Reader Olle wrote to ask a remote access question:

Hi! I read your article about editing videos remotely with GoToMyPC. I\’ve tried doing that but it doesn\’ work. I cannot even play a vidoe and see the video remotely. But I can do everything else like trabsfereing files and more. Is it a setting issue? I would Like to ask you kindly to guide me on this issue. I appriciate an response.
Thank You Kind regards Olle

Remote access to your own PC, or to other PC’s you manage on your own home network, can be a great way to do many tasks.

On my home network, since I use firewall programs on each PC (all are using Sunbelt Personal Firewall) and the home network is segregated from the Internet by my cable/DSL router (a Linksys BEFSR41), I don’t hesitate to use non-encrypted remote control software within my network. I use the free versionn of RealVNC to do this.

On the other hand, for remote access across the Internet, I think you’d have to be crazy to do that with an unencrypted connection (which possibly could be monitored by someone else!). For remote access across the Internet, I’d choose GoToMyPC because of its speed and encryption. You can try a 30 day free trial of GoToMyPC (for one PC) or GoToMyPC Pro (for multiple PC’s). There are also paid versions of RealVNC that include encryption, so they’re another option.

Continue reading Remote Access Software Question

I’ve read some recent mailing list comments that were complaining about the huge differences in upload and download speeds in residential Internet service pacakges from cable companies and phone (DSL) companies.

The writers always point to the ISP’s commercial package offerings as proof that “they could give us highspeed uploads, too, if they chose.”

Unfortunately, though, the writers aren’t considering that there are technological forces at work, not just the marketing plans of the Internet service providers.

Many times, the complainers wish to host their own web servers on their residential ISP service, or they want to be able to upload data (video, audio) to others via some type of server (peer-to-peer or other) or even to upload large quantities of data to online backup services.

Of course, they want to do this on their cheap residential service…

Continue reading Cable and DSL Speeds – What’s wrong with this picture?