August 6, 2002   The Missing Link for Night Owls By Paul Taylor

If, like me, you have an intermittent memory problem, you have probably left a vital document, email or computer file sitting on your office personal computer and headed for home, the airport or an important meeting.

For about three months I have been using GoToMyPC, produced by Expertcity of Santa Barbara, California, USA and have to admit I cannot now imagine being without it. As the name suggests, GoToMyPC enables the user to access and take control of their host computer - typically an office machine - from anywhere with an Internet connection using just a standard Web browser.

"Anywhere" can be a home PC, an airport lounge, a hotel room or even a wireless communicator. To all intents and purposes, using GoToMyPC is just like sitting in front of your office PC without actually being there. You can do almost everything you could do if you were there in person - such as open a new programme, send an email, print out a report or start a new Word document.

This is how it works. First you need to go to the www.gotomypc.com Web site using your host computer and sign up for the service - there is a free trial for 30 days or 60 minutes' use, whichever comes first. Download a small software programme and assign a password to the machine and that is it.

Now, provided you leave your PC running and the GoToMyPC icon appears in the service tray on the bottom left of the host PC screen, you will be able to access your host PC from virtually anywhere by pointing your Web browser at www.gotomypc.com and logging in.

Within a few seconds (or a minute or so if the Internet connection is slow) your office PC screen will appear in front of you and your keyboard and mouse will behave just as though they were attached direct to the office PC. I have used desktop and notebook PCs running a variety of operating systems including Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows 98 without a hitch.

Once the free trial is over, the service costs $19.95 month for one host PC or a reduced $179.40 for a year paid in advance by credit card. Users outside the U.S. are billed in dollars, which the credit card company converts to the local currency.

Should you wish to access multiple host PCs or, for example, be able to access both your office and home PCs remotely - a valuable option if, like me, you are a night owl and do lots of work from home - you can sign up multiple host computers for a small additional fee.

Naturally, security is a priority for any service like this so Expertcity has built heavy-duty encryption and password protection into the service. In fact, GoToMyPC is inherently more secure than many other programmes because of the way it is designed and the technology it uses.

Of course, remote control programmes are not new. Software such as Symantec's $180 PC Anywhere, Carbon Copy from Altris, which costs $149, and the latest version of the venerable LapLink Gold package, which costs $179, have been around for years - LapLink first appeared in the late 1980s.

But most of these products have to be installed on both machines and are notoriously difficult to set up and use - particularly if the circumstances require navigating a corporate firewall (software designed specifically to stop external hackers from penetrating an information technology network). In contrast, GoToMyPC was specifically designed for these environments and most of the time works flawlessly. It is one of the fastest remote control applications available.

That said, sometimes, particularly if you are using a slow dial-up connection from home or a hotel room, it can become tediously slow - it as though you are typing in treacle. Hit a key and the letter appears on the screen several seconds later. Starting up or closing down a running application can be particular laborious, so if patience is not among your virtues, this is best avoided.

My other main complaint is the lack of an easy way to transfer files back and forth between the host and the client computers. This shortcoming will be dealt with by a new version of the software currently being tested.

GoToMyPC's other main limitation is cost. The service is reasonable value for one host machine but the monthly charges can mount rapidly for multiple machines and users. With traditional desktop packages you pay a single fee, to buy the software.

Nevertheless, the flexibility and ease of use that the GoToMyPC service affords users is, in my opinion, unmatched and the monthly fee is a small price to pay for knowing you can reach your PC from anywhere at any time.   Close