I Hate Remote Desktop

As a business owner, it's not a bad idea to have a backup plan for the most important functions of your business. Things always go wrong, and for some reason they always go wrong at the most inopportune time. Case in point: my remote desktop connection.

Earlier this year I bought a low-end laptop for the sole purpose of being able to remote in to my desktop when traveling. I travel roughly once a month for work and once every few months to NY to visit friends and family so the investment made sense. It took me about a day of playing, but once I set up the remote desktop I figured I was home free.

Now when it works, it works great. The trouble is, that it rarely seems to work right. It seems like there are so many factors - the laptop and desktop connections working properly, the laptop's network allowing remote connections, the desktop's router enabling access to the necessary ports, the desktop's anti-virus software enabling access to the necessary ports- that it is anything but reliable.

Knowing this, when I leave my place in CT, I set everything up so that in case remote desktop fails me, I will still be able to somewhat run my business. Having this backup plan is nice, however, actually having to use it is not. It completely limits what I can and can't do. Essentially, I can check email using webmail provided by my hosting company and control a few other minor things remotely through the web. This sucks compared to being able to have total control of my business!

Last night I made the trip home from CT to NY for the holidays. While I am here, I still need to keep an eye on the business (after all, if I don't, who will). And today I woke up, tried the remote connection and it didn't work! So for the next week while I am here I can't get anything done other than answer a few emails. Part of me is tempted to hop back in my car, go back to my place in CT, and fix whatever is wrong (of course, since I set everything up properly, and it worked fine when I traveled two weeks ago, nothing should be wrong)!

I suppose the lesson from all of this is that you should have a backup plan for any critical function in your business. You never know when you will need it. As annoyed as I am right now, I can at least keep the businesses head above water. How bad would it be if I couldn't even answer email! Had I completely relied upon remote desktop, I WOULD be in my car heading back to CT right now. As ticked off as I am, I am equally happy that I thought of a contingency plan.