Remote access to hosted Sierra or Millennium: Staff working from home or disaster planning

Hosted Sierra or Millennium systems are protected with a robust firewall. All IPs accessing the servers need to be submitted to Innovative for your system security.

For Admin Corner or telnet access (sensitive functions) we require specific IPs. For Millennium client, Sierra Desktop and Admin Application access, we can accept IP ranges (/24, 256 IP limit). If your staff members need to connect to Sierra or Millennium remotely and do not have a static IP address or known range, the best and safest option is to set up a VPN or remote desktop. This will enable a connection to server without opening up firewall ports to additional IPs. If you set up a VPN with a new IP, or want to add remote staff IPs, please open a ticket with Innovative listing the new IPs and access required.

Background Information:

What is an IP address?

For our purposes an IP address is "a unique number" used for identifying computer systems on the Internet

Private IP addresses are local, inside an office or home, not useful to us, a public IP address is used through the Internet, this is what we need

Find your public IP address here
https://www.google.com/search?q=ip+address

A “dynamic” IP address is one that is "constantly changing" and a "static" IP address stays the same

What are the security risks?

Dynamic IP addresses are constantly changing thus permitting access for a dynamic IP address is a constant security hole, in this case it's recommended you request a static IP address from your internet service provider or have your local IT department configure an office VPN connection

If expired or invalid IP addresses are not removed from our security whitelists it could open up your server for unauthorized access and service outage

What are our recommendations?

To ensure that access to your Sierra or Millennium server is kept secure, the following is recommended:

• Ensure you are not requesting access from a dynamic IP address
• Use a VPN to your office where possible
• Request removal of any IP address that no longer requires access