RandyL had this great idea for another thread that discusses options for remotely connecting to computers in our offices.

I also use LogMeIn as a great, free tool. I have it installed on my home pc and from any computer, I can quickly log into their website and feel like I'm in my den.

Another similar service is GoToMyPC (www.gotomypc.com) although this service requires that you pay for it. I tried it for a couple of months, called up to cancel and the customer service rep offered me a 50% discount to stay with them. That was 2 years ago and I still pay the discounted rate today!

In addition to web tools like these, you can buy retail software like PCAnywhere from Symantec. We used an early version of this a lot in years past because it worked with dial-up modems. So even if a facility wasn't connected to the Internet but had a phone (or fax) line in the office, the computer could be accessed remotely.

Beyond these, a proprietary solution can be built based on technology like UltraVNC (www.uvnc.com). This isn't as user-friendly out of the box as the options above but developers can create tools based on it. In our case, Syrasoft clients can invite our techs to connect to their computers directly from our product. Another flavor of the same tool allows regional managers to receive invites from individual sites.

There are 2 important notes about any of these options. First, they are tools for assisting management and not designed to be customer-facing. This means they are useful for owners or managers but don't allow functionality like online payment, marketing or account access to tenants of the facility. Secondly, in all the cases above, the machine that is remotely accessed is 'taken over' by the remote user. So if there is only one machine in the office and you want to connect to view some reports or send some email, anyone who is actually at the facility won't be able to use that machine at the same time.

There are solutions for this 'take-over' issue as well including Terminal Services (a part of Windows Server Operating Systems), Citrix, etc. However, I won't cover those in this initial post.

Please add other options that you use and/or expand on the items above. What is good or bad about the products? What features do you wish they had? What are you willing or not willing to pay to have?

Yeah we had the issue of needing to look stuff up while someone was at the office. For this we just bought another computer. We already had a license for multiple desktops of site link stand alone. So they can both access information and enter payments and update the same database.

On the other computer I use a program called tight VNC which is another free program for remotely connecting.

But have mostly used logmein recently. Because it is much faster than the previous.

If you don't have a static ip address there are nice programs like at www.noip.com for resolving your dynamic ip's to a domain name for remote access.

But with logmein or gotomypc these are not needed at all.

Any smart phone with windows mobile 6 can use logmein for remote control from your phone. Others might be able to as well but I am not sure one way or another.

This is great info, John--thanks! I was particularly interested to hear about your experience with GoToMyPC because my husband and I subscribe to it right now. We've been using it for about a year and a half. I wonder if they would offer me the same discount if I called to cancel?

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Teri Lanza
Business Development Manager/Ed Director
Inside Self-Storage