Accessing Your Remote PC, GotoMyPC and LogMeIn

Many of us reading this newsletter have more than one PC, often in different locations. In my case, I am about to set up an outside office, but I am leaving a PC in my home office as well. I have been putting some thought into how to go about keeping things synched between the two computers. My goal is to be able to work at the office just as I work at my house, and vice versa.

I could always go the old-school route. Some people use removable storage to bring files back and forth. If you use CD-RW, DVD-RW or (god forbid) floppies, then shame on you. This is an incredibly out-dated and inefficient way to work across two PCs. If you, like me, have a hard drive enclosure, you can pop one of your old hard drives in there, plug it into a USB port and move files around that way. In my case, I popped an old 40 gig hard drive into my drive enclosure and I can easily plug it into any of my PCs. It is an easy way to move files around. But, again, it requires work. Another way is to use FTP. Since many of us are webmasters with access to servers, we can use our server as a go-between. You simply upload files to your server and download them again when you get to your other computer. Technically minded people can even write a series of batch scripts to run automatically and synch files overnight via FTP while you snooze. Doing it this way might take some of the mental component out of it, but using a go-between medium is still a bit of a chore because you need to worry about potentially overwriting a file.

In this day and age, we have better ways. I like to listen to talk radio shows and one of the shows I listen to pretty often is the Glenn Beck program. Glenn has been advertising GoToMyPC.com on his show for some time. Well, now that I had a need for such a service, I checked it out. I also looked at a competitor.

What is This?

These services allow remote access to a PC. The way it works is that you go to the service’s homepage and log into your account. You set up your PCs on your account by giving it a name. You then download and install client software to the PC you wish to access remotely. In future logins, you can then log into your computer via the internet and actually run and control the PC as if you were sitting right in front of it. It is actually quite cool. You will actually be controlling the remote PC and you will see the screen inside of your client program. These services also offer things like:

• File transfer. Usually, what you find is a window which shows your local PC files and folders on one side and the same for the remote PC on the other side. You can then easily drag and drop files between the computers.
• Remote printing. Access and print remote documents on any printer where you happen to be.
• Guest access. Allow others remote access to your PC. Good for tech support.

These services make it such that you don’t need to worry about synching files between PCs. You can actually access the PC you want, work with and save files as you normally would, from anywhere. This is a help for things like email especially. While normal files (like Word docs) are easy to move around, your email is usually more difficult to move around and keep synched between more than one PC. Especially for things like email, being able to log into your PC from anywhere and read your email is very convenient. You don’t have to take your files anywhere.

Lets look at the contenders.

GotoMyPC.com, from Citrix.

GotoMyPC is a service from Citrix. They are also kind of the standard-bearer when it comes to remote desktop access. They offer a 30-day free trial to all of the services. I signed up for it. The sign up process is very easy, however you must provide your credit card number because if you don’t cancel within 30 days they will automatically begin billing you. Also, to cancel and avoid having them bill you requires a call to customer service. You cannot do it over the web. However, the phone call was quick and painless.

The service is very easy. I went to the home PC and installed the GotoMyPC software. The installation was painless. When I went to the office PC to access the home PC, I was prompted to download Java VM. I use Firefox and it was a new install, so I was not surprised by that. After installing Java, I was able to open the java client. It took several seconds for my home office PC to show up in the client. After it did, I was able to easily control the PC. Since my home PC has 3 screens, the client program had little arrows where I could shift my view to another monitor. The file synch tool and all other tools were accessible via the same window.

My take on GotoMyPC is that it is incredibly easy. The user interface is simple to use and anybody can get this thing set up. In my case, though, I found the service a bit slow. There was a lag between my actions and when the screen was affected. The lag was not bad at all. I could certainly work with it, however I had already found a faster solution so I was a little bumbed by the speed.

GotoMyPC is the most expensive, at $19.95/month per PC.

LogMeIn.com, from 3amlabs.

LogMeIn.com is the service I think I am ultimately going to pay for to handle my issue. The unique thing about this service is that their remote desktop service is complete free. That’s right. You can sign up and access your desktop remotely at no charge at all. And there are no ads or spyware. It is really free with no strings attached, and unlike GotoMyPC you do not have to enter a credit card number to get that service.

The service is, too, easy to use, albeit a little less slick than GotoMyPC. I was using Firefox, so when I went to hook up a PC, I was simply prompted to download the software and install. It installed easily. When I went to access the PC from the LogMeIn.com website, I was prompted to download and install a Firefox plug-in. Apparently their client works right in your browser rather than in a separate Java-powered interface. I was prompted to enter the access code for my home PC and once connected I was presented a menu of options. Those using the free service will only have the remote desktop option. Those using the Pro service (not free) will have ability to use the file manager to transfer files, provide guest access, make files available on the web, preferences, etc. The file manager was very slick and worked fine. It did have one hiccup in my testing where it just stopped transferring. I had to close the file manager and restart the session. The remote desktop option was faster than GotoMyPC in my case. It was almost instantaneous. Switching between my monitors was a little clunky, having to choose the monitor in a dropdown menu. It is easier just clicking the arrows on the side of the screen like GotoMyPC. I could use full-screen view on the screen image and it was almost exactly like having the home PC in front of me. Getting out of full-screen mode was a bit clunky, though.

All in all, this service is impressive. The remote desktop option works very well and with it being free for anybody, its hard to beat. When you sign up, you can get a 30-day (or 2 hour) trial of the Pro service. The trial offer is not as good as that of GoToMyPC, who offers unlimited access for 30 days. LogMeIn gives 30 days, but 2 hours of connection time - whichever comes first. You can run through 2 hours of time very quickly (usually less than a day for a serious user). However, the Pro version is only $69.95/year per PC, much less than GotoMyPC.

Conclusions

As I said above, I am going to go with LogMeIn.com. Their service is every bit as good, and was actually faster at the remote desktop. Remote desktop is free for anybody, so anybody can use it for no charge. The Pro version is very affordable. There are some interface things that are not quite as brain-dead accessible as that of GotoMyPC, but I don’t care. It seems to be a very solid service.

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