Hosting Users Guide 2011 eofficemgr technology support for small business Celebrating a decade of providing innovative cloud computing services to small business.
Table of Contents Overview... 3 Configure Remote Desktop Connection... 3 Update Remote Desktop Connection... 4 MAC Users... 5 Getting connected... 5 Change your password... 6 Printing... 6 Windows Printer Redirection... 6 Screwdrivers... 7 Logging off... 8 Session time limits... 9 Frozen sessions... 9 Internet connection... 10 Backup... 10 For QuickBooks Users: QuickBooks Internal Backup... 11 Minimize your remote desktop... 13 Copying files to or from the remote server... 13 FTP Site Access Instructions... 13 Map Local Drives to Your Remote Session... 14 Passwords and User IDs... 15 Customer Support... 16 For Remote Support Personnel: How to Provide Online Support Using Remote Control (Shadowing)... 16
Overview The primary method of accessing your data is through a program called Remote Desktop Connection. All Windows operating systems for desktop, laptop, notebook, etc. computers beginning with XP have this program already installed. This booklet will help you configure Remote Desktop Connection, get connected to our servers, provide basic information about how to use our hosting services and point to additional resources for more information. Configure Remote Desktop Connection 1. Start Remote Desktop Connection by clicking on Start/All Programs/Accessories/Remote Desktop Connection. Older versions of Windows put the program in Start/Programs/Accessories/Communications/Remote Desktop Connection. If you have logged onto the remote server from this computer before, go to step 4. 2. Click the Options >> button and on each tab change only the options indicated below. o General Computer: enter 162.42.218.106 (or 162.42.218.102) unless eofficemgr has given you another number. Domain: - enter eofficemgrweb\userid where userid is the one provided by eofficemgr. o Display Remote desktop size move the slider button to Full Screen. Colors in the drop-down box choose High Color (16 bit). o Local Resources Local devices check Printers and Clipboard. 3
o o Experience Allow the following: - check only Persistent bitmap caching. Check Reconnect if the connection is dropped. General (again) Connection settings click Save as... Click Save. Click Yes. 3. Click the Options button again. 4. Click the Connect button and wait for the Windows logon screen to appear. 5. In the User name: box, enter your user ID if it isn t already there. 6. In the Password: box, enter your password and press the Enter key. You are now connected to the remote desktop. Only steps 1 and 4-6 have to be repeated each time you log on. Tip - To make connecting in the future even easier, create a Shortcut to the Remote Desktop Connection program on your local desktop. Update Remote Desktop Connection You may use any version of Remote Desktop Connection, however to realize the most benefits from hosting you must use version 6.x or later. Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), Vista and Windows 7 all 4
come with version 6.x. Follow the steps below if you have an earlier version of Windows. 1. Open Microsoft Internet Explorer and enter the following address: http://eofficemgr.net/tscdownload.htm 2. Click on the link Remote Desktop Connection to download the file. Save to your desktop. 3. Double-click the icon on your desktop to start the installation and follow the on-screen prompts. When the installation is complete go to step 4. 4. Start Remote Desktop Connection by clicking on Start/All Programs/Accessories/Remote Desktop Connection. Older versions of Windows put the program in Start/Programs/Accessories/Communications/Remote Desktop Connection. Tip - To make connecting in the future even easier, create a Shortcut to the Remote Desktop Connection program on your local desktop. MAC Users You may download Desktop Connection Client for MAC from the web site mentioned in the previous section. The install instructions are also there. Getting connected If you have trouble logging on, pay close attention to any messages that appear on your screen. We will need that information to diagnose the problem. Also make sure you can visit several different Internet web sites to confirm your Internet connection is operating. 5
Change your password You may be given a temporary password for your initial logon. If so, you will want to change your password to one more meaningful to you. And you should change your password regularly to maintain the best security. 1. While logged on to the remote server, click the remote Start button, then Windows Security. 2. Click the Change Password button. 3. Enter the Old Password (the one you just used to log onto the remote server) 4. Enter a New Password 5. Enter the new password again in Confirm New Password 6. Click OK. Write down the password and put it in a secure place. Do not share your password with anyone. If you lose your password, eofficemgr will not know what it is. We can, however, give you a new temporary password at your request. Printing Your local printers are available in your remote session through one of two ways: Windows Printer Redirection or a print utility called Screwdrivers. You will be informed which method applies to you during the initial setup process. Windows Printer Redirection This method requires only that you have the latest drivers for your printer installed on your computer and that the printer you want to use in your remote sessions is your local default printer. In your remote session, the printer name will appear as it does on your 6
local computer with the phrase (redirected x) following the name. The x represents the number of the session on the remote server. Screwdrivers This utility must be downloaded, installed and configured. If you have any version of Simplify Printing or Screwdrivers installed, remove it first via Add and Remove Programs in Control Panel on your local workstation. Then delete the following folder on your local workstation: C:\Program Files\Tricerat. Restart your computer. 1. Open Microsoft Internet Explorer and enter the following address: a. http://eofficemgr.net/tscdownload.htm 2. Click on the link Screwdrivers to download the file to your local desktop. 3. Close Internet Explorer and any other programs that may be running. 4. Log off from the remote server, if you are connected. 5. Temporarily disable your virus checker. You must do this. 6. Temporarily turn off User Account Control (UAC). 7. Double-click on the downloaded icon (do not install using Add Remove Programs in Control Panel). You need administrator privileges on your workstation if you have Vista or Windows 7. 8. Follow the on-screen prompts. 9. If you are asked to select components, check only the RDP5 (TSAC) Client Support box. Clear any other boxes. 10. Click Next and continue following the prompts until finished. 11. Restart your workstation. 12. Make sure your virus checker is enabled. 13. Turn UAC back on. 14. Perform the configuration instructions below. 7
The next time you logon to the Remote Server you will have your default printer and as many as two other printers available to you. Your printers will be listed in the following format. user ID ( printer name:session ID #) example: lsw (HP LaserJet 1100 (MS):4) Configuration You control which of your printers the remote server should treat as your default printer, which printers should be enabled on the remote server and which ones should be ignored by the remote server. Open the Screwdrivers Client program in Control Panel on your local workstation. On the General tab check all 5 boxes in the top section. To the right of the 4th box, select the printer you want to be the default on the remote server. This will not affect your local default printer settings. Go to the Printers tab. You ll see a list of all the printer drivers installed on your workstation in the Available Printers box. Add up to three printers to the Preferred Printers list. Add all others to the Denied Printers list. Do not leave anything in the Available Printers list. Then click Apply and OK. Remember, any changes you make won t be recognized on the server until the next time you log on. Logging off It s important to use the Start button on your remote desktop to log off. That will shut down any open applications, save your profile settings and then disconnect you from the server. If you just click on the little x you will break your connection to the remote server 8
but any applications you had open will continue to run and any changes in your profile settings will not be saved. If you can t see the Start button on your remote desktop, see the note on Minimizing your remote desktop below. Session time limits In order to stop a session from running forever, we set limits on how long a session can be idle. The default setting is one hour. If you don t enter anything on the keyboard or click the mouse on the remote desktop for an hour, your connection will be broken. Your session will continue to run for another 15 minutes. During the time your session is disconnected, you can reattach to that same session by logging back on. After the 15 minute period, all open applications in your disconnected session will be closed and the session ended. Logging on after that will start a new session. These settings can be customized for each user. Let us know if the defaults don t work for you. Frozen sessions If your remote desktop application appears to be frozen, try to log off using the remote Start button as described above. If that doesn t work, press Ctrl-Alt-Delete. That will bring up your local Task Manager. Highlight the Remote Desktop Connection program on the Applications tab and click the End Task button. That will end the program on your local machine. You can then log back on. If you have problems getting logged on refer to item 1 above. If you log back on and get reconnected to the same frozen session, call your support person to reset the session. 9
Internet connection If your Internet connection gets broken, the remote server will start the idle session timer. If your Internet connection comes back in less than an hour and you try to log on to the remote server, you will start a new session. You will not be able to connect to the active session that you were just in. Having two active sessions can result in record contention and printer confusion. If you don t want to wait the hour for the first session to get disconnected, just call your primary support person to disconnect it immediately. Backup eofficemgr uses automated systems that include a combination of disk, online services and server redundancy to back up your data. Disk Backup begins with creation of an exact copy (replica) of your data on a disk-based storage system in our data center. That replica is synchronized with all the data changes you make every two hours. Once a day after close of business, a copy of the replica is saved (recovery point) and maintained for 31 days. On the last day of each month an additional copy of the current state of your data is saved. That month-end version is kept for six months. Online Services Another copy of your data is maintained off-site on the secured web site of a professional online backup service and updated daily. Server Redundancy A stand-by file server is maintained in our data center. The stand-by file server is a duplicate of the production server that provides access to your data. The stand-by server may be converted to 10
production quickly should the production server fail. Another copy of your data is maintained on the stand-by server and is updated every three hours. For QuickBooks Users: QuickBooks Internal Backup eofficemgr backs up your data automatically every day in accordance with our Backup procedures. Details are available in the previous section and at http://www.eofficemgr.net/eom%20data%20backup.doc. However, if your data file is corrupted, then the backup we make will also be corrupted. There is no way for eofficemgr to know whether your data file is corrupted or not. According to QuickBooks technical support the only way to make sure your data file is not corrupted is to run a QuickBooks internal backup in accordance with the procedures below. We recommend you run a QuickBooks internal backup regularly and frequently to make sure your data file is not corrupt. To perform a QuickBooks backup of your company file, you must be signed into your QuickBooks company file as the Admin user. Your QuickBooks session must be in Single-user mode. 1. Select the menu items File, Save Copy or Backup 2. Select the radio button Backup copy and click Next 3. Select the radio button Local backup and click Options 4. In the top section of the Backup Options screen, enter Q:\your_company_folder_name (Enterprise customers enter E:\your_company_folder_name ),without quotes, in the space labeled Tell us where to save your backup copies 11
(required). If you don t know your company folder name, please e-mail lswylie@eofficemgr.com. Make sure both check boxes in this section are checked. Don t use the Browse button. 5. In the bottom section of the Backup Options screen, make sure the Complete verification (recommended) radio button is marked. Click OK. If you get a message the directory doesn t exist, click NO and reenter your correct company folder name. 6. On the next screen, click Next. 7. Click OK on the warning screen that pops up (Enterprise customers skip). 8. Near the top of the next screen titled Save Backup Copy, verify your company folder name in the Save in: space then click the Save button. 9. Next you will see a screen called Working. QuickBooks will first run a data verification check and then perform the backup. The backup may take several minutes to complete depending on the size of your data file. Please wait for it finish. 10. When the backup is completed, you will see a QuickBooks Information screen. Click OK. 11. If this backup was started as part of a QuickBooks update process, then you ll be asked if you want to open your company file with the new version of QB. Click Yes. When the data conversion completes, you ll have to enter your QB user name and password again to open your converted company file. *If you want to download a copy of your backup file to your local workstation, enter the path to your remote user documents folder at U:\your_remote_user_id\my documents (no quotes). Your 12
remote user id is the one you use to log onto the remote server. When the backup finishes you can transfer the file from your remote user documents folder to your local workstation by using drag and drop with Remote Desktop Connection v6. If you don t have version 6, you can get it from our support web site at http://www.eofficemgr.net/tscdownload.htm. Or you can use our free FTP service to download the backup file. Instructions are near the bottom left corner of the screen on the same web page. Minimize your remote desktop Move your mouse to the top center of your screen and a thin yellow or blue bar will appear. You can use the controls on the bar to minimize the remote desktop to your local task bar. That will allow you to switch between applications on your local machine and those on the remote server. To restore your remote desktop, click on the Remote Desktop Connection button in your task bar. Copying files to or from the remote server You may use an FTP program (Internet Explorer 5.x or later works very well) to move files between your local machine and the remote server. Or you may map your local drives to your remote session so you can use drag and drop/copy and paste to copy files. FTP Site Access Instructions 1. On your local system, double click on My Computer and enter the following IP address in the Address bar: ftp://162.42.218.126, then press Enter on your keyboard. 2. A Login As dialog box should appear. Enter eofficemgrweb\userid without the quotes, substituting your normal terminal services User ID. Also enter your terminal services Password in the next box. Leave both check boxes cleared for security reasons. Then click the Login button. 13
3. You should now be connected to your My Documents folder on the remote server. You may cut and paste files back and forth between the terminal server and your local computer. You may also right-click on the file you wish to transfer from the remote server and then click Copy to Folder. Another box will appear where you can navigate to the folder on your local system where you want to save the file. 4. You may find it easier to transfer files if you turn on the Folders option in Internet Explorer. Do that by selecting the menu item View/Explorer Bar/Folders. 5. Transfer files to the remote server - With the Folders option on, click on My Computer in the left pane. In the right pane navigate to the file you want to transfer, right-click on the file and select copy. Then right-click your My Documents folder under Internet Explorer/162.42.218.126 in the left pane and select paste. 6. When you are done, click the menu item File/Close. 7. You should also close Internet Explorer for security reasons. Security alert Data is not encrypted during an FTP transfer. However, once the transfer is complete, the data has the same protections as all other data on the terminal server. Tip After you have connected to the FTP site, click on the Favorites/Add to Favorites menu item. Then click OK. The next time you access the FTP site you can just click on the Favorites/162.42.218.126 item to bring up the login dialog box. Map Local Drives to Your Remote Session Note: If you want to transfer to a flash/usb drive on your computer, plug it in before connecting. Configure Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) program. Open Remote Desktop Connection and click the Option button. In the row of tabs at the top of the RDC program select Local 14
Resources. Near the bottom of this box click the More button. You should see a list of Drive letters that includes all the drives configured on your local workstation. Select the drive(s) you want to have access to in your remote server session. Click the Option button again and then click connect. Transfer files. After connecting to the remote server double click the My Computer icon on the remote desktop. There you will see the drive(s) you mapped on your local workstation. The name of the drive will be something similar to C on Fourth, if you mapped the C: drive on a computer named Fourth. Click the Folders icon at the top of this screen. That will divide the screen vertically, making it easier to transfer files. In the left pane, click My Documents to see all your files on the remote server. Click your mapped drive under My Computer to see all the folders and files on that drive on your local machine. Now you may copy and paste to transfer files between your local machine and the remote server. Log off using the Start button on the remote desktop in order to save the mapped drive settings. You may also transfer files using our free FTP service. Please read the section above or the document at http://www.eofficemgr.net/tscdownload.htm Passwords and User IDs Your initial password to log onto the remote server is a generic password. You need to change your remote server password the first time you log on (you can change it again any time you want). Log onto the remote server. Click on Start Windows Security Change Password. If you forget your password, we are unable to tell you what it is. We can only reset it to something else. Windows security prevents us from changing User IDs. If you want a change, we will have to set up a new User ID. 15
Customer Support eofficemgr provides hosting technical support free of charge for the first 90 days, except for changes in original set up instructions. After 90 days all requests for support are charged at the current support rates. Your primary support person is usually your software consultant or CPA. If you cannot reach your primary support person in your required time frame, you may call eofficemgr at (480) 607-9030. Support charges may apply. To avoid support charges please visit our support web site at http://www.eomhost.com/supporthome.aspx and try to resolve the issue yourself without calling support. For Remote Support Personnel: How to Provide Online Support Using Remote Control (Shadowing) This section describes how a support person may connect to a client s session on the remote server so that you both can see and operate the same screens at the same time. 1. Both you and your client must be logged onto the same remote server. You should also be on the phone together. 2. Open the Terminal Server Session Manager icon on your remote desktop. 3. In the left pane you will see all the remote servers in the domain. The one you are logged onto will display all of the currently logged on users, including you (icon is green) in the right pane. 4. Right-click the user ID of the client whose session you want to connect to. A small context menu will appear with several options including Remote Control. 5. Left-click Remote Control. A dialog box will appear telling you what key combination is required to disconnect from 16
your client s session once you are finished with your support task. You may change the key combination. Tip: If you are using a laptop to provide support, you will want to change the disconnect key combination because the default combination is difficult to reproduce on a laptop keyboard. 6. That will put a small grey box on your client s screen asking them if you may take control of their session. Obviously, you need to be very careful not to click on the wrong user. 7. Your client needs to click Yes. Then your screen will blink and you ll be connected to their session. It may take a few seconds for the mouse cursor to reappear. 8. At this point both you and your client may operate the mouse and keyboard so you need to communicate when you want to control the mouse or input to avoid confusion. 9. When you have completed your support task. Press the disconnect key combination mentioned above. You will be separated from your client s session and be back in your own session. Tip You may use the Terminal Services Session Manager also to Reset or log off a client s frozen session. 17
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15508 W. Bell Rd., #101-102 Surprise, AZ 85375 Phone 480.607.9030 Fax 623.399.1177 www.eomhost.com 20