Working from home

[dmccloy]

Working from home without a network linking to office computer: Can I load PChurch on my computer at home and save any updates/changes to a CD or jump drive and go to the office and load those changes/updates onto the PChurch program there and vice/versa so both home and office have accurate information at all times and I have flexibility to work either place?

[peabodyumc]

Yes you can. It is very easy, painless, quick -- great actually!! However, you might verify after backing up and before leaving one computer. I learned that the hard way when I backed up at home after updating some records and came to the church to restore and there was no back up there. I had to go back home and do it again. Luckily I only live about 6 blocks from the church! For some reason I have issues with the back up feature -- it doesn't always back up even though I get the message saying it is backed up with no errors. So I just always double check to make sure I have the most current back up on my CD.

Laurie

[NeilZ]

Working from home without a network linking to office computer: Can I load PChurch on my computer at home and save any updates/changes to a CD or jump drive and go to the office and load those changes/updates onto the PChurch program there and vice/versa so both home and office have accurate information at all times and I have flexibility to work either place?

If the church computer, as well as your own can access the internet (even with Dial Up), you may want to take a look at GoToMyPC.COM. This site allows you to connect to anyinternet connected PC through a web browser.

There is a monthly or yearly fee involved, but we have set this up on our system for our treasurer to use, and now she's able to do all the bookkeeping from home, print checks and reports, without having to drive to church.

We set this up so we wouldn't have to worry about data being overwritten by a restore of an outdated backup.

[jeffkoke]

Working from home without a network linking to office computer: Can I load PChurch on my computer at home and save any updates/changes to a CD or jump drive and go to the office and load those changes/updates onto the PChurch program there and vice/versa so both home and office have accurate information at all times and I have flexibility to work either place?

My only caution is that if someone is working on PowerChurch while you are working on it at home, when you do your restore it will effectively remove any of the changes made by the user who did the work at church.

Neil's suggestion of using GoToMyPC is a good one. I recommend it as well.

My $.07 worth,
Jeff

[Mike_P]

I've been using Symantec PCAnywhere for about 4 years. This has worked great for us and with no ongoing fees. It's a direct computer to computer connection via phone lines. Our computer at the church is not continuously connected to the internet (nor do we want it to be) and shares a dial-up line with our fax machine. You load up PCA host and remote software on both machines match the settings and set up user accounts. Then you can dial in from your home computer and the church's computer answers the call. (Ours is set to pick up before the fax.) A window opens on your screen at home with the church's desktop. Anything you do in that window, you're actually doing on the church machine! You can even transfer files back and forth - great for an immediate off site backup.

This does tie up the church computer while you're connected, so I do not log in when I know the secretary is working there. There have been occasional but infrequent lockups that freeze up things and require me to drive over and reboot the church computer but I live just a few blocks from the church. But the convenience of working from home far exeeeds those times, especially here in February.

Mike P.

[NeilZ]

I've been using Symantec PCAnywhere for about 4 years. This has worked great for us and with no ongoing fees. It's a direct computer to computer connection via phone lines. Our computer at the church is not continuously connected to the internet (nor do we want it to be) and shares a dial-up line with our fax machine. You load up PCA host and remote software on both machines match the settings and set up user accounts. Then you can dial in from your home computer and the church's computer answers the call. (Ours is set to pick up before the fax.) A window opens on your screen at home with the church's desktop. Anything you do in that window, you're actually doing on the church machine! You can even transfer files back and forth - great for an immediate off site backup.

This does tie up the church computer while you're connected, so I do not log in when I know the secretary is working there. There have been occasional but infrequent lockups that freeze up things and require me to drive over and reboot the church computer but I live just a few blocks from the church. But the convenience of working from home far exeeeds those times, especially here in February.

Mike P.

I recommend PC Anywhere for any site that does not have a 'always on' broadband connection, however, for anyother, Go To My PC really beats PC Anywhere for its ease of use, and installation. It works behind a firewall without having to open any ports, as you would have for PCAnywhere.