In this section we will explore the steps we need to complete to enable us to use Lotus Notes when we are disconnected or away from the office. There are a varied number of ways that we may connect into our organization remotely. How we connect will not be covered in this chapter and it will be presumed that we can connect.
In some organizations these steps have been completed by the IT Department before we are given our laptop. However, it is recommended to still go through the steps so that we are confident to work remotely.
Step 1: Setting up applications:
We need to set up applications so that they can be accessed locally. We need to follow these steps before we leave the office:
- Create local replicas of our mail and any other applications that we will need to access offline. We discuss how to do this later in the chapter. If our mail or any application is large in size, creating the replica could take a while. We can create the replica in the background so that we can continue working. Just don't try and create the local replicas five minutes before you leave the office!
- Test accessing our local replicas when disconnected, by unplugging the network cable or disabling wireless. Make sure we remember to reconnect our network.
- If we are prompted to enter a password when we start Lotus Notes, we will need to make sure our ID file is on our computer. To test, once we have disconnected from the network in the preceding step, restart Lotus Notes. It will prompt us if it can't find our ID.
- We need to discuss with our IT Department if we need to create any connection documents to access our home server.
- We need to ensure our remote access is set up and ready to go. Discuss this with the IT Department and make sure we have all the software and login details, including passwords that we require to connect when we are away from the office.
Step 2: Testing remote access from home
We need to follow these steps to test remote access from home:
- Start up the laptop and ensure you are not connected to the office.
- Start up Lotus Notes, select the Offline location. Test opening mail and any applications that have local replicas.
- Create and send a message.
- Go to the Replication and Sync page and open the Outgoing Mail Application by double-clicking Send Outgoing Mail. Once opened we should see the message that we just sent.
- Connect into our organization.
- Open the Replication and Sync page and click the Send button. Leave the Replication and Sync page open and watch to see if the message was sent. We can open the Outgoing Mail application to confirm that it is empty.
Step 3: Setting up a schedule
If required we can set a schedule to enable replication to occur according to a set timeframe. This is done by clicking the Schedule button on the Replication and Sync page.
In some organizations, it is recommended not to change location documents and to stay on the Online location when we connect in remotely, by VPN or RAS for example.
When we change to the other locations, we access our mail locally on our PC. When we open a large attachment in our local replica, we are doing it locally on our PC. When we open a large attachment when using the Online location, we are opening it over the network at the server. This can be slower than working locally.
Also there may be times when we cannot connect into the office because the connection could be intermittent or we're in a no network area. When this occurs, we will not be able to access mail or any of our other applications if we do not have local replicas. I like the flexibility and speed of working locally. I only work Online when I am at the office.
Next we look at how to take our applications offline by creating local replicas.