GoToMyPC Remote Access Review Discussion

By: Greg Ross

Does the GoToMyPC creator, Citrix Systems, bring their enterprise-class engineering and product lines to the consumer market? Or is GoToMyPC just the ugly stepchild of the Citrix family? Read the full review to find out.

Read the full content of this Article: GoToMyPC Remote Access Review

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Good review. I just wish there was a good way to access your home computer without the need to install any software, like through a website somehow. Now that would be cool. I could get on my home computer from college then.

 

Hi,

I work for Citrix Online and wanted to address one thing in your review. Where you say "Citrix's application was just as fast as the competition but waits to update the screen in full rather than incrementally updating like its competitors", we actually do incremental screen updates. In the GoToMyPC Preferences that you mention you can select to Show Update Regions which highlights the area of the screen being updated with a thin red outline. Also we have a connection wizard that users can run on their Host PC to ensure that the best possible connection is being made, it can be found at www.gotomypc.com/wizard

Thanks for your review.

 

Nice review Greg. Thanks!!

Although, what did you mean here:

It is not safe to use without tweaking around at the beginning?

 

Hi Serg,

GoToMyPC gives you the option to blank your Host PC screen (the PC you are connecting to), as well as lock the keyboard and mouse during a session. You can also set it so that the desktop will lock as soon as you disconnect, that way no one walking by your Host can see what you are working on or begin to operate your PC. These are optional settings as many GoToMyPC customers use the service to support family members etc and want to be able to share control.

Thanks,

 

hmmmm interesting.

thanks for the reply.

 

For free, there's always VNC. Does the basics. Not sure why you would have any trouble using that from college (unless your college blocks everything but port 80, in which case, one can usually configure one's home router to forward port 80 on to some other tcp port number). There's also some low-cost (and no ongoing cost) versions.

For actually running inside a web-browser (it installs some ActiveX crud) there's webex, which works pretty well, but it's expensive.

-- added --
Just occurred to me that the other reason you might not be able to reach your home pc directly, is because you don't know it's IP address -- google the terms "free dns". Some home routers support these services already, just need to configure them.

 

VNC is good, so is Team Viewer

 

Hello - to be honest I never quite understood the point of these services. Why not just use built-in Remote Desktop Connection (assuming you have a Pro version of the OS). What is the advantage of involving a 3rd party? Just saving the trouble of opening the port on your router? I am quite happy with RDC. Please explain . Thanks!

 

Both my parents use it for work. Both of the host computers are on networks where I can't mess with ports or anything like that. With GoToMyPc, its simple. My father connects to his Desktop at work from his powerbook, and my mother connects to her laptop at work with the Netbook.

And more importantly, it is easy to use. As in, EXTREMELY easy. Which is a big plus in my book.

That said, I personally use RDC, SSH, VNC, and/or Live Mesh for my needs.