Control a Remote Computer–For Free
August 20th, 2007 (4:00pm) Samuel Dean 33 Comments
You’re all set up in your hotel room to review the presentation you’ll be giving tomorrow, but when you go looking for the slides you created, you realize the file is back on your office computer. Or, maybe you simply need to take control of a computer back at the office to demonstrate a task to a person there. These kinds of situations are why it makes sense to travel with a good remote control software application. The good news is that whether you’re a Windows or a Mac user, you can do so for free.
Remote control software used to be too much of a hassle to set up for most people, but some of the best free applications no longer require any significant setup at all, because they’re browser-based. In this post, I’ll go through good, free–as well as some inexpensively priced–remote control applications for Windows and the Mac.
Whether you are a Windows or Mac user, LogMeIn Free is one of the very best remote control software applications. I use it regularly, and never have any problems. It costs absolutely nothing and you can easily specify multiple remote computers to connect to. Mac users can try LogMeIn Free for Mac, although do note that it is a preview application.
You can get all set up to use LogMeIn Free in under two minutes. You just specify an e-mail address and a password, then respond to an “Add Computer” prompt to add systems that you want to remotely connect to. When you’re traveling, all you have to do is login at LogMeIn’s home page and the remote computers that you specified upon setup are immediately available to you. If you’ve never used a remote conrol application before, you can literally control the remote computer as though you were sitting in front of it, moving files from it to your local hard drive, etc.
What if you’re a Mac user and you want to control a remote Windows PC? Microsoft has a beta version of its Remote Desktop Connection software and it’s a completely free download.
If you become a fan of remote control software and want to branch out into a few more advanced features, look into GoToMyPC and WebEx PCNow. Mac users who want extra features such as the ability to set Adminstrator rights for remote access should look into Apple Remote Desktop or Timbuktu Pro.
Do you have any good tips on remote control applications?
33 Comments Post your own comment
Quint says: August 20th, 2007 5:17pm
Have you checked out RealVNC? or TightVNC?? Both support Mac, Windows and Linux. I use RealVNC to help one of my Mac clients from a Windows box and it works very well.
Both applications are free, and install very easily.
Logical Extremes says: August 20th, 2007 5:24pm
VNC is a little more work to set-up through a firewall perhaps, but it’s platform-independent and pretty standard across versions available from many sources.
michael schurter says: August 20th, 2007 5:28pm
If you’re not scared of learning some command line magic, SSH is a great tool for remote access of all kinds. It can transfer files via SFTP and access remote X Windows applications natively. It can also be used to securely tunnel notoriously insecure remote desktop protocols like VNC.
While SSH is easy to use on Mac OSX or Linux, Windows users will have a hard time finding a good version to install and feel comfortable with.
Quint says: August 20th, 2007 6:08pm
I am a huge fan of SSH if all I need is terminal access, but I don’t get GUI apps on any non *NIX platform.
I believe it is possible to tunnel VNC over SSH. This is integrated into the *NIX version of TightVNC but not Mac or Windows. Setting it up on other platforms isn’t for the faint of heart.
GigaOM GigaNET Headlines…Monday « says: August 20th, 2007 8:20pm
[...] WebWorkerDaily: How to control a computer, remotely, for free. [...]
abhijit says: August 20th, 2007 9:01pm
I’ve been a Logmein fan for qutie some time, until I discovered ShowMyPC. It’s for Windows only, but totally free and open source
Samuel Dean says: August 20th, 2007 9:13pm
This is the working URl for ShowMyPC, I believe:
http://showmypc.com/
Evan says: August 20th, 2007 10:28pm
For accessing linux machines, NX beats VNC hands down – is well worth a look at: http://www.nomachine.com/
Server part is Linux & Solaris, client part available for Windows, Linux, Solaris & Mac.
Oh, and it has a VNC and Windows RDP bridge, so if you have an accessible linux box at the remote end, you can use it to access other machine via NX as well.
Stephen says: August 21st, 2007 12:40am
Crossloop is a free great tool for remote assistance.
John Wilson says: August 21st, 2007 1:29am
I’ve been using http://www.orb.com for some time and it’s excellent as well as free. Aside from file access, you can also play your music remotely and perform “Slingbox” equivalent functions using their “Mycasting” facility.
Juan Antonio says: August 21st, 2007 1:41am
Actually i’m customer of LogmeIn Rescue. it’s fantastic. Normally we visit with car to customers. Now it’s very easy. And cheap. The most fantastic option is that we can support from any computer with browser in anyplace. And the customer can install software from webpage and no need change router config. Well , we paid, but the revenues are impressive.
No more combustible, diets, highway, etc. A lot of hours of work. Think that we are a small company and the time it’s very precious.
Could be strange, but i write from Spain.
Sorry my bad english.
Matt says: August 21st, 2007 7:08am
Hey there,
well, for connecting from and to Macs and PCs, check NTRconnect (www.ntrconnect.com). I’ve been using it for some time now and it’s fantastic… I can even log in and control my computers from my PDA with Windows Mobile!.
It is a great product, I’m a 200% fan (the company has also great products, my company uses NTRsupport -www.ntrsupport.com- for providing remote support and it’s sweet).
My 2 cents,
Matt
Chris from Boston says: August 21st, 2007 1:04pm
Has anyone tried http://www.yugma.com?
Ricker says: August 21st, 2007 1:59pm
I work with over 20 computers with logmein free, and it allows me to help friends and clients to solve many issues. Logmein free allows me to dial in at my convience, and administer computers across the country easily
Jerry says: August 21st, 2007 2:47pm
I agree with Matt. NTR connect is a fantastic product. Our business also uses NTR support and it allows us to do support, meetings and a whole lot more. I feel like we’ve only scratched the surface with the tools offered by NTR.
Jerry
Top Posts « WordPress.com says: August 21st, 2007 4:58pm
[...] Control a Remote Computer–For Free You’re all set up in your hotel room to review the presentation you’ll be giving tomorrow, but when you go looking […] [...]
brunolegal44@hotmail.com says: August 21st, 2007 6:47pm
nao consigo instalar logmein
Don (IT Mgr) says: August 23rd, 2007 10:33am
I guess after reading through all the posts, there are many software that do the same thing and for the saem price. In all fairness to LogMeIn however, The free products are great, and when you combine them with their other products, yes the paying ones, with LogMeIn you can do extraordinary things that you really cannot do with other softwares.
junior luz says: August 27th, 2007 12:31am
ja ouvir falar do logmein na internet dizem que e muito bom vou esperimentar para ver como e que e valeu um abraço
WUBE.NET says: August 31st, 2007 9:56am
I have tried all remote software that is available on line, but none of them come close to LOGMEIN. I have been using both free and pro version for about two or more years now, and I do not remember having any issues. I have friends who are helping their families to troubleshoot computer issue using Free Logmein as far as Hawai, and Africa.
Thanks Logmein. Now I am testing http://beta.logmein.com which is another cool staff to actually be able to listen to remote computer.
Judi Sohn says: August 31st, 2007 10:54am
I’m a big LogMeIn fan, too. I’ve tried a bunch of similar products, but the LogMeIn suite seem to be the most reliable across multiple platforms.
A Solid Update to LogMeIn–The Best Free Remote Control App « Web Worker Daily says: September 11th, 2007 4:00pm
[...] Update to LogMeIn–The Best Free Remote Control App A few weeks ago, I did a post on how to control a remote computer for free. I was pleased to see that among the comments that came back from readers, quite a few agreed with [...]
Marc says: September 12th, 2007 7:53am
I have tried a number of options for remote support and have been most happy with UltraVNC. On their wesite there is a way to create a small EXE file that can be used to connect to my computer. I only had to tweak my own firewall to allow the incoming connection.
1) A ‘Host’ website is not needed, (actually that’s not completely true as the DNSAlias website must be up, if it’s not then I have my client manually entire my IP address).
2) This works with my Dynamic IP addressing (using DNSAlias).
3) The first time, my client goes to my website and clicks a link to download a small file (173kb) to their desktop.
4) From then on they only have to click on that file and I can access there desltop, transfer files, reboot their computer, etc.
We both have complete control – i.e., if the program isn’t running then there is no posssibility of access.
When I need access to another computer 24/7, I use another LogMeIn program called Hamachi – this sets up a VPN between the 2 computers, I then run UltraVNC over this secure VPN whenever I need access.
As always with computers, there are many ways to accomplish the same thing!
-Marc
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WebWorkerDaily » Archive TightVNC: Quick-and-Dirty Remote Control « says: October 1st, 2008 4:01pm
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[...] This application is slick, extremely easy to get started with, and has a grown-up interface with appeal. There is one caveat, though: It’s completely free to use TeamViewer for non-commercial purposes, but business licenses cost $250 per 6-month period. That works out to a little over $40 a month for business use, which may be tolerable if you like the application. For both remote control and desktop sharing, though, there are a number of completely free applications. [...]
Thompsom@Cheap computer says: February 17th, 2009 10:29pm
The use of a remote has made us more efficient and helped ease our work load but it sure is making us more and more dependent.
Sean says: April 3rd, 2009 12:26pm
Great post. You forgot a good one though: Proxy networks. Their remote access pc software is for those with enterprise-level needs. This doesn’t have to be a business (like mine that couldn’t live without it) or it could be a private individual that has enough on his computer to worry about security. This has the best security out there – and for someone like me that travels a lot, this is a life saver. I know that I would be fired very quickly if I got my computer hacked just because I forgot my USB in the office. That’s why I don’t take chances. Internet Cafes are nice, but if you’re going to use one, make sure you’re protected.
redman says: April 9th, 2009 11:03am
You can find a great tutorial here about how to remote control a pc
http://softized.com/2009/03/teamviewer-the-easyest-way-to-remote-control-a-pc/
this is the simple way
Vadim says: April 10th, 2009 7:43am
Sean –
You tried to put in a link but you forgot the (http://) portion of the link. The html doesn’t recognize it without it. Thus if you look now, it just sends you back to this blog. If you want to link outside the blog, you need to put that in so that it looks like this: http://www.proxynetworks.com
Hope that helps.
I’m InTouch With My Desktop From Anywhere says: April 13th, 2009 12:01pm
[...] does I’m InTouch compare to GoToMyPC and other remote control apps? I’m InTouch provides more features for wireless devices including Outlook access, new email [...]
Sean says: April 14th, 2009 7:47am
I just realized my link didn’t take. Try it here: remote control software. Thanks, all.
Web Worker Careers: Accounting & Bookkeeping says: April 21st, 2009 1:01pm
[...] services by connecting to their computers and entering data into their files. She relies on remote control apps like GoToMyPC and LogMeIn. “The key to successful remote access is to actually work as a team with your client. For [...]