Last week’s column about “Working At Home” and using “Remote Desktop Connection” received many thanks and a couple of emails with suggestions. (Thanks to all of you who write each week; I really appreciate “talking” to my readers even if it is just to say, “Hi”.) One of those suggestions submitted by Daryl in Elkton suggested a site/application that I had not heard of before.
The application is named, “TeamViewer” and is a free and reasonably simple way to log into another computer with the TeamViewer software installed. Keep in mind that this is only available free to home users and not commercial businesses. Go to the site to, “Find out why more than 60 million users trust TeamViewer!”
There are several excellent benefits and one potential drawback. The benefits would start with ease of installation. The site says you can be up and running in 2 minutes. That is a fairly accurate statement, but if you read all the documentation I would plan on 15-30 minutes. Next, you can create a group which has all of your computers in the group. This allows you to login using your group username and password and easily connect to any of your group’s computers. Another benefit is the ability to easily transfer documents back and forth between computers.
Since I have limited space here I will hit one HUGE benefit of TeamViewer. If you set it up correctly you do not have to have the TeamViewer software installed on a computer to access your group’s computers. You can log onto your account using your internet browser. The address is simple (login.teamviewer.com) and once you log in there you may connect to one of your computer’s desktops to interact with your “long distance” computer as if you were sitting in front of it! This is a tremendous advantage over most ways to access your computers from a distance. It sets up a secure site connection using “https” the same as your bank’s website, so security should not be an issue.
The one drawback that does bother me is that they have a menu item that reads, “Enable black screen”. I have tried this feature with computers that are side by side to check that and other features. When I choose to “black” the remote screen it does, but not when I click on the remote screen. The remote computer flashes and anyone can see what is clicked. This is not terrible but I believe it is a security problem. At my home it really doesn’t matter since it is just my wife and me, but if you have visitors or robbers it is different. If someone from TeamViewer would like to contact me and tell me how to correct this issue I would whole heartedly recommend TV to everyone. However, at this point I see that as a possible security issue.
OK, one last benefit. Since you can log onto your computer long distance using your browser it works on all windows enabled computers. I have installed it on my wife’s notebook, our desktop and even my little netbook. Two of these computers run Windows 7 and one of them Windows XP so I can verify that it works well across those operating systems (including Mac OS X 10.4 and up).
Give it a try this week and let me know what you think. And as with all software I recommend, use at your own risk and check their website for issues since I can’t possibly know all the details for all the software I use/recommend.
Last but not least, “Happy New Year” to you and your families!”
Tags: add-on, computer, computer help, google docs, new computer, other computer, RDP, Ron Doyle, Transferring Files, viewer
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 5:27 am and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
