Vacations

One of the things that is mentioned whenever a person is seriously considering starting a business is that the person should not expect to take a vacation for at least the first three (3) years and most likely first five (5) years in operation. This is because you are so involved in its day to day operation and many startups can not afford the reliable help needed so that a business can actually operate reliably while the owner is sitting on a beach cut off from the outside world.

Fortunately for us, we do not have to worry about the bot running reliably. In the unlikely event of a problem, we can reboot the bot or the machine running the bot. If there is a tweak that needs to be made, we simply do it.

However, how do you run a bot while you are on vacation?

Sure you can run some VNC clone and remotely administer your bot that way. I did that when I was running YATbot. But I've found running VNC a little cumbersome, slow (this was years ago so the speed was an issue then, not so much now), and I just had an irksome feeling that some random probe could send a command and take over my bot machine as I had to leave an open port, a back door if you will, on my bot machine. It simply never felt right and it was always a conflict in my mind: Leave an open port but but be able to remotely administer the bot; or close the port, be secure but also be out of luck should something happen.

Fortunately for us, yet again, is that MTGO Library has several features that can be used for remote administration and this going to be the focus for the next few entries, as we wrap up the bigger topic of little known bot features. For readers in the United States, have a Happy Thanksgiving.