 1 IPv4 and a /64 of IPv6 so I utilize it to the best of my ability (not to mention IPv6 connectivity is better than IPv4 since Comcast hands it off to Level3 as soon as they can).


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## tchen (Apr 1, 2014)

Silly question, but is there any reason to use non-reserved IPs behind a NAT?  *preemptively shakesfist*


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## KuJoe (Apr 1, 2014)

tchen said:


> Silly question, but is there any reason to use non-reserved IPs behind a NAT?  *preemptively shakesfist*


Well the NAT is for security but why they aren't using private IPs for workstations is beyond me. I guess when you have more IPs than you will ever need you might as well use them.


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## Shados (Apr 2, 2014)

KuJoe said:


> Well the NAT is for security


...If you've got public IPs, isn't that what your firewall is for ._.?


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## KuJoe (Apr 2, 2014)

Shados said:


> ...If you've got public IPs, isn't that what your firewall is for ._.?


Yes, we have millions of dollars worth of firewalls but we use NAT so that the workstation IPs are NOT publicly accessible.


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## rsk (Apr 4, 2014)

Well, humor me. Licensing requires us to change something around. No more home offices. So I guess, netflix and pizza would be the best option too


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