Patrick Shaw’s Weblog

Many small nonprofit agencies really are just a single employee (often the executive director) and a laptop. This generally means home office space and not a lot of funding for technology - and usually just a laptop that gets passed around should the executive director change. Given the constraints of a small agency and a smaller budget - what IS the right solution for a stable and secure one laptop office?

In order to implement this, you need six main components - and a new way of thinking!

1. A laptop running Windows XP Pro that you use when you are away from your home office
2. A desktop machine running Windows XP Pro that is the “brain” of your home office
3. An external hard drive device for storage and backup
4. A router that support dynamic dns (more about that later) OR a software tool that will “match and report” your address for you.
5. Broadband access both at home and in remote locations
6. 6. Anti virus and other mal-ware software such as Live OneCare, from Microsoft.

And the new way of thinking? It goes like this: Your laptop becomes a window to your data - you don’t store anything on it! You use it to connect to your desktop back home - here’s how:

Windows offers a tool called Remote Desktop. It lets you quickly and easily establish a connection to another computer - and since it really just sends and receives video information - it is pretty speedy. So if you’re working from a coffee shop - instead of opening your email on your laptop - you connect to your desktop and open it there.

The big advantage with this scenario is that your data is centrally located on one machine and one machine only. Additionally - you’ll use that external hard drive to back it up regularly - AND if your laptop breaks or is lost or stolen - you haven’t lost or exposed your data. Here are some more details!

What Is Dynamic DNS?

To make this work, your home computer will have to have an address that doesn’t change. However, most home connections are dynamic - it is easier for your provider to have the flexibility of changing that number as needed. That can make it difficult for you to “find” your home computer from somewhere else - and that’s where Dynamic DNS comes in - it lets you report your IP address to a secure location -and it “maps” that location to a name of your choosing. There are several organizations that provide this service, including www.dyndns.org - and many of the services are free!

You might be wondering about the external hard drive. That’s because I’m assuming that the workstation at home belongs to you, and not your nonprofit agency. You can purchase a storage drive that includes backup software - and should you change your position with your nonprofit - you just have to deliver that external hard drive and the laptop and you’re done - no fussing with trying to transfer files. On top of that - you’ll be able to backup your data - a key component of stable and secure.

Putting It All Together (a very general “how-to”):

1. Make sure you have a laptop and a desktop running Windows XP
2. Make sure you’re router supports Dynamic DNS
3. Install an external hard drive and store all of your data on it (email, documents, everything. Don’t forget your QuickBooks data and any other important items that might not naturally be located in the “my documents” folder!
4. Register with www.dyndns.org
5. Download and install Remote Desktop (free!)
6. When at home - use your desktop machine and store all data on the external hard drive
7. When not at home, use your laptop - open Remote Desktop, connect to your home computer, and store all of your data on your external hard drive!

Other Considerations:

• Wireless security
• Offsite backup
• Other items