Following my last week post on working from home vs working from the office, today I’m gonna write about the tools I use for working remotely.
Even though there is a lot of software and web applications available for working remotely, the reality is that you only need a few of them to keep track with your team, and in this post I’m only going to talk about the most important ones.
Tools for working remotely
Below are all the tools I use on a daily basis for working remotely. I’m sure that you’re already using some of them.
Skype
Skype is perhaps the most used communication tool for companies. You can use skype for chat, making and receiving calls, or for doing screen sharing. Best of all skype is free and works on every platform.
Campfire
Campfire is a web application by 37signals for keeping track of communications with your team. We use campfire extensively and we never had a single issue in many years.
Google Apps and Google Docs
Google apps together with google docs provides most of what you’ll ever need for sharing documents. I personally use these tools only occasionally, except for gmail where I can sync many account into a single one.
Basecamp
Basecamp is another web application by 37signals. You can use basecamp to keep track of your projects and things to do. If your requirements are simple you can probably use pen and paper, otherwise this is an excellent program. I am personally not using basecamp anymore, as my requirements are very specific and I don’t have a team to manage.
Conclusion
I wanted to keep this post very short, because I believe adding more tools would mean adding complexity. Of all the tools I listed here, I only use skype, campfire and gmail. Campfire and Gmail are sponsored by the company I work with, so my only cost is skype, which is zero. The other tools I use for working are tools that I would use even in an office, so there’s no need to repeat them here.
If you have special requirements, chances are that there’s already a software that solves your problem, otherwise you may leave a comment here and I’ll do some research for you.
I’m curious to hear if you are using any other tool for working remotely, or if you are using some alternative for the applications I listed above.
Dropbox may be also useful, 2Gb of shared space.
Of course, if we got technical, a svn/git repository, ssh with X forwarding…
When I’m working from home, I just need ssh -C -X (for compressed X forwarding) and setting up a proxy for my local Firefox, to be able to browse as if I was in my office.
Ruben
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I used dropbox, git, ssh and other tools, but I would use them at work too. Thanks for your comment Ruben!
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Hey Oscar,
One program that I’ve used a couple of times when working remotely is Teamviewer.
It’s free and it is a tiny program that allows you to access another computer remotely and copy files, install programs or anything you want. you take control over the other person’s desktop and computer.
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Hey Diggy, that sounds useful. I’ll probably use it to access my iMac when I move out. Thanks for sharing.
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Hey Oscar,
In the same category as Teamviewer you can find Mikogo. This is a very useful tool for both presentations and remote control. It’s also free, and as we’ve spoken before, I use it all the time at work for giving technical support to clients.
Works for file transfers, multiple users for presentations, scheduled presentations, session recording etc.
Also, thank you for the tips you shared :)
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Hey Felicia, I’ll try that as well :)
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Try activeCollab instead of basecamp. It is better, cheaper and runs on every platform (php based web application).
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I’m not using basecamp at the moment but I’ll check out activeCollab, thanks for the tip.
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