It looks like VPS is a good solution. How about personalVPN? Which one is better? What are the pros and cons of VPS and personalVPN? Such as: cost, privacy, reliable, etc.
DivArb, I'd go with the LogMeIn option for this reason: LOL Go4, Glad to see I've always been so polite with you All was sweet on the connection/trading front for me today ... even my currency pair was behaving well. How about u? <img src="http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=1705508">
on topic: i'd never heard of logmein- i'm going to give it a try for other purposes than trading- never been very impressed with gotomypc. Kiwi: good on you for your good trading day. IB was solid for the morning session- they must love me the way i'm over-trading. 51 round trips in the morning and over 100 yesterday. ehhh.... still having a pretty good day so far (famous last words). one of these days i'll try to take a serious go at trading currencies- just not in my comfort zone now.
I did extensive research on alternatives. there are a few really competitive futures brokers out there. And the ones I looked at had competitive commissions (some will negotiate with you) and all of them had unbelievable customer service. I looked at Ira Epstein, United Futures (Vision Futures Markets is their FCM), GO Futures (Farr Financial is their FCM), and Global Futures (Rosenthal Collins is their FCM). All were very similiar with regard to customer service, competitive rates, etc. All had far superior customer service. Ira and global assign the customer their own broker..they answer the phone promptly and respond to emails promptly. For my style of trading, I went with Global Futures. I trade the ES and the associated options. Do your due diligence before deciding and funding your account. Check out the demos of the platforms. It really was a good exercise for me to realize that IB is not the only broker out there.
What ports are your company blocking? I can use TWS behind a firewall that blocks port 4000 and everything works except for quotes and charts. I use webtrader to get quotes, which is not the greatest (because it only updates every 15 seconds), but it's better than nothing.
I wish I knew. I work for a bank that has some heavy-duty security going on. I tried running something called HTTP Tnnel, but even that didnt work, and it uses port 80 which is for general web browsing. I can browse the web while I am at work, so I have no idea what they are blocking. What port are you using to get TWS running?
From IB Networking FAQs: What protocols and ports should my ISP allow? TWS connects to our servers via port 4000 using a source port in the publicly addressable space above port 1024. Our servers listen on port 4000; TWS will not function on any other port. For users behind firewalls, the installed version includes provisions for using a specified outbound port. Both inbound and outbound ports need to be permissioned for TWS to function properly.
If you wanna try another broker, go ahead. I would advise you to leave your IB account open though, it will be much simpler and faster for you when you return. I use 2 brokers, but IB is and continues to be the "mainstay".