Help - Trading at Work

Crap............I tried a couple new things and neither worked.

What did they do to my computer? Here's the deal.

If I logon while connected to internet at the coffee shop everything works fine. If I then connect to my company network with the VPN # they gave me it no longer works.

My old computer would still work on their network though if I had it.

Does anyone have an idea what it is that's keeping it from connecting? It would help if I knew "why" it won't connect.
 
Quote from macattack:

Crap............I tried a couple new things and neither worked.

What did they do to my computer? Here's the deal.

If I logon while connected to internet at the coffee shop everything works fine. If I then connect to my company network with the VPN # they gave me it no longer works.

My old computer would still work on their network though if I had it.

Does anyone have an idea what it is that's keeping it from connecting? It would help if I knew "why" it won't connect.
More...

They could be blocking a specific port that logmein uses.
 
Quote from macattack:

Crap............I tried a couple new things and neither worked.

What did they do to my computer? Here's the deal.

If I logon while connected to internet at the coffee shop everything works fine. If I then connect to my company network with the VPN # they gave me it no longer works.

My old computer would still work on their network though if I had it.

Does anyone have an idea what it is that's keeping it from connecting? It would help if I knew "why" it won't connect.
More...

It's hard to say exactly what is blocking you, your new laptop may have a proxy hard coded into its network connection and the proxy or some other network layer device is blocking access to things like logmein and gotomypc. The reason it stops working when you fire up the vpn is most vpn client software inject routes into your pc to force all of your traffic through the vpn connection to protect your company's network. They don't really want you bridging outside networks with theirs.

As someone who has been in the IT business in one way or another for many years I must advise you to be careful with what you are doing as it almost certainly violates the acceptable use policy at your company and if their IT team is competent what you are doing is very very obvious. If they are running log analysis software like arcsight there are alerts being sent when you try these things.
 
Macattack,

If you can't get around your work computer network issues do you have any other options that would allow you to continue trading, such as flexibility in your working hours, or changing shift hours, that would allow you to have time to trade from home.

I don't know if trading using a smart phone feasible because we need a fast internet connection and clear charts on a decent sized screen.
 
Quote from dcvtss:

It's hard to say exactly what is blocking you, your new laptop may have a proxy hard coded into its network connection and the proxy or some other network layer device is blocking access to things like logmein and gotomypc. The reason it stops working when you fire up the vpn is most vpn client software inject routes into your pc to force all of your traffic through the vpn connection to protect your company's network. They don't really want you bridging outside networks with theirs.

As someone who has been in the IT business in one way or another for many years I must advise you to be careful with what you are doing as it almost certainly violates the acceptable use policy at your company and if their IT team is competent what you are doing is very very obvious. If they are running log analysis software like arcsight there are alerts being sent when you try these things.
More...

Thanks for the advice. I'm actually a bit stressed about getting in trouble, but I'll deal with it when or if it happens. If they ever pull my internet log I'm doomed anyway. I always have it open on non-work pages.

I think a site called TeamViewer is going to work. Somebody mentioned it earlier. I'll try using that on Monday. In the meantime I'm going to come up with a good excuse as to why I've been trying to access my home computer, so maybe I can just get a warning. Luckily I only go to clean, normal internet sites, so that's good.

If TeamViewer doesn't work; then I think I'll just have to start getting up extremely early & I can trade for 1 1/2 hours before leaving for work; then maybe I'll switch to one of the crappy web-based platforms & try some longer timeframe trades from work. I think ThinkorSwim has the web trading option.
 
You did not mention that you could take the computer out of the office.

Anyway, here is another work around. Get a sprint 4g cellphone. Use the workaround that you can download from the Internet to be able to connect the phone to your laptop without paying Sprint $ 30/month extra. When you want to trade, connect to the Internet wireless through the cell phone.

Quote from macattack:

Crap............I tried a couple new things and neither worked.

What did they do to my computer? Here's the deal.

If I logon while connected to internet at the coffee shop everything works fine. If I then connect to my company network with the VPN # they gave me it no longer works.

My old computer would still work on their network though if I had it.

Does anyone have an idea what it is that's keeping it from connecting? It would help if I knew "why" it won't connect.
More...
 
macattack,

I have to comment on your situation, given that I see things from the management side of the table. First off, I trade futures at work, using my own laptop (Thinkpad with a Sprint 4g card), before office hours (I get in at 7:00, work starts at 8:30), and during lunch. That's it.

Why only those hours? Because our IT department can track everything and does, also because the futures trading that I do uses an installed software package. So- my setup is completely mine, and uses no company assets, including internet access.

As a manager, if I caught you trading during office hours, I would give you one or maybe two warnings...after that, you'd get a written warning, then out the door.

The lesson here, is BE CAREFUL, unless you have a very understanding boss. Think about swing trading, as it does not require continual attention to the screen as daytrading does.

Regards and good luck....Kevin
 
Thanks for the advice.

My managers are rarely around, but if IT reports me hopefully I'll just get a warning, and then I'll stop doing what I'm doing & find a way that won't get me in trouble.

I've been trading at work for 3 years now, and nobody has ever said anything which really surprises me. I hide the screen so nobody sees, but you'd think I would've popped up on an alert list or something with the IT dept.

Anyway..........here's a new question:
About the Spring 3G thing.

Let's say I'm at work and hooked into the company network just like everybody else.

Would it be possible to have the "LogMeIn" tab on the bottom of my screen, but have it routed to the Sprint 3G internet (my personal internet) instead of the company network? That would be a good solution. I just don't know if it's possible.
 
It would seem possible.


http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/18/microsofts-virtual-wifi-will-make-windows-7-wireless-adapters-d/

Quote from macattack:

Thanks for the advice.

My managers are rarely around, but if IT reports me hopefully I'll just get a warning, and then I'll stop doing what I'm doing & find a way that won't get me in trouble.

I've been trading at work for 3 years now, and nobody has ever said anything which really surprises me. I hide the screen so nobody sees, but you'd think I would've popped up on an alert list or something with the IT dept.

Anyway..........here's a new question:
About the Spring 3G thing.

Let's say I'm at work and hooked into the company network just like everybody else.

Would it be possible to have the "LogMeIn" tab on the bottom of my screen, but have it routed to the Sprint 3G internet (my personal internet) instead of the company network? That would be a good solution. I just don't know if it's possible.
More...
 
Quote from macattack:

Thanks for the advice.

My managers are rarely around, but if IT reports me hopefully I'll just get a warning, and then I'll stop doing what I'm doing & find a way that won't get me in trouble.

I've been trading at work for 3 years now, and nobody has ever said anything which really surprises me. I hide the screen so nobody sees, but you'd think I would've popped up on an alert list or something with the IT dept.

Anyway..........here's a new question:
About the Spring 3G thing.

Let's say I'm at work and hooked into the company network just like everybody else.

Would it be possible to have the "LogMeIn" tab on the bottom of my screen, but have it routed to the Sprint 3G internet (my personal internet) instead of the company network? That would be a good solution. I just don't know if it's possible.
More...

I have not tried accessing a computer from another pc as you ask- I'll leave that up to other, more experienced types.

Kevin
 
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