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Top 5 Essential Remote Work Utilities & Software

Posted by Chris Allard on Thu, Apr 30, 2020

Before we start naming some essential, low-cost (or free) work-from-home apps and services, we need to talk about security. And this should be the way you approach everything you do online. Think about security first. And then consider it in the middle, and then review it at the end also, but mainly... SECURITY FIRST.

working from home photo-daria-nepriakhina-i5iIhHSAtp4-unsplashSo, in order to make sure that you're starting out with no compromised accounts, we recommend visiting Firefox Monitor to see if your particular email addresses have been involved in any known data breaches. This way, if you plan to use the password that was related to that particular online account and it was exposed, you'll know that that password can't be used again on any service, as it could easily be guessed by somebody trying to hack your account.

With Firefox Monitor, you can even sign up for free ongoing data breach checking to be sure if there's a new breach two months from now you can be notified and take action to secure your accounts and stop using that password. Oh, and this service is totally free and backed by the Mozilla foundation’s really solid privacy policy.

We can recommend an even further step if you're just worried about a password that you may have (**cringe**) used in more than one place by visiting haveibeenpwnd which will let you check specific passwords that you may use to see if those have been used in any data breaches, as well. If any of them have been exposed change them immediately! Change them everywhere you use them, and never use them again. Consider them burned.

Now we also have to bring up multi-factor authentication (sometimes known as two-factor authentication) if you're going to be using any of these applications or services for business specific reasons (or even personal reasons, since it is a good idea to use anywhere it is available) you should be using multi-factor authentication for every user account. I won't go into tons of detailed explanation here, but check out this article we recently wrote for more information.

Okay, we’ve gone over some of the bare minimum security measures you ABSOLUTELY NEED to implement as a first consideration when setting up a remote work situation. Now, which tools will help you work and collaborate effectively and easily?

Note: All of these tools have two-factor authentication available in account security settings, as this did factor (forgive me!) into our decision to include them in this list.

 

Video Conferencing & Virtual Meetings

Pick a video conferencing app for visual collaboration. Sometimes you just need a “face-to-face” meeting, or sometimes you just want to show something on paper that just can’t be digitized.

Some of our favorites (which have free versions available):

  1. Google Hangouts - I know, I know, “Hangouts” sounds like a bunch of cool kids getting together to chill after school, but it's a very accomplished and functional video conferencing and chat app, which you can also use to make voice calls to phone lines with. It is also included in Google’s G suite business apps.
  2. Zoom - While Zoom has had its fair share of privacy and vandalism issues since the work-from-home economy ramped up, it is still one of the best options for its features, flexibility, and ease of use for invitees. With free accounts you’re pretty limited, with only 40-minute meetings and with a maximum of 3 invitees. Just try not to post your meeting ID publicly if possible, or if you do, at least set a password (and provide that password privately to invitees) to prevent someone from zoombombing and ruining your presentation. Read more about securing your Zoom meetings.
  3. Skype (by Microsoft) - Skype’s been around for a long time, and it keeps being improved. It will work for up to 50 people for conference calls. However, adding multiple people can be quite clunky, so this is usually best for small video conferences, whereas Microsoft Teams (formerly Skype for Business) is a much more effective large group or live event solution. Although to call Microsoft Teams just a video conferencing app at this point would be like calling your computer “just a fancy typewriter”. Microsoft Teams has so many great collaboration and workflow features, we’re planning on writing a whole article to illustrate them, and we have more info on Teams below.

 

Remote Access Software

Allow you or your employees direct access to their workstations for seamless transition or just to occasionally access a resource not otherwise available remotely. All of these options have either a free trial or offer free versions (but usually just for home, non-commercial use). 

    1. Splashtop Business – We recommend Splashtop because they are one of the more affordable small business and personal remote access tools available. But don’t think that it’s lacking in features or reliability. It is stable, easy to connect with, and has quite a few advanced features like remote printing, remote wake & reboot, and multiple monitor support is handled well. Works on Windows, MacOS, iOS and Android. The Linux client works, but they don’t seem to be actively developing it for all distributions and it has its bugs for sure.
    2. RealVNC - It has been around for quite a long time, and has gotten more user friendly over the years. Its remarkable flexibility means it works on many different platforms, including ARM (Like Raspberry Pis and other “little” specialized systems), Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS, Android (although iOS & Android devices are not controllable, only used to control other devices)
    3. Teamviewer - Teamviewer used to be one of my favorites until they implemented a complex algorithm they won’t explain which incorrectly tags some “free” accounts as being used in commercial environments and limits those accounts to basically useless. That’s my personal gripe with them, though, having had this experience only recently on a “free” account. But they do still offer a free version for non-commercial use. It’s still a great utility that is reliable and very flexible with its features (in some cases, you can use WebRDP and connect to a system right in your web browser without needing extra software!). In the case of using this software for business you will need to buy a license, which is somewhat expensive, but you get some great features like: remote printing, easily set up VPN-only connections for making network shares available, advanced asset management for system health checks. And lots of other features too.

Note: We are not recommending Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) for a few reasons, even though it is the obvious built-in option for Windows Pro/Server users (and will work in MacOS to connect to a Windows PC or server). One reason is the complexity of setting it up for remote connections outside of the local network makes it hard for less technical users. And then there are security issues. For example, the default ports used should always be changed. Many other security risks are presented when using this option. As is always the case with security, the larger the user base, the larger the target (Microsoft RDP is used on millions of computers), and the more likely any exposed vulnerabilities will be exploited.

 

Cloud Syncing and File Sharing

These utilities give you the ability to collaborate in real-time with your colleagues on documents, presentations and spreadsheets and share virtually any file you need to. Want to write something and have your colleague fix your spelling and grammar at the same time? These can do that. Need to share a video project with your colleague that is just too large to email? One of these will work perfectly.

    1. OneDrive (Microsoft) - Ridiculously simple to set up if you’re on Windows, and you may already have it turned on if you’ve used a Microsoft account to set up your PC. It is cross-platform for syncing on MacOS and there are apps for iOS and Android that let you view/download your synced files. When coupled with Office 365 (now “Microsoft 365”) or the free Office Online version, collaboration and team editing of documents, spreadsheets and more are easy and seamless.
    2. Dropbox – The big player in the syncing game, this is a popular syncing option with a LOT of collaboration features. Dropbox integrates easily with other tools like Slack, Zoom and Adobe Creative Cloud. Create and edit cloud and Office documents right in Dropbox, and check out the new Dropbox Paper collaboration workspace to keep your team focused and on the same page.
    3. Google Drive - This is a fantastic option for sharing files, and collaborating on documents and spreadsheets is integrated using Google's Docs platform. So this is a great choice if you are already familiar with Google Docs, but Google Docs is pretty easy to get familiar with if you're coming from a Microsoft Office environment also.
    4. iCloud (Apple) (Free to start with 5GB Storage/Paid Upgrades) - Really easy to use, simplistic interfaces, apps and software that give you all kinds of great features like file sharing/syncing and contact and calendar sharing. But unless all of your devices are Apple (MacOS, iOS, iPadOS), you may have quite a bit of difficulty getting this to integrate perfectly. For example, the Outlook/iCloud integration for Contacts and Calendars has always had lots of bugs, and it usually requires reconnecting your account via the iCloud for Windows program every time something breaks. But for the most part the features work well and are available on the iCloud website in an online app format which is available on most systems. Although Microsoft Office documents or Documents made in open-source office Suites (like .doc, .xls, and .odt formats) can be shared and synced, the real-time collaboration really only works best with Apple's own office suite (Pages, Numbers, Keynote, etc.)
    5. Resilio Sync (Free versions available for home use) - Our personal favorite because it’s built on the incredibly fast and efficient peer-to-peer bittorrent sharing technology, making it one of the fastest syncing/sharing utilities we’ve tried, especially with very large files. This is absolutely the best option for a team that needs to sync changes to large video, drafting or graphics files quickly. It has the ability to sync to many popular consumer and pro-sumer network attached storage devices also, so you can set up a highly scalable shared network file system for relatively little cost.

 

Cloud-based Office Suites for real-time collaboration

The two office suites here include so many collaboration features we are writing entire articles to highlight them all. They both offer an incredible amount of useful utilities that will help your business stay productive, and we highlight the coolest ones here. 

    1. Microsoft 365 (Free Trial/Paid) / Teams (Free/Paid Features Available) - With Microsoft 365, you get all of the Microsoft Office applications you'd expect (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, and on most plans, Publisher and Access). You'll also get 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage which will hold tons of files, ready to share. You'll have access to reliable Exchange-based Calendar and Email hosting via Outlook also. And all of these useful software and features also integrate seamlessly into a pretty impressive piece of software called Microsoft Teams, which you can get a sample of here in an interactive demo. Teams integrates chat/messaging, file sharing, calendars and meeting setup, and offers some rather smooth video conferencing for your meetings, all in one place. The video meetings are pretty easy to start and have your colleagues join. But more than just internal video conferencing, it's easy to set up a live event for anyone outside of your team to join also. All of these features and utilities add up to one incredibly useful cloud-based solution, but also includes a level of security both in the form of regularly included software patches for the desktop software but also exploit detection for files you may receive with nasty links or macros hidden in them. 
    2. GSuite (Free Trial/Paid) / Google Drive (Free w/ Paid Business Features) - With Google's GSuite Apps, you get basically all of the same software as Microsoft 365 but with a Google flavor. All of the essential Document software is included (Docs, Sheets, Slides), and you also get 1TB of cloud storage (unless you sign up for more than 5 users, then you'll get UNLIMITED cloud storage). GSuite has the Chat app for text communication and messaging, and it has video conferencing via Google Meet, which actually works pretty smoothly in our testing. All calendaring and contacts management is done within you organizational Google account, which will include GMail for your email client. All of this is difficult to work well if you're in a situation where you might be offline for long periods of time though (for example a metered internet connection or spotty DSL internet), as Google Docs apps require some extra steps to be used offline, and most of the other features and apps like GMail are completely dependent on you being connected to the internet. But then again, you'd expect some internet-required functionality to require internet wouldn't you? One extra tool you get is called Sites, which is a website builder with some easy-to-use features, so this app alone may make it worth it to you if you are trying to get a simple web presence built but can't afford to hire a web developer. 

 

Password Manager (Cloud-based)

What's the thing you (and everybody else in this world hates) more than a rock in your shoe that you just can't seem to shake out of there? PASSWORDS. Nobody likes using them, EVERYBODY forgets them at some point, and they have become ubiquitous everywhere on the internet, since so many services and sites are personalized. So these tools give you the best way to (securely) manage, categorize and auto-fill passwords. Which we know will save you tons of time in the long run. With all of these password managers you can also share passwords securely with your colleagues, so even if you don't know the password your manager set for your online banking account, you can still auto-fill it securely without having to bother them. 

    1. LastPass has become a leading password manager for its ease-of-use and reliability, as well as its range of features available with a free account. Securely save account logins, payment card info and secure notes in your Vault and access them from anywhere, on unlimited devices, with only one "master password" to remember. Multi-factor authentication is available with a free account.
    2.  Dashlane - A very popular password manager that really gets good with a paid account. Limited to only one device for a free account, and limited to 50 passwords. Includes 2FA, personalized security alerts, and form and payment autofill.
    3. BitWarden stands apart as the 100% open-source cloud-based password manager. (Cloud-based for everyday users, but advanced users CAN configure BitWarden to run on their own server, if they really want to take control.) Features include unlimited item storage, unlimited devices, 2FA, and a secure password generator.
    4. If you have a managed IT provider (like us), they may also have an enterprise-grade password management offering for workstations and mobile devices that they maintain for you, this is usually an affordable add-on service. And it may be easier and worth it for you to have them set it up for you and add your staff access and permissions for certain credentials than using one of the apps above. 

Did you remember to think while you were reading this about how you were planning on making sure your access to all of these apps and services are secure? I hope so, because security should always come first, middle and last in your decision-making and implementation 😊

So get out there (we don't necessarily mean literally, of course) and get collaborating (safely and securely).

Do you have a favorite tool or software that we didn't mention here? Let us know in the comments!

 

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

Tags: Teamviewer software, Remote PC access, Remote desktop, cloud, password security, productivity, Dropbox, OneDrive, google drive, remote work, Multifactor authentication, 2-factor authentication, working from home, video conferencing, zoom, COVID-19, Office 365, Microsoft Teams, iCloud, lastpass