A range of software programs and services has been developed in the past few years to offer people remote access to their computers from virtually anywhere with a connection to the Internet .

You can be at work and connect to your home computer to retrieve a forgotten file, or vice versa. Or be sitting at the cottage or at a hotel in an exotic location and use your laptop, or even a local computer, to complete and print out a report at your office desk.

Here’s how it works: go to one of the Web sites below and download its software or service to one or more computers. There are different steps and prices involved, but each comes with a free trial version. Once connected, you can use one computer to contact another instantly.

You could, for instance, connect your home, office and laptop computers together and then use whichever one is nearest to you to gain access remotely to the other two. Read up on each version to see which one best suits your needs.



LogMeIn

www.logmein.com

If you are not sure whether or not you need regular remote access to your computers, consider trying the free basic version of LogMeIn, which is used by more than two million people. If it’s not quite what you need, then you can go up a notch to the professional version, which offers a 30-day trial period and then costs about US$13 a month, or US$70 a year.

The main difference is that the free version will not let you transfer files between computers or print out something at work or home from a remote spot, while the “pro” version will let you do both.

LogMeIn’s software needs only to be installed in the target computer; it can then be run remotely from any computer with Internet access. If an advisor is travelling and forgets or breaks his or her laptop, for instance, he or she could access the office computer from an airport, Internet café or hotel using an Internet connection. The advisor could also use the office computer from home or while on vacation. LogMeIn also can be used via a personal digital assistant that has Windows capabilities.



Anyplace Control

www.anyplace-control.com

Industry awards, kudos by users and apparent ease of installation indicate Anyplace Control is software that’s worth a test drive. The software was created by a high-tech research team in Ukraine, while the sales and marketing branch is based in Canada.

The company offers a free 30-day trial of its latest software, which remotely connects up to five computers. If you’re happy with it, the software can be purchased for a one-time fee of US$35 for two licences that connect two computers. There are no monthly fees.

Anyplace Control differs from most others in that its software must be installed in each computer that you intend to use. The trial version lets you download both licensed modules to your main computer. You then transfer the second module to your other computer. If you decide to buy the software, additional licences cost US$15 per computer, for up to nine computers. If you want to connect three computers, for example, the cost would total US$35 for the first two licences and US$15 for the third.

Once connected, you can “drag and drop” large files among computers, read e-mails, monitor all your other computers at the same time on one screen, or start or shut down a remote computer. You cannot redirect to a remote printer.

What is most interesting among the feedback, apart from the simplicity of installing the software, is the large variety of ways it is recommended for use by clients. A person with some computer knowledge, for example, can remotely access and help repair problems on the computer of a less experienced friend or relative who could be thousands of kilometres away. A parent who is working late can check the home computer to make sure the children are doing homework rather than playing computer games or downloading music from the Internet. An advisor who is on the road can ask the office technician to sit at a desk, visit his or her laptop online and help get rid of a glitch in a few minutes.



GoToMyPC

www.gotomypc.com

California-based Citrix Systems Inc. ’s connection service is the Big Daddy of the remote-access market, used by more than 160,000 organizations around the world, including all of the Fortune 100 companies and 98% of the Fortune Global 500. When your company is picking up the tab to keep you connected, this is the popular place to go.

@page_break@If you’re going it alone, there is a 30-day free trial version of GoToMyPC Personal, but it only lets you connect with one other computer. If you like it, the full service costs C$25 a month, or a discounted C$243 a year, and lets you connect up to 20 computers.

The price is high, but so is the praise. PC Magazine says the service remains the most effective of all available, as well as the easiest to use. It is a “host service” rather than a virtual private network, meaning there are no software programs to be added to your computers. Instead, the service acts as a “matchmaker” between your main computer and all the others you add remotely. You simply register all your computers with the Web site, and then visit the site, log on and use whichever computers you want.

You also get all the bells and whistles, such as “drag and drop” file transfer, multiple computers onscreen at once, remote printing, PDA interfaceability, cut-and-paste between computers and the ability to let a “guest” view or control your computers. IE



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