Optimising your Remote Desktop connection

So, you’ve recently read our post on how to improve your internet connection at home now you’re looking for the next speed hit. Let’s dig a little deeper into your working from home setup, more specifically, your Remote Desktop connection and how we can optimise it.

Even though it is very good with compression, your Remote Desktop connection is constantly updating everything you see – think of it like watching a video stream of your work computer. Using a single colour background, while boring, is more efficient than that ocean sunset on the beach you’d rather be at.

Out of the box your Remote Desktop connection is designed to detect and provide the best experience based on your internet connection when you connect. This works well, until someone starts watching YouTube or Netflix in the house. When your internet takes a hit like this your Remote Desktop can suffer quite a lot as it won’t automatically adjust to the new connection speeds available.

There are some changes to the quality settings you can make that will speed things up, at the tradeoff of missing some visual features including:

• Background Images

• Windows Themes & Visual Styles

• Window Content while Dragging

• Menu Animations

• Colour depth

Making these changes

We recommend tweaking these settings to find a good balance between performance and appearance.

1. Open Remote Desktop Connection

2. Select Show Options in the bottom left

3. Select the Experience tab

4. Drop down the Performance menu and select Modem (56 kbps)

5. Untick all of the boxes

6. Select the Display tab

7. Drop down the Color menu select High Color (16 bit)

That’s it, now you can go to the General tab and save this connection to your desktop for quick easy access every time.

Your Remote Desktop session might not as nice as having the display settings turned up, but it will make for a more fluid and response experience.

If you would like our help speeding up your remote access, and enabling your work from home workforce – please contact us on 1300 735 926 or email us at support@pkcg.com.au

Improving your cybersecurity at home

With the sudden move to working from home, and without the protection of enterprise grade firewalls, antivirus and other protections afforded on your office network, it’s more important than ever to be vigilant against cyber criminals.

Use your home computer, like you would use your computer at work

The number one cause of compromise that we see is human error, whether that’s clicking on a phishing email and entering your details or downloading something that is malicious. Chances are when using your work computer, you are super cautious about the emails, attachments, and links that you open. You should be taking these same exact steps when working from home.

Remember, it isn’t just your personal system you are putting at risk, but company resources too!

Use strong passphrases

Strong passphrases are the first line of defence for your accounts. See our post on passwords and passphrases here for our recommendations. You should use a different passphrase for your computer, each application, and website you use – particularly those that you have given personally identifiable information (PII).  Using the same email address and passphrase across websites will mean if one site is compromised, then all your accounts are at risk!

We recommend the use of a password manager such as 1Password, Dashlane or LastPass. If you’re storing passwords related to work, we can give you access to MyGlue.

Keep your devices up to date

Keeping your devices, including the operating system, any applications you have installed, and for computers, drivers and firmware, is essential to reduce the number of vulnerabilities that can be used to access your device. Updates also deliver new features, and can sometimes improve performance too!

Use reputable anti-virus / anti-malware protection

Anti-virus or anti-malware protection is another layer of security that provides protection for your computer against malicious threats. It’s important that it’s kept up to date with the latest signatures, and if it doesn’t run in realtime then you should be scanning all files you haven’t opened before.

If you’re a current client of PKCG, you are more than likely are using Sophos Intercept X at work and we can install this on your devices at home too!

Use secure Wi-Fi

While the Wi-Fi network  at the office is likely to be secure and encrypted, the same might not be true for your connection at home. If you risk using an unsecured network while working remotely, you could be allowing nearby cyber criminals a route into the company network. It’s trivial  for cyber criminals to set up an unsecured network and “sniff” all the traffic going over a wireless connection.

Back up your data

Storage is cheap, you can use either an external drive or back up to the cloud. Unplug your external drives when not in use, and store them in a secure place. If your backup software supports it encrypt your backups  with a strong passphrase too.

Cyber criminals don’t always want to steal your data, sometimes they want to encrypt it and keep it at ransom. Make sure you test your backups too, firstly to make sure they are happening, and secondly to make sure you can recover data from them.

Don’t forget physical security too!

Lock your computer when not in use, even if it’s only for a short period of time. Make sure your mobile devices have a passcode set, and set up the ability to find or wipe devices remotely if possible.

It’s much easier to access your information if other people have access to your devices.

If you would like our help reviewing your cybersecurity at home – please contact us on 1300 735 926 or email us at support@pkcg.com.au

Slow internet at home?

With the recent shift of business now asking staff to work from home, the reliance on internet connectivity has grown furthermore towards business continuity. Whether simple email correspondence, or a bandwidth demanding video conference, having a stable internet connecting is essential.

At the same time, more people working from home means more people sharing the internet connection which will result in  slower speeds.

Due to COVID-19 the NBNco has increased capacity by approximately 40%, and have started posting transparent reports on their website.

There are several things you can do to help improve home internet at these times with these simple steps:

Check your internet speed

The first thing to know is what speed and plan you are getting with your current internet service provider (ISP). The most common connections in Australia are NBN, ADSL2+, Cable, and 4G. Megabits are commonly used for measuring internet speed.

There are many websites you can use to check your internet speed over the web. Speedtest by Ookla is the most widely used speed testing tools.

Most ISP’s advice is that their connection will slow down during evenings, which is referred to as peak time (when most people are at home, streaming content or playing games) between 7pm – 11 pm.

Upgrade your plan accordingly if you experience slowness but make sure you are getting the speed you are eligible with your plan.

Restart your router

A simple fix like switching your router OFF then back ON again could do trick sometimes. Make sure to wait for at least 5 second before turning it back ON.

It may not work all the time, but it is worth a try before checking other things.

Optimise router location

It is very important to find a suitable location to place your router where it visible and without any obstruction, especially if connecting via Wi-Fi. It is recommended to place it in an open location where devices have line of sight. Always sit the router upright as it is intended by the manufacturer.

Use a wired connection

It is best to use an Ethernet cable to connect your computer with the router to get the best speed. A wired connection provides faster transfer of data and it is less likely to lose connection.

If you would like our help reviewing your home connection to make sure it’s meeting your working from home requirements – please contact us on 1300 735 926 or email us at support@pkcg.com.au.