Working from home is now normal at most law firms, and PCLaw can support it well. The problems we are called in to fix almost always come from how remote access was set up, not from PCLaw itself. Choosing the right approach at the start saves months of slowness, crashes and, in the worst cases, damaged data.
The one rule: PCLaw should run next to its data
PCLaw reads and writes its database constantly. On an office network that traffic travels a few metres over a fast, reliable cable. Over the internet it has to cross a home connection that is slower, less reliable and shared with everything else in the house.
So the setups that work all follow the same rule: PCLaw runs on a computer in the office (or in a data centre), right beside the data, and only the screen, keyboard and mouse travel to the person at home.
The setup to avoid: a VPN and a mapped drive
The most common mistake is to connect a home computer to the office with a VPN, map the PCLaw data folder as a network drive, and run PCLaw on the home computer. It seems simple and it often works for a day or two. Then the problems start:
- It is slow. Every screen and every report pulls data across the internet. Users describe PCLaw as "unusable from home".
- It damages data. If the home connection drops while PCLaw is writing, for example in the middle of posting a bill or a trust entry, the database can be left half-written. On the c-tree edition this is one of the most frequent causes of the integrity errors we repair. See 5 signs your PCLaw database needs immediate attention.
- It is hard to support. Every home computer becomes a PCLaw workstation that needs the right version, updates and settings.
If your firm works this way today, it is worth changing before the next dropped connection, not after.
Three setups that work
1. Remote desktop to an office computer
Each person connects from home to their own computer at the office using Remote Desktop. PCLaw runs on the office computer, exactly as it does when they sit at it.
- Good for: small firms where everyone already has a desk computer at the office.
- Watch for: the office computers must stay on, and Remote Desktop must never be opened directly to the internet (see security, below).
2. Remote Desktop Services on a server
A Windows server in the office runs Remote Desktop Services (sometimes still called terminal services). Several people sign in to their own sessions on that server at the same time, and PCLaw is installed once, on the server.
- Good for: firms of roughly five or more remote users, or firms that want staff to work the same way from anywhere.
- Watch for: Remote Desktop Services needs its own Microsoft licences for each user or device, and the server needs enough memory and processing power for everyone signed in at once. Printing and scanning need some planning.
3. A hosted desktop
The server lives in a data centre run by a hosting provider, and everyone, in the office or at home, connects to it the same way.
- Good for: firms that want to stop running an office server, or that have several offices.
- Watch for: choose a provider that understands PCLaw and can tell you exactly how and where your data is backed up. Check where the data is stored if your law society has rules about it.
Security essentials
Remote access is the most common way ransomware gets into a law firm. Whatever setup you choose:
- Never expose Remote Desktop directly to the internet. Put it behind a VPN or a Remote Desktop Gateway. Open Remote Desktop ports are scanned for and attacked within hours.
- Turn on multi-factor authentication for every remote login.
- Give every person their own account, with a strong password, and remove access the day someone leaves the firm.
- Keep the server and every remote computer updated.
- Keep backups the remote users cannot reach, so an infected home computer cannot encrypt them as well. Our PCLaw backup strategy guide explains how.
If the worst does happen, read PCLaw ransomware recovery: what to do in the first 24 hours.
Printing, cheques and scanning
Plan these before go-live, not after the first complaint:
- Printing to home printers works in all three setups, but each printer driver needs testing.
- Trust and general cheques are usually best printed at the office, on the cheque printer and stock that are kept secured there. Decide who prints them and how they are signed off.
- Scanning from home into a remote session needs either a scanner that saves to a shared folder or a redirection setting that has been tested.
Before you switch
- Run Verify Data Integrity and fix any errors first, so you do not carry them into the new setup.
- Take a full backup and confirm that it restores.
- Test with one or two users for a week before moving everyone.
- Check that PCLaw licences cover everyone who will sign in.
Getting it set up properly
We set up remote access for PCLaw firms of every size: remote desktop for a handful of users, Remote Desktop Services on a new or existing server, or a move to a hosted desktop. Each one includes security, printing and a test period. It is part of our PCLaw support service, and if a server change is involved, see how to move PCLaw to a new server. Contact us to talk it through.