I’m looking into whether I can slow travel SEA w/ my current remote job. My boss is fine with it, but we have this 3rd party HR software/site that we use to clock in/out, and I can’t clock in/out unless I’m on my home wifi. I’m locked into my IP address! Everything else works fine to do my actual work, just not the time punches. My boss is ok with me setting up a VPN, but it sounds like I’ll need one with a static IP address? Then I can give my Manager that IP address, and I’d always connect to that address if that’s possible. I work on my own personal MacBook btw, and all work is web based or gmail.

First, am I understanding all that correctly or does anything sound off? Networking is not my strong suite, obviously lol

Any recommendations for a VPN with that capability and suited for travel? Do I need more than that, like a VPS set up like others have with a GL.iNet router? I sure hope not because I doubt any hotels/serviced apt’s I’d be in would have access to their router. This is one of the last things I’ll need to figure out to make it all possible! Getting sooo close!! 😊 Thank you!

  • pandawelch@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Starting from the beginning why do you need to be on your home network to access this system?

    Then, why do you think your home network public IP needs to be fixed.

  • MaManPF@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    That’s odd! First of all, your Internet provider may change your IP from time to time, especially when you restart your router. Some providers might charge you for a static one.

    But if you really need a static IP, you can sign up for a VPN service and some offer your very own static IP as an add on. I have my own VPN, I set it up on a Oracle Cloud virtual machine. PS: You need some networking and Unix command line knowledge.

    Plus, you mentioned that you do all your job using Web based apps, for example Gmail, that means you’re using Google Workspace.

    I worked for Google Workspace tech support and there’s no connection between you checking in to the RH system and accessing Google Workspace. Google Workspace would need a separate set up.

    Honestly, I believe your company made that up to refrain employees from working abroad.

    I hope this helps.

  • joshuakuhn@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    How technically savvy are you? You can setup your own Outline or OpenVPN instance in AWS and get a never changing IP there for around $3/mo including, i think, 1TB of traffic.

  • seraph321@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    You are likely understanding it correctly, yes, although it’s a pretty unusual requirement because most people don’t have a static IP at home. With most standard consumer internet plans, your ip address is subject to change at any time. Often, it won’t change unless your connection is reset, but it definitely does change occasionally for most people. Usually, the only way to get a dedicated IP address is to pay extra for a business-class account of some kind. I’d be curious if you employer is really expecting their employees to have a static ip.

    That said, if you were traveling around, even using a standard VPN, you’d likely have a different ip every time you connect, so it definitely sounds like you’d want to look for a solution. NordVPN appears to offer a static ip. Another option would be to setup a dedicated PC that you could remote into just for the clock in/out, but that really only works if you could leave it setup at family home or something, because you’d likely need someone to be ready to reboot it if needed.