Okay, so this part is probably only going to be new to me… but here it goes, anyway.

I was told before I came back home (I’m living in North Carolina right now, telecommuting between here and Ann Arbor via the wonder of the internet) that if I had any problem hooking up my Virtual Private Network, that I could call the home office and they could “remote access” my PC and help me out. So why it was a surprise to me to see my cursor moving without any pursuasion on my part, I don’t know… but it was.

Here’s the thing: we need to use the VPN to do certain tasks, like accessing “applecrisp,” using Microsoft Outlook (which is SO MUCH EASIER than Webmail) and various other tasks. The VPN, as Bruce described it, creates a virtual tunnel, through which I can send and receive information without a third party watching. So, if I need to pull something off our server… say it’s a schematic for our marketing materials… I can get that from MI to NC safely without any of our competitors looking at it. Brilliant!

The best part is, I didn’t even have to call! I was able to use our custom-made Instant Messenger program [that is sometimes called "Pandion" and sometimes called "Pidgeon" ...?] to let Justin know I was in distress. He gave me some pretty simple directions, and all of the sudden, I was watching the car drive itself, so to speak.

And while its kinda creepy to watch your computer type passwords, access Websites and troubleshoot itself (well, sort of…) Its sooooo cool at the same time.

*** notice all the oooo’s above? This is apparently a big no-no with Google. I guess they don’t like excessive punctuation marks either. You may want to note this if you’re working on your SEO…

ttyl!

stormie