Best Free Remote Access Software

There are several good choices here all of which are variants of the classic AT&T VNC program. A short list would include RealVNC, TightVNC, EsVNC and Ultr@VNC. Each has its merits but my top pick goes to Ultr@VNC as because of its active development, good forum support and an excellent encryption plug-in. Ultr@VNC [1] is a client/server package that allows remote control of another PC using any TCP/IP connection. It works with Windows W9x/NT/2K/XP and offers all the features you need including auto-configuration, easy user interface, extensive hotkeys and embedded file transfer. Add to that the fact that it’s free, secure, reliable and reasonably speedy and you have a winner. Just the thing for accessing your home PC while traveling, off-site troubleshooting or general network administration.

An alternative to VNC based products is the free version of the commercial remote access product LogMeIn [2]. This is a web based service that’s extremely easy to set up and use and can be accessed from any PC with a browser. The free version won’t allow file transfer and remote printing but is a great solution for accessing your remote data as well as file sharing. Registration is required.

[1] http://ultravnc.sourceforge.net/
[2] https://secure.logmein.com

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