With the iPhone application you can enter your username and password once and with one click of the icon you have access to your network based files and applications all displayed on your iPhone screen in a simple to use application. The download is free and can be done right from your iPhone by clicking here.

New features found in this release include support for compression and the ability to stay logged in which make the service even more user friendly than before while maintaining the highest levels of security.  The new login screen gives a simple option to “Stay logged in” which, when ticked, negates the requirement to enter a username and password every time the user accesses the portal.

The user interface has undergone some changes and iPhone users in particular will find a more streamlined experience both when managing their login and browsing file shares.

The AccessMyLan Web Portal continues to deliver real-time access to the information workers need - now with increased speed and functionality.

AccessMyLan for SmartPhone connects people to their files, applications and mail from directly from a handset ensuring that mobile staff have access to the most up-to-date information and key business applications such as CRM. Handsets supported include iPhone , Windows Mobile, Palm, Nokia and Blackberry.

AccessMyLan InstantAPN provides AT&T customers with a private network link between any mobile device on the AT&T network and their organization’s network. InstantAPN can address multiple customer requirements such as controlling Internet access on mobile devices, providing remote access for laptops and creating M2M networks for telemetery and monitoring applications. Any device with an AT&T SIM is supported allowing you to connect and control any mobile device.

The tool can diagnose problems associated with
- DNS resolution
- Basic connectivity to the Exchange server
- Exchange server configuration
- User credentials and domain settings on iPhone
- Exchange server SSL and certificate problems

Due to limitations with the iPhone SDK, advanced certificate diagnosis is not possible on iPhone so I’d recommend using the Windows version of the ActiveSync Tester to get to the bottom of certificate problems.

At AccessMyLan we not only make the integration of iPhone with Exchange much easier, we also provide access to files and applications in the office. This takes the iPhone onto another step as the iPhone user can open files directly from a file server and access business applications such as CRM and Intranet from Safari.

This is where a hosted VPN solution such as AccessMyLan shines in comparison to an appliance based VPN. As a hosted VPN service, it is designed to scale on-demand in terms of traffic volumes and active users giving a VPN administrator as much remote access capacity as they need, when they need it.

The subscription model provides the flexibility to enable VPN access for users as and when needed removing the requirement to purchase expensive VPN capacity that remains unused and idle. With the AccessMyLan licensing model, a user may be added for a little as a day and only incur a charge for one day.

The AccessMyLan service does all the ‘heavy lifting’ associated with encrypting connections so that there is minimal load on the system in the office hosting the AccessMyLan VPN Agent. We have customers with thousands of active users served from a single VPN Agent on a basic server. Using this approach means that the VPN Administrator avoids all the capacity planning headaches and the cost of buying a bigger box than is needed.

Bandwidth can be a severely limiting factor in a business continuity scenario as more and more users attempt to connect. Again, AccessMyLan has a number of tricks up it’s sleeve to allow the use of multiple Internet connections and to split traffic across multiple internet feeds. For example, if the primary Internet circuit is overloaded, you could connect a broadband modem to a PC or server in the office and install an additional AccessMyLan VPN Agent on it. You simply configure what type of traffic goes through this additional VPN Agent route to split traffic across links. This is seamless to the remote user who does not know (or need to know) that their shared folder access is through the main Internet link while their email is accessed via a temporary mobile broadband link. The neat part of this is that there is no requirement for a static IP address and that VPN Agents can be deployed on-demand without any reconfiguration of remote clients.

Even if you already have a VPN, having a hosted VPN in place alongside your existing solution gives the flexibility and capacity needed to accommodate occasional spikes in demand. Access is quickly provided to the displaced worker with either the AccessMyLan VPN Client (self-installed by the user from an AccessMyLan generated email) or on-demand via a web browser.

While we all hope disaster doesn’t strike, it’s imperative that network administrators are prepared for the unexpected - like a swine flu outbreak forcing everyone to stay at home. AccessMyLan provides a simple and cost-effective disaster recovery solution for just such an event.

P.s. Our Disaster Recovery White Paper (PDF) explains how AccessMyLan can be a part of your business continuity plans.

View the Press Release from O2 UK.