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If you want access to your data from outside the office, you have number of options, depending on your situation:
Virtual Private Network (VPN)
This is a recommended form of remote access. DentOffice has been tested over
a VPN connection, and functions normally, although a little slower. VPN is a
very secure option which would most typically be used if you have a second office
and you wanted both offices to work off of the same database. Both offices would
be connected to the internet by a broadband connection, either cable or DSL.
There are different types of VPN solutions and a network specialist would have
to set it up for you. It typically involves a special router and some software.
Once the VPN is set up, the offices should be connected and function as if they
were a single office. You can also set it up so you can access the office from
home.
Remote desktop software
GoToMyPC.com makes an outstanding product
that is very easy to set up. For $15-$20 per month, you can log on to an office
PC from any computer you want, and if feels as if you were sitting at that computer,
except for a slight time delay. The data is sent encrypted so it is secure.
The only problem with this solution is that if you use a public computer, or
if you get a virus, someone may figure out what your password is. If anyone
figures out your password, they would have access to your network. As long as
you are careful, this should not be a problem.
Windows XP also comes with a similar built-in remote desktop feature. You can access it from Start | All Programs | Accessories | Communications | Remote Desktop Connection. Note that if you use one of these remote desktop solutions, the computer you are connected to is 'disabled' during use by the other user. In other words, it doesn't increase the number of users you can have.
Windows Terminal Services or Citrix
If you have Windows Server, then you can use the built-in terminal
services to access your network remotely. The remote computers can run any application
that you could normally run from the office. The advantage over GoToMyPC which
is described above, is that you can have multiple connections operating at once.
Instead of just connecting to a single computer, the server would handle all
the connections. Each connection requires a license from Microsoft and this
solution runs into the thousands of dollars if you include the cost of Windows
Server. This solution works very well and is elegant in its simplicity.
An even more sophisticated option is a Citrix server. Citrix is the industry leader in terminal services, and the quality is very good. This is an even more expensive option which requires Windows Server in addition to a Citrix server and client licenses.
Laptop or removable hard drive
You can back up your data to a laptop and take it home with you. As long as
you remember to back up before you leave the office in the evening, you would
have access to all your data. Another similar option is to use a hard drive
of some sort to take home the data with you. This would primarily be an offsite
backup strategy, but could also be adapted to allow you to use it at home. There
are so many different options out there that we can not begin to list them all.
There are external drives, internal removable drives, external cases, full size,
medium, and small drives, USB, USB2, firewire, ethernet, etc. Your best option
is probably a USB flash drive which is very small and convenient. If you have a lot of images, then you may need to used a small external hard drive that connects with USB2 or firewire. It will
be fast, and it is easy to connect it to whichever computer you want.
See the Backup section for specific instructions on how to restore a backup to a remote computer.
Palm or Pocket PC
A mobile version is planned, but it is hard to say
when we will be able to get started on it. Until then, you could always do a
few custom queries, save the results to your Pocket PC or Palm, and then view
the tables in a spreadsheet program.
Web browser
There is also not a web version of DentOffice, but this is a future possibility.
Once it is done, you would have to have someone configure your office as a webserver.
This would require some software, a firewall, and a fixed IP address which is
a little more expensive. You would also have to know how to maintain the web
server, and ensure security. Then, you could access the data from any computer
with a simple password.
One other option might be to have us host your data for remote access. It will be some time before this will be available, but it would make it easier than trying to host your own web server. We would set up some sort of a periodic synchronization to upload patient information from your server to ours. Then, you could access it from any web browser.
Application Service Provider
At some point, we will begin offering DentOffice through terminal services. This would mean that you would
not have to install any software at your office in order to use it.
The database and program would be located on our servers. We would handle all backup, upgrades,
virus protection, etc. This would not be a web browser version, but a full version of the program with all the functionality you are used to. This service would be very convenient, although a bit more expensive. But you would never be locked in to this setup. Your data always belongs to you, so at any time you could request that we send
you the entire database, and you could switch to the traditional setup
running on your own network. You could freely move your database back and forth
to best fit your situation and you would always have total control over your
data.