Accessing your office Synapse database from Home

From $1

1. 219.226.85.131
2. 192.168.1.xxx

There are 2 easy ways to accomplish this task.

(1) use Hamachi ...

Hamachi is a free, dead easy to setup, no administration required Virtual Private Network (VPN). VPN is a fancy way to say that a home computer works as if it is in the office - even though it is accessing your office network over the internet vs. being a physical part of the Local Office Network (aka, LAN). This is what I use. It provides incredible reliability and security. Essentially, I run the Hamachi VPN clients on all my PCs in the office, my Tablet PC, and 1 computer at home. The other bonus to this setup is that I can easily view the contents of all the computers from any computer in Windows Explorer. I find it very convenient. It is also very easy to uninstall Hamachi if you choose to stop accessing Synapse from home. As well, you could just leave Hamachi running on the computers at the office and turn on Hamachi at home only when you want to access the office from home. You can download Hamachi here (it is now called LogMeIn Hamachi)

(2) configure your router at the office to point your home computer in the right direction.

If you want to access your Synapse server from home .. you must setup the office router to point you in the right direction. The problem is simple: when you connect from home you connect to the office router, but the router doesn't know what computer on the Office Network is running your Synapse Database. You must tell the router which computer is running Synapse's Server. To accomplish this you must know the following things:

(1)The external IP address of your office router (network),
(2)the Internal IP address of the computer running Synapse server, and
(3)the port number which your Synapse clients connect to the server (usually port: 8011).

Q(1): How do I figure out the external ip address of my office's router ?

visit www.whatismyip.com or here - it will display it for you. It is a number like this one ..

219.226.85.131

Q(2): How do I figure out the internal ip address of your server computer ?

First off, these number usually start with 192.168. ie ..

192.168.1.xxx

To find out your internal ip address, you must go to the Command Prompt (on the Server computer at the office), and type: ipconfig /all .

The command prompt is located in the Accessories section of the Start Menu, or you can type cmd.exe at the RUN area of the Start Menu.

See the Diagram below for help.

./192.168.1.100.command.prompt.internal.ip.address.jpg

So .. now you know your IP address of your office router, the internal IP address of your server computer and the port which your Synapse clients access the server (usually 8011).

You are set to go.

The task: Tell your router to forward your Synapse Client Port (usually 8011) to the computer running Synaspe Server.

Tip: Get someone else to do this for you. Use that 16 year old male in your house - this process "Port Forwarding" is something that Video Gamers tend to know, get your son or a neighbour's kid to do it.

You need to do this in your router's settings. One method to do this is to Look up Port Forwarding in your router's manual if you have one.

Alternatively, there is a great website to help you with this. www.portforwarding.com. These are the instructions for one of my routers.

Try to find your router on this page. Once you click on your router, a large page of applications is listed, just pick anyone as Synapse is not listed. Just substitue your port (likely, 8011) and your server's internal ip address and follow the visual instructions.

Here is the settings for my router

./synapse.router.configurations.jpg