Anyone with experience on remote desktops (PC)?

Hi everyone,

Not sure how much of you do any remote access or IT support. There are a few computers I usually have to connect to a couple times a month and I am looking for a better solution.

I have tried TightVNC, RealVNC, CrossLoop, and a bunch of other free options.

The previews of Logmein and GoToMyPc look great but its a couple hundred bucks a year. I don't do this for business as its just family I generally have to help out so not really inclined to spend that kind of money on such a feature.

My biggest strife with the free stuff is how atrociously slow it is. Both of the paid programs I mentioned advertise full color streaming capabilities and fast speeds. Is that actually over the net? or can I expect those speeds only when remoting to a computer on a lan setup.

I don't spending some money on the software but not looking to spend 150+ on it.

Any suggestions?

The free version of logmein works fine for me to control my Dads PC about twice a year.

Edit - I switched to TeamViewer years ago, this is an old post now.

The only one I have ever tried and use from time to time is Team Viewer. It works well enough for my needs and is free but not particularly quick and you lose a bit of colour.

if you are going to be helping family members and there will always be a human being on the other site(computer) use team viewer.

full color streaming and fast speeds are possible via web but depends.
if there will be a lot of screen changing, like viewing an image slide-show on the remote computer, it will be very slow.
if you will be working in microsoft word , lets say, super fast

bottom line, go with teamviewer and adjust settings each time accordingly.

If you've tried the VNC varients and found it atrociously slow, then likely is the internet connection speed either at your end or the remote end is the bottleneck.

Teamviewer has quite a bit of functionality, but I don't think you'll really find it any faster than what you've tried already.

There's buckets of software available for remote support - a comparison page here: http://en.wikipedia.or​g …f_remote_deskto​p_software

Another vote for TeamViewer - does everything I could want.

LogMeIn Hamachi is free. Its gear somewhat more towards VPN but as long as you enable remote access on the target computer it works.

I have found that some firewalls interfere with it more than others and can really slow the connection down. Given no firewall issues and a decent connection it is usable for troubleshooting type tasks.

Nightstalker wrote in post #13898579
Another vote for TeamViewer - does everything I could want.

Another vote for team viewer, I use it regularly to monitor my desktop when I am away. Free for non-comercial use and the iPhone app is pretty handy sometimes.

Speed isn't actually to bad, however, as with any remote connection it depends on the speed of both networks.

Teamviewer--another vote.

Logmein here. The free version works great. It'll seem like you have to buy the Pro version after the trial is over but you can just go past that. It's about as quick as any and it let's you either interact with the user on the other end, or as long as the machine is left on, you can control indepentendly.

I was able to show my buddy how to use Lightroom over it, I was really impressed with the way the screen came across onto my machine remotely. Granted, we both have reasonably fast connections but nothing extreme, pretty normal by todays standards.

Logmein. Works great. When you install it click so that you don't try the pro version on install. Then you just load the free version and you don't have to do anything after the two week trial and you don't get nagged. I use it to access computers near and far away and it works great.

Logmein works well. Splashtop also works well. Both have apps for the Android and iOS systems in addition to PC/Mac.

Logmein has free versions for the PC and Mac for basic remote without pro features (file transfer, remote printing,m etc.). Splashtop is free for the PC for non-commerical use - for Mac, you have to pay $10.

Logmein for iPad/iPhone is free for basic remote control. For Android you have to pay. Splashtop is pay for both Apple/Android. Splashtop apparently has versions for the Kindle, Nook, HP Touchpad, and Playbook as well.

I use the free version of TeamViewer too. Works quickly enough on basic speed cable internet access.

Teamviewer is The Wah to go

I switched from LogMeIn Rescue to TeamViewer about a year ago. I'm happy with the switch. I just got the email about v11 which is supposed to be a lot faster, not that I would consider v10 slow unless the remote site has a terrible Internet connection.