A few of you probably have some
experience with this but I don’t. I was looking for software that would allow
me to control my home computer from a remote location. There have been software
in the past which you had to pay for the license after a trial period, but this
time I found one called Teamviewer that was free for personal use. I know Skype
has a way of sharing the desktop and so does MSN messenger’s remote assistance
but I think that requires two people communicating with each other through the
connection. After reading the CNET review which said that I could keep running
Teamviewer at the home computer and access it via a web browser, I downloaded and
installed it. I was still unsure how it was going to penetrate the firewalls of
the wi-fi at work. My first attempt was unsuccessful. It turns out the wi-fi
was down for a few hours. When it was working again, I was able to access and
control my home computer either via the software or by logging in at the
Teamviewer website. I was amazed at the ease and responsiveness of being able
to control a computer from afar. There was no problem whatsoever with the
firewalls. All I needed was my username and password and I could open files,
watch movies (no sound though), transfer files, even remotely reboot. The
software even detected that my home computer was connected to two monitors and
allowed me to switch between the two. Facebook blocked at work? No problem
since I can open that webpage in my home browser and do whatever I need to do as
if I was sitting in front of the computer at home. Any computer with an
internet connection would work and there is even a Teamviewer light for smart
phones (I didn’t download it).
Another software I checked out was
one I heard about on the TV news. It is called Prey Project at preyproject.com.
You sign up and register your laptop, tablet, or cell phone and when you mark
it as missing, the program starts looking for it over wireless networks and
gives you reports of the whereabouts of your device. It also takes a picture of
the person (unbeknownst to him) using your stolen computer/tablet/cell phone and
gives you the GPS location of the missing device. I tried it out and it
accurately indicated where my “missing” computer was and took a picture of the
wall facing the camera. Reports are generated every few minutes depending on
how long an interval you indicate when you first set it up. When I saw it in
the news, a university student lost her laptop then she activated the tracking.
It took a picture of the thief and his location. The student reported it to the
police and she was able to recover her laptop. Amazing stuff! I registered my
two laptops and my cell phone.
You can check out both programs at
teamviewer.com and preyproject.com
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