It’s 7 p.m. you’ve just put the kids to bed, and now you want to work on a report that you intend to present to a client tomorrow. The fire is crackling, the laptop is emitting a friendly glow and there’s a glass of Drambuie waiting for you at 8:30, when you finish the report.

But even before you open up Word, you realize you e-mailed yourself the wrong file from your office computer. The correct one is on a hard drive 20 kilometres across the city. That’s 20 km of snowbanks and sub-zero temperatures. So much for that Drambuie.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Remote PC access software makes it easy to access your files — or do most other things with your computer — via the Internet. Several options offer access to both Macs and PCs from any device with a browser including, in many cases, cellphones.

Remote access works the same as it would if you were sitting in your office moving the mouse around the desktop and opening applications. Most solutions allow you to drag files from the remote desktop to the local one; you can also check your e-mail and access your calendar, among other things.

“An ideal user is anyone who wants to remotely access his or her computer,” says Karen Kelly, product marketing manager of GoToMyPC, a remote access service operated by Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Citrix Online. “That includes teleworkers, or people who split their time between home and the office.”

To enable remote PC access, you install a software program on the computer which is to be accessed. It then “listens” for incoming connections. You can then use two types of remote-control service: those accessed via a browser-based Internet service and those controlled using dedicated software on a local computer.

Browser-based remote control services are normally subscription-based with no up-front investment. You log in through an online account that supports multiple computers. This is particularly useful if you’re travelling and need access to both your home computer and office computer at different times.

The other beauty of browser-based access is that it can work from any Internet-connected computer. You might want to quickly check e-mail or review an urgent document from an Internet café, a friend’s computer or a hotel business centre.

The dedicated software alternative uses a special program installed on the remote computer which may tie remote access to that computer alone (although some dedicated software vendors offer a restricted browser-based version, too).

The key issue for remote PC access is network bandwidth, or the type of Internet connection you have. Most of these systems profess to work even on dial-up connections, but the faster the link, the better the experience will be.

Cupertino, Calif.-based Syman-tec Corp. ’s remote PC access software, pcAnywhere, will detect low bandwidth and automatically reduce what it generates to the end user, says Sean Waddell, the firm’s product manager. The product will even let users access their computers from Windows Mobile devices, enabling them to scroll around the screen to look at different parts of the desktop.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based Cisco WebEx takes a different approach, according to Jack Chawla, director of product management. Rather than trying to squeeze a desktop screen onto a mobile device, it presents mail, calendar and file systems in a format easily navigated by a cellphone. You can then select and view application files, for example, although you can’t edit them.

Conscious of security concerns for those who work in heavily regulated environments, Webex also uses “two-factor authentication” to protect users’ data. All remote PC access devices use password protection and encryption over the Internet so that snoopers can’t see what people are doing with their computers. Two-factor authentication goes a step further, marrying something you know (the password) with something you have (a physical device unique to you). It calls your telephone and asks you to enter a code on the keypad before it grants access, providing another layer of security.

Security considerations can sometimes make it difficult to use remote PC access products seamlessly. Hardware firewalls — which all Internet-connected financial services firms should have — stop malicious traffic from getting onto the company network.

@page_break@Think of a port as a window through which Internet traffic can pass. There are thousands of these windows available to traffic at any time. Firewalls generally shut down most ports by default, so that traffic can’t pass through from the outside.

“By default, we err on the side of security,” says Symantec’s Waddell. “If it’s behind a firewall, then communication to that host will by default be blocked.”

That means the firewall must be configured to open the ports, or other Symantec software must be used to compensate for the problem. Conversely, Web-based remote control services are designed to prevent the firewall getting in the way.

The next time you’re working on the laptop in bed or up at the cabin, and really wish you had access to your office computer, you can — as long as you have an Internet connection and the foresight to sign up in advance. Just because you’re out of the office doesn’t mean you have out of the loop. IE