Tag: remote

Remote Desktop Access

There are a variety of ways to connect to your computer when you’re not at home or in the office. There is only one easy way to do this for free and a lot of more complicated ways to do it for free. If you don’t mind paying $20 per month you can go to a couple dozen companies for this sort of service and they make it easy for that monthly fee.

This is a free list of options with the most simple at the top of the list:

  1. logmein.com – from LogMeIn where you can find a variety of remote services including a free version that is the only free option I know about that is simple to use. Even though you won’t see the ‘Free’ option right away you will as you are going through the process of installing their software on your computer.
  2. Remote Desktop – from Microsoft is built-in to all Windows professional class versions of Windows. If you have Windows pro or business you are part of the way there. Then you need to enable port forwarding on your router to your computer. Default Port to forward: 3389
  3. RealVNC – UltraVNC – TightVNC are all basically the same open source software that will work similar to Logmein but requires the same port forwarding on your router as the Remote Desktop. Default Port to forward: 5900

Click Here for a video on how to setup VNC and a router.

Remote Desktop Sharing

There are a lot of services and software that will allow you to share your desktop with one or more people so you can have a meeting, show a demonstration and generally share your computer desktop.

All listed are free to use:

  1. acrobat.com – from Adobe is a good service to share your desktop and have a meeting online with one or more people.
  2. dimdim.com – from DimDim is free and open source. If you want to run their software on your own server you can do that too.
  3. skype.com – from Skype now has a remote desktop sharing feature in their popular VoIP software. Download the 4.1 beta version for Windows and the latest version for OS X.

The above options are not the same as remote access to your desktop. The difference between remote sharing and remote access is needing to have someone on the other computer giving you permission to sign on. Where remote access software just runs waiting for you to connect to that computer anytime you want.

With the above options available it is difficult to realize how companies like Webex, FuzeMeeting and GoToMyPC/Meeting/Webinar/Assist stay viable businesses.

I will probably give quick tutorials on how to use the remote sharing features at a later time so check back often.