Temporary Licences for Home Working

We can offer temporary licences, free of additional charge, to allow you and your colleagues to work from home during the Coronavirus lockdown.

You will need to have access to your shared EstiPC Projects and Data while working from home. For suggestions on how to implement this, please open the appropriate panel below depending on whether you normally use a Server or NAS Drive in the office or a Cloud Service to share Projects and Data.

If you are currently using a server in the office to share Project and Data files, you have two options. You will need to discuss this with your IT support people.

OPTION 1 - use a VPN connection to the server from your home computers

The connection will need to be robust and reliable. EstiPC accesses the shared data files continuously, not just when projects are opened and saved. Home broadband services are often not sufficient for this, particularly from remote locations with slow broadband speeds.

Your IT support people should be able to advise you on the viability of this option and set it up for you if they think it is possible.

OPTION 2 - use a Cloud Service (Dropbox, GoogleDrive, OneDrive, etc) instead of your server

The procedure for setting up sharing using a cloud service is described in...
Sharing_EstiPC_Projects_And_Data_Using_A_Cloud_Service.pdf

To summarise, you will need to...

• Get the cloud service set up on all your computers first.
• Copy the EstiPC Projects and Data Folders, and any other folders where EstiPC Projects and Images are stored, from the server to the cloud service folder on ONE COMPUTER ONLY. Copy these folders together, so that their relative positions are unchanged.
• Make sure the EstiPC Folders are shared between all users within your company.
• Check that these folders have synchronised across to all the other computers. It may take a while!
• Install EstiPC on the home computers. You can do this later if preferred. See below for details.
• On all computers, home and office, open EstiPC, click on menu Tools / Options and use the two Browse buttons to reselect the Projects and Data folders from their new locations within the cloud service folders.

Again, your IT support people will be able to assist you with this.

A few important things to watch out for...

• Turn off the cloud service options to 'download on demand', at least for the EstiPC folders, since EstiPC requires all files to be available at all times.
• Make sure all users never work offline and / or without the cloud service utility running. A little icon should be visible at the bottom right of your screen. Get into the habit of checking this regularly. The biggest problem with cloud service sharing is conflicted copies which occur when two users modify a file while one or both is offline or not synchronising. One user's work will then be lost. For EstiPC this can result in lost work within projects, missing or duplicated order or invoice numbers. To be safe - don't work offline!

INSTALLING ESTIPC

Once you have set up sharing, using one of the two options, you can download EstiPC on to the home computers from www.estipc.com/download

For computers where EstiPC has not been installed before you should get an automatic free trial licence. If this does not happen you will be prompted with a four digit Computer ID. Email this ID to us and we will set up the temporary licence for you.

Once everything is set up, check that you arere all seeing modifications made to Projects and Data by each of your colleagues. Also check that you are not able to access and modify the same project at the same time.

ALTERNATIVE FOR OCCASIONAL USE

If you and your colleagues will only need to use EstiPC occasionally while you are working from home, it may be simpler to access your office computers via a remote desktop utility on your home computers. TeamViewer is a good choice and can be downloaded on to your home and office computers from
www.teamviewer.com

Using this option you will not need to install or register EstiPC on your home computers.

If you are currently using a cloud service (Dropbox, GoogleDrive, OneDrive, etc) to share Project and Data files, this should be relatively straightforward. If you do have any problems, please ask your IT support people for assistance.

SHARING PROJECTS AND DATA

EstiPC uses a Projects Folder and a Data Folder within your cloud service folder (Dropbox, GoogleDrive, OneDrive, etc). Make sure that these folders are shared and available to all users within your company. Ask your IT support people if you are not sure about this. Different versions of the cloud services (Standard, Business, etc) have different ways of setting this up.

INSTALLING ESTIMAC

Once you have set up sharing, using one of the two options, you can download EstiPC on to the home computers from www.estipc.com/download

For computers where EstiPC has not been installed before you should get an automatic free trial licence. If this does not happen you will be prompted with a four digit Computer ID. Email this ID to us and we will set up the temporary licence for you.

Once EstiPC is installed and registered, click on menu Tools / Options. Check that the Projects and Data Folders are set to the correct shared folders within your cloud service folder. These folders should be set in the same way as they are on your office computers. We can monitor this from our basic online diagnostics, so email us if you would like us to check whether or not you have set up the folders correctly.

Once everything is set up, check that you arere all seeing modifications made to Projects and Data by each of your colleagues. Also check that you are not able to access and modify the same project at the same time.

WARNING

Make sure all users never work offline and / or without the cloud service utility running. A little icon should be visible at the bottom right of your screen screen. Get into the habit of checking this regularly. The biggest problem with cloud service sharing is conflicted copies which occur when two users modify a file while one or both is offline or not synchronising. One user's work will then be lost. For EstiMac this can result in lost work within projects, missing or duplicated order or invoice numbers. To be safe - never work offline!

ALTERNATIVE FOR OCCASIONAL USE

If you and your colleagues will only need to use EstiPC occasionally while you are working from home, it may be simpler to access your office computers via a remote desktop utility on your home computers. TeamViewer is a good choice and can be downloaded on to your home and office computers from
www.teamviewer.com

Using this option you will not need to install or register EstiPC on your home computers.