Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I`m coming up on the end of my 30 day free trial of GoToMyPC.  I need remote access to my computer and it works pretty good.

Does anyone have any opinions, good or bad, of this service?

Is there something better I should look at?

As always, I appreciate the feedback.

 

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Lisa Schaab
www.funderbug.com
fundraising

Try LogMeIn.  It`s free and I use it with my clients.

I downloaded something called VNC from www.nonags.com its free and it gives you total access to your computer. It is really a neat software and you dont need any subscription. You actually control your "host" computer like you were infront of it through the internet connection. I use it a lot.

Why bother with third party apps? Use Remote Desktop.

I agree with john - If you are using Windows, Remote Desktop is the way to go.  It`s free and as good or better as any 3rd party software.

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Oleg Issers | StartupNation.com Web Team

50% of computer programming is trial and error. The other 50% is copy and paste.

Good point!  And Remote Desktop is supposed to work even better with Vista.

the only issue with remote desktop is that when your behind a firewall it simply doesnt work well. Using a thrid party app like GoToMyPC  automatically punches holes in the firewall for the remote system to work so the configuration part is easy for the user, especially if they are not technical. With that said I still perfer Remote desktop, but I`m computer savvy enough to use it.

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He who gets greedy like a pig, gets slaughtered like a hog!

VNC also creates automatic port configurations for the firewall and is an excellent remote desktop

Since you are poking holes in firewalls for Remote Desktop, VNC, etc you are also letting anybody else have the chance to connect remotely too. I typically recommend that if you need to connect to an office PC securely that instead of poking holes in the firewall you get a Virtual Private Network (VPN) (IPSEC specifically). Many SMB routers that a lot of businesses already have at home or in the office are starting to support VPN connections so you might already have the technology to do this.

If you have read this far, whatever solution you use, use a strong password! By strong I mean the following.

Password should be 15 or more characters (yes I said 15, based on the current computing power available to the average attacker this is what experts say, the old value used to be 8, but that`s a couple year old data)

Password should contain lower case AND upper case letters AND numbers AND symbols ($#!@#$%, etc)

I realize most people (including myself) can`t remember a 15+ character password so I have a suggestion, don`t bother to remember it. I recommend a program called Password Gorilla (http://www.fpx.de/fp/Software/Gorilla/). It allows you to securely store all your passwords and never have to remember them again.

I concur.  VPN is much more secure than opening ports.