Remote Access to Your Computers From Anywhere

I work doing network and helpdesk support in the IT department of a manufacturing company and I support systems that are spread across the United States.  It’s not feasible for me to sit down in front of every computer that has a problem.  Even if they are in the same building it takes me away from my desk, my phone, the other things I’m working on.  The remote administration tools commonly used  in a business environment probably don’t work well for home users even though many home users could find remote control capability useful.

I’m sure that I’m not alone in having multiple computers that I own and use. I also have friends and relatives that seem to need occasional assistance with something.  It never fails that I am away from home with my laptop and want to work on something that was on my desktop computer or have someone call me with a problem.

I’ve been using a free, web-based, remote control tool called LogMeIn to address some of these issues.  You sign into LogMeIn’s web site from any computer with internet access and the page offers you a list of computers that you have added to your account.  You can select one and have remote control of that system within the web browser.  You can view and control the desktop, reboot the computer, shut down the system, etc all through the web page.  One limitation of the free LogMeIn is that you need to preinstall the software onto the computer and add it to your account.  I believe there is paid versions that will allow you to email a link or remotely install the client component which would be handy if you often support different systems or can’t preinstall the software.

I have personally found a few uses for LogMeIn’s service.  I’ve added my parents computer into my account so I can connect in and help resolve problems they have.  I don’t bring my work laptop home at the end of the day anymore since I can connect in and continue working with it from home using my home computer.  Imagine working from a low cost, low power netbook on a big video encoding project that is stored and processed on your powerful desktop computer with all it’s expensive, licensed software.  You could be sitting at the beach with an aircard and using that high horsepower machine to do all the work while you are remote controlling it and lounging in the sun  It’s helpful to note that it isn’t necessary to install anything on the computer your using to remote control another.  It just requires internet access and a web browser.  Therefore, you could gain access to your computer from a friends system, the public library, your school’s computer lab, etc.  I’m sure nobody has thought of using the home gaming PC while they are at work >:)

Security is always a concern, especially when allowing access to data from the internet.  I’m happy with LogMeIn’s security features.  The web session runs on 256-bit encryption and the system can be configured to email you whenever someone logs in or tries to log in to your account.  There are a variety of other conditions you can set to notify you via email as well.  Selecting a highly secure password for your account is a great idea.  These days it seems that the user is the biggest security hole and weak passwords are a good example of this.

Don’t plan on using LogMeIn to spy on your home computer – the system you are controlling or viewing has a big alert that pops up warning that the system is being controlled.

I found another free service that nicely compliments LogMeIn to make file storage and access more portable.  An online file storage service called Dropbox gives you the ability to easily drag files into a folder on your computer that automatically syncs them to their online storage system.  Imagine logging into your home PC with LogMeIn from a lab computer at school, dragging a file for a research paper you wanted to work on into a folder on your desktop, and having it show up in a web browser for you to open, save to the lab computer, etc.  I’ve started writing a bit more in depth about Dropbox in a different article.