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Working from home...

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  • J Offline
    J Offline
    Joan M
    wrote on last edited by
    #1

    I'm planning to start working from home for less than a year, only a plan by now; I would like to study (prior taking any decision) what should I need there to work safely. I know I'll need a UPS system, but I'm more worried about the version control system and the backups. Being at home I won't be able to use the tape system in my company neither I'll be able to use subversion. What would you recommend me? My work environment will be Visual Studio 2012... would a NAS be a good solution? in case it would, how would you interface it through a version control system and which one would you use? raid? of course the solution should not be expensive, I'm planning to work at home and send the job to the company each week (when I'll be there physically). What would you recommend me? Thank you in advance! :thumbsup:

    [www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]

    B L M M R 14 Replies Last reply
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    • J Joan M

      I'm planning to start working from home for less than a year, only a plan by now; I would like to study (prior taking any decision) what should I need there to work safely. I know I'll need a UPS system, but I'm more worried about the version control system and the backups. Being at home I won't be able to use the tape system in my company neither I'll be able to use subversion. What would you recommend me? My work environment will be Visual Studio 2012... would a NAS be a good solution? in case it would, how would you interface it through a version control system and which one would you use? raid? of course the solution should not be expensive, I'm planning to work at home and send the job to the company each week (when I'll be there physically). What would you recommend me? Thank you in advance! :thumbsup:

      [www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]

      B Offline
      B Offline
      BobJanova
      wrote on last edited by
      #2

      Best answer is to use your company's source control remotely, then you'll get all their backup technology for free. However you suggest that's not possible. Set up a SVN server locally (either on the dev machine or, better, on another machine on your network). That will cover you for the 99.9% case of either nothing going wrong, or something going wrong with 1 out of 2 hard disks. To get an off site backup, leaving a copy of your repository with your company once a week (could just be a USB stick with it on left in your desk) should be sufficient. You could arrange an automated backup-swap with a friend though (you back up their files, they yours) through SFTP.

      J 1 Reply Last reply
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      • B BobJanova

        Best answer is to use your company's source control remotely, then you'll get all their backup technology for free. However you suggest that's not possible. Set up a SVN server locally (either on the dev machine or, better, on another machine on your network). That will cover you for the 99.9% case of either nothing going wrong, or something going wrong with 1 out of 2 hard disks. To get an off site backup, leaving a copy of your repository with your company once a week (could just be a USB stick with it on left in your desk) should be sufficient. You could arrange an automated backup-swap with a friend though (you back up their files, they yours) through SFTP.

        J Offline
        J Offline
        Joan M
        wrote on last edited by
        #3

        Yes, that remote access would be the best (and in order to do that I would need only to set up a VPN to our server) but our internet connection is so slow that I would probably be faster sending trained pigeons to our company... :rolleyes:

        [www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]

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        • J Joan M

          Yes, that remote access would be the best (and in order to do that I would need only to set up a VPN to our server) but our internet connection is so slow that I would probably be faster sending trained pigeons to our company... :rolleyes:

          [www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]

          E Offline
          E Offline
          enhzflep
          wrote on last edited by
          #4

          Well there's always this solution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers[^] :laugh:

          J 1 Reply Last reply
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          • E enhzflep

            Well there's always this solution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers[^] :laugh:

            J Offline
            J Offline
            Joan M
            wrote on last edited by
            #5

            The fail ratio due to hunters and predators is too high for me... Anyway, being in the automation market I could create a robot that would free automatically a new pigeon after the first one has died... And this is how my world control started!!!! MUHAHWHAHAHAHA! :rolleyes:

            [www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]

            E 1 Reply Last reply
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            • J Joan M

              The fail ratio due to hunters and predators is too high for me... Anyway, being in the automation market I could create a robot that would free automatically a new pigeon after the first one has died... And this is how my world control started!!!! MUHAHWHAHAHAHA! :rolleyes:

              [www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]

              E Offline
              E Offline
              enhzflep
              wrote on last edited by
              #6

              That's certainly one version of SkyNet I'd not considered. :thumbsup:

              S G 2 Replies Last reply
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              • J Joan M

                I'm planning to start working from home for less than a year, only a plan by now; I would like to study (prior taking any decision) what should I need there to work safely. I know I'll need a UPS system, but I'm more worried about the version control system and the backups. Being at home I won't be able to use the tape system in my company neither I'll be able to use subversion. What would you recommend me? My work environment will be Visual Studio 2012... would a NAS be a good solution? in case it would, how would you interface it through a version control system and which one would you use? raid? of course the solution should not be expensive, I'm planning to work at home and send the job to the company each week (when I'll be there physically). What would you recommend me? Thank you in advance! :thumbsup:

                [www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]

                L Offline
                L Offline
                Lost User
                wrote on last edited by
                #7

                I'd use cloudForge.com (nothing in the recommendation for me- I'm just a happy user) They do free hosting if your a lonely single user. Assuming your internet is reasonably reliable and not stupidly slow (and you're not making huge file changes every day) it's a winner. Locally I would just have a backup to some device you can take off site just in case - even if that is just a USB you can leave at a friends house every week, or even leave at the company you're going to each week. worst case (you lose your home PC completely and couldForge aren't available) you have a week old backup.

                D 1 Reply Last reply
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                • E enhzflep

                  That's certainly one version of SkyNet I'd not considered. :thumbsup:

                  S Offline
                  S Offline
                  S Houghtelin
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #8

                  First, there were the carrier pigeons, soon after would come the warrior pigeons...:~ There were many that thought the idea would never get off the ground.

                  It was broke, so I fixed it.

                  E 1 Reply Last reply
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                  • S S Houghtelin

                    First, there were the carrier pigeons, soon after would come the warrior pigeons...:~ There were many that thought the idea would never get off the ground.

                    It was broke, so I fixed it.

                    E Offline
                    E Offline
                    enhzflep
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #9

                    :thumbsup: :laugh:

                    1 Reply Last reply
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                    • L Lost User

                      I'd use cloudForge.com (nothing in the recommendation for me- I'm just a happy user) They do free hosting if your a lonely single user. Assuming your internet is reasonably reliable and not stupidly slow (and you're not making huge file changes every day) it's a winner. Locally I would just have a backup to some device you can take off site just in case - even if that is just a USB you can leave at a friends house every week, or even leave at the company you're going to each week. worst case (you lose your home PC completely and couldForge aren't available) you have a week old backup.

                      D Offline
                      D Offline
                      Darren_vms
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #10

                      If you are looking for cheap, secure off site backups then take several memory sticks and backup the system on Monday with one of them, put this memory stick in a self addressed envelope with the lowest possible postage and drop it in the mail. Tuesday perform the same and Wednesday again the same, keep doing this and by Friday/Saturday Mondays memory stick might be back with you. Depending on the postal services speed and rotation you should be able to achieve several off site backups with a daily retrieve rate with each mornings mail. :-D J/K over:- Some ISPs offer a cloud backup solution mine offers 50GB in the price which might be worth looking into.

                      1 Reply Last reply
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                      • J Joan M

                        I'm planning to start working from home for less than a year, only a plan by now; I would like to study (prior taking any decision) what should I need there to work safely. I know I'll need a UPS system, but I'm more worried about the version control system and the backups. Being at home I won't be able to use the tape system in my company neither I'll be able to use subversion. What would you recommend me? My work environment will be Visual Studio 2012... would a NAS be a good solution? in case it would, how would you interface it through a version control system and which one would you use? raid? of course the solution should not be expensive, I'm planning to work at home and send the job to the company each week (when I'll be there physically). What would you recommend me? Thank you in advance! :thumbsup:

                        [www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]

                        M Offline
                        M Offline
                        Marc Clifton
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #11

                        I've been working from home for 20 years now. I use (and pay for) a dedicated server that hosts my SVN, which I use for personal projects and for projects where the client doesn't have an SVN (there's lots of those, because the client often isn't in the business of software development -- that's what they hire me for.) That said, there's a lot of free version control hosting systems. Git, SVN, etc. I prefer SVN because of its simplicity, but I use Git for public projects and for certain clients that are already using Git. For one client, I've recently started using assembla[^] which offers a lot of other nice features, like task tracking. Because I use version control for everything, I do work on both my desktop and laptop. Sometimes I like to work on the laptop because it's portable and I can work in whatever room I want. I've never used a UPS. I am rather aggressive though about unplugging everything when a thunderstorm is coming my way - physically unplugging the power strip from which everything is attached and the ethernet cable attached to the DSL modem. My "UPS" is therefore my laptop if I need to be working. Hope that helps. Marc

                        C 1 Reply Last reply
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                        • J Joan M

                          I'm planning to start working from home for less than a year, only a plan by now; I would like to study (prior taking any decision) what should I need there to work safely. I know I'll need a UPS system, but I'm more worried about the version control system and the backups. Being at home I won't be able to use the tape system in my company neither I'll be able to use subversion. What would you recommend me? My work environment will be Visual Studio 2012... would a NAS be a good solution? in case it would, how would you interface it through a version control system and which one would you use? raid? of course the solution should not be expensive, I'm planning to work at home and send the job to the company each week (when I'll be there physically). What would you recommend me? Thank you in advance! :thumbsup:

                          [www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]

                          M Offline
                          M Offline
                          Munchies_Matt
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #12

                          VPN connection, somewhere on their server you can dump stuff so they back it up. A good internet connection, a good phone connection, and high quality phones (important for conf calls) All the hardware and cables you will need to do the job. A lot of discipline. You need to motivate yourself, you wont have the work environment to do it for you. This is the hardest thing. Be very careful communicating by email, m9isunderstandings are easy.

                          "The whole idea that carbon dioxide is the main cause of the recent global warming is based on a guess that was proved false by empirical evidence during the 1990s." climate-models-go-cold

                          1 Reply Last reply
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                          • J Joan M

                            I'm planning to start working from home for less than a year, only a plan by now; I would like to study (prior taking any decision) what should I need there to work safely. I know I'll need a UPS system, but I'm more worried about the version control system and the backups. Being at home I won't be able to use the tape system in my company neither I'll be able to use subversion. What would you recommend me? My work environment will be Visual Studio 2012... would a NAS be a good solution? in case it would, how would you interface it through a version control system and which one would you use? raid? of course the solution should not be expensive, I'm planning to work at home and send the job to the company each week (when I'll be there physically). What would you recommend me? Thank you in advance! :thumbsup:

                            [www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]

                            R Offline
                            R Offline
                            Roger Wright
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #13

                            I'd strongly recommend that you invest in a pair of hardware VPN boxes - one for work, one at home - and use the company resources just like you would in the office. It's a little slower because of the crypto stuff, but it's secure. You'll also have to be very diligent about keeping anti-malware updated and running on the home machine in order to protect company assets. Go ahead and spend some money if you have to! You won't be needing to waste it on clothes or bathing or any of that personal hygiene stuff you need in the office, so you can afford to do it right. :-D

                            Will Rogers never met me.

                            J 1 Reply Last reply
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                            • R Roger Wright

                              I'd strongly recommend that you invest in a pair of hardware VPN boxes - one for work, one at home - and use the company resources just like you would in the office. It's a little slower because of the crypto stuff, but it's secure. You'll also have to be very diligent about keeping anti-malware updated and running on the home machine in order to protect company assets. Go ahead and spend some money if you have to! You won't be needing to waste it on clothes or bathing or any of that personal hygiene stuff you need in the office, so you can afford to do it right. :-D

                              Will Rogers never met me.

                              J Offline
                              J Offline
                              JimmyRopes
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #14

                              Roger Wright wrote:

                              bathing or any of that personal hygiene stuff you need in the office,

                              You never worked with some of the folks I have worked with. They had zero budget for personal hygene. X|

                              The report of my death was an exaggeration - Mark Twain
                              Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
                              I'm on-line therefore I am. JimmyRopes

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • J Joan M

                                I'm planning to start working from home for less than a year, only a plan by now; I would like to study (prior taking any decision) what should I need there to work safely. I know I'll need a UPS system, but I'm more worried about the version control system and the backups. Being at home I won't be able to use the tape system in my company neither I'll be able to use subversion. What would you recommend me? My work environment will be Visual Studio 2012... would a NAS be a good solution? in case it would, how would you interface it through a version control system and which one would you use? raid? of course the solution should not be expensive, I'm planning to work at home and send the job to the company each week (when I'll be there physically). What would you recommend me? Thank you in advance! :thumbsup:

                                [www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]

                                J Offline
                                J Offline
                                JeremyBob
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #15

                                I sometime do some work from home. Here are my personal preferences. 1. Either VPN to your companies Source Control system, or set up a free Bit-Bucket account online, and sync your files with your companies source when you can. Fortunately we use bit-bucket already, but I also have a personal account for private code. 2. Next you need to make sure you have a stable internet connection. 3. Peace and quiet. You need to make sure you have a environment that is not distracting. Spouse watching TV, Children making noise, Neighbors doing construction. All these can interrupt your productivity. Dogs Barking. 4. You need self dedication and control. Its easy to get distracted at home. So make sure you set yourself strict work schedules. I hope this helps. [edit] Oh as as others have said, if you are on a laptop, and backup your source regularly (as you should!!!!) then a UPS isn't really necessary [/edit]

                                A 1 Reply Last reply
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                                • J Joan M

                                  I'm planning to start working from home for less than a year, only a plan by now; I would like to study (prior taking any decision) what should I need there to work safely. I know I'll need a UPS system, but I'm more worried about the version control system and the backups. Being at home I won't be able to use the tape system in my company neither I'll be able to use subversion. What would you recommend me? My work environment will be Visual Studio 2012... would a NAS be a good solution? in case it would, how would you interface it through a version control system and which one would you use? raid? of course the solution should not be expensive, I'm planning to work at home and send the job to the company each week (when I'll be there physically). What would you recommend me? Thank you in advance! :thumbsup:

                                  [www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]

                                  S Offline
                                  S Offline
                                  shiprat
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #16

                                  things to remember:

                                  • You're saving your employers money and costing yourself money (coffee, heating, etc)
                                  • If you can, get your employer to provide hardware. I haven't bought a desktop in years!
                                  • Leave source control to your employer. access files remotely using git, hg, svn or whatever they use. Commit regularly, branch liberally, merge frequently. rsync can work for some tasks..
                                  • Remember to 'not be at work' for some of the time you spend 'at home'

                                  good luck! :D

                                  1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • M Marc Clifton

                                    I've been working from home for 20 years now. I use (and pay for) a dedicated server that hosts my SVN, which I use for personal projects and for projects where the client doesn't have an SVN (there's lots of those, because the client often isn't in the business of software development -- that's what they hire me for.) That said, there's a lot of free version control hosting systems. Git, SVN, etc. I prefer SVN because of its simplicity, but I use Git for public projects and for certain clients that are already using Git. For one client, I've recently started using assembla[^] which offers a lot of other nice features, like task tracking. Because I use version control for everything, I do work on both my desktop and laptop. Sometimes I like to work on the laptop because it's portable and I can work in whatever room I want. I've never used a UPS. I am rather aggressive though about unplugging everything when a thunderstorm is coming my way - physically unplugging the power strip from which everything is attached and the ethernet cable attached to the DSL modem. My "UPS" is therefore my laptop if I need to be working. Hope that helps. Marc

                                    C Offline
                                    C Offline
                                    Clumpco
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #17

                                    Whatever you do I would go for a NAS. 2-disk Raid 1 boxes are now quite reasonably priced and the better ones have their own built-in "Time Machine". Stick to know makes such as Netgear, QNAP, Synology etc. and avoid cheap Chinese stuff like IcyBox etc. I have just bought yet another Netgear ReadyNas RN31200 for 99€ (Amazon special offer) and plugged a couple of 4TB disks into it (far more expenssive than the box). It runs an open source Linux and as a result there is a plethora of free plug-ins including several SVN server solutions. Netgear also supply a (free) cloud-like service so you can access the data on your NAS when elsewhere. I would get a UPS even if you are not in a stormy area, you never know when the electricity could fail or brown-out. For example, when our deep freeze gave up the ghost it tripped the main breaker. I have had reasonable service from APC and Belkin but by far the best has been Eaton (ex Merlin Gerin) - note that the batteries NEVER last the 5 years that they claim. Most domestic UPS use a pair of standard 12V 7Ah batteries that cost about 15€ each, usually quite easy to change. The VPN solution proposed by others can be very useful for accessing something that you have forgotten, but unless both you and your employer have a decent upload speed (e.g. better that the standard 800 kb/s) it soon becomes a frustrating experience. As far as actually working is concerned I have found it useful to have a distinct reserved space for my work computer (laptop) and physical files, your home computer can be a considerable source of distraction. Hope this helps.

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                                    • E enhzflep

                                      That's certainly one version of SkyNet I'd not considered. :thumbsup:

                                      G Offline
                                      G Offline
                                      Gary Wheeler
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #18

                                      SkyNet. Pigeons. :groan: Please hold still. We're going to have to hurt you now.

                                      Software Zen: delete this;

                                      E 1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • G Gary Wheeler

                                        SkyNet. Pigeons. :groan: Please hold still. We're going to have to hurt you now.

                                        Software Zen: delete this;

                                        E Offline
                                        E Offline
                                        enhzflep
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #19

                                        :submits to impending punishment:

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • J Joan M

                                          I'm planning to start working from home for less than a year, only a plan by now; I would like to study (prior taking any decision) what should I need there to work safely. I know I'll need a UPS system, but I'm more worried about the version control system and the backups. Being at home I won't be able to use the tape system in my company neither I'll be able to use subversion. What would you recommend me? My work environment will be Visual Studio 2012... would a NAS be a good solution? in case it would, how would you interface it through a version control system and which one would you use? raid? of course the solution should not be expensive, I'm planning to work at home and send the job to the company each week (when I'll be there physically). What would you recommend me? Thank you in advance! :thumbsup:

                                          [www.tamautomation.com] | Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing. [YouTube channel]

                                          E Offline
                                          E Offline
                                          Eytukan
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #20

                                          * 20+ inch monitor connected to your notebook * 1 main hispeed Data line. * + 2 back up data lines through 3G/4G from Mobile-USB tethering, or USB Data dongles. (cheap ones are good enough) * 4 different places from where you can work. Keep you work set up totally mobile. It just takes 10 seconds to move my System Vehicle from one spot to another. I get bored working from one corner. And the 5th spot is over the bed. But after 30-40 minutes, your neck, hands everything develop some stress. * And long enough power cables * USB Hub More importantly, Don't choke your TFS clients & online services by consuming bandwidth for videos. Rather go for a box full of P0rns DVD collections.

                                          Starting to think people post kid pics in their profiles because that was the last time they were cute - Jeremy.

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