Hey guys! I'm a property manager for a business complex. We have central heating and cooling system that we utilitze by one of the local provider and I need to find a way to give my pc access to the heating and cooling company so they can remotely access the software which is currently installed in my pc at work. The problem is my pc has very sensitive merchant information that i don't want anyone else to have access to. I spoke to the ISP on how I can go by doing this and they weren't quite sure other than told me to get two separate static ip address for the pc. Is this true and how do I configure two separate ip address on one network card? If it's not the correct way or if there's easier way, can you let me know? Thanks in advance guys!

To do a second IP you need another network card installed in the computer. Actually i would setup a different computer dedicated for that specific purpose. That way they don't have any access to other information.

The ISP's advice is wrong. Ip address has nothing to do with securing access to data on the pc. Lorjack17 is correct that you should have a different pc for them to access the control software. Most vendors would have a dial in line to the AC and run the software from their center not your pc.

In most cases you secure information based on NTFS file permissions. You should not expect any computer connected to the internet to be secure at all. Consider getting a cheap second computer to connect to the internet and run hvac. "Best Practices", Event viewer, host file, perfmon, antivirus, anti-spyware, Live CD's, backups, are in my top 10