Anyone recommend a free remote desktop program that can access files as well as hopefully download them?
Daughter is off to Uni and she's wanting to be able to connect to the family shared drive at home via a laptop that she's taking with her.
Cheers.
Dropbox.
I have a DLink NAS drive ....gives me loads of HDD space, plus print server ... and it can be set up to be accessible over internet.
You can easily partition off sensitive info ..... great piece of kit ....
Can you clarify, do you actually want remote desktop functionality, or just remote file access?
I think the previous version of Micro Mart covered mapping Windows drives to FTP or webDAV volumes as used on NAS devices.
Umm. FTP may be the way, or set up a web server..
I HABE done SMB (windows networking file protocol) over a WAN link, but it takes about 5 minutes just to display a reasonably large directory and if it wants to do icons..forget it.
Its also appallingly slow on transfers. And appalingly insecure.
Ok in my case as I am on a fixed ip address and coupled firewall te rest of the world out, but I stopped and used FTP later on. Better performance.
not sure if Windows does FTP server..
Not sure if Windows ever expected to transfer files across anything other than a LAN and its pretty poor at that, too.
This is a bit open ended, and depends on exactly what features you want. Remote control and secure access to a remote file system are different things.
UltraVNC (or any of the many VNC clones) will give remote desktop access, and most versions also have a capability to do file transfers between machines once connected.
A VPN is a better way of gaining secure remote access to another network. That will give more natural access to remote file systems (i.e. they can appear as normal network drives to the user), but does not intrinsically give remote desktop access. Needless to say if you have a VNC in place, then the desktop access can be done on top.
I remember a *long* time ago when you could actually map an SMB drive to ftp.microsoft.com over the internet :-)
Team Viewer seems to work well
+1 on the VPN If done properly, this will give the same effect as having the PC on the LAN at home and also give you a secure link.
File transfer is IMHO just an add-on to the remote desktop and not the most efficient way to do this unless you really need the remote desktop.
Cheers
Dave R
I agree, been using it for years, to control my upstairs PC from downstairs, and to debug #1 daughter's PC from the other side of Europe. Easy to install, easy to use.
The great advantage of Dropbox is that, if it indeed does what you need, it synchronises efficiently. Therefore, even if the computer/server at one end is currently inaccessible, the data is still accessible. And updates can still be made by either end. And there are mechanisms for resolving update clashes.
Further, if you create one account for "home" and one for "away" you can share one of the "home" folders with "away". Leaving the whole of the "away" 2 GB allowance to be used by "away" for backup purposes.
And if "home" invites "away" there is a small increment in data allowance. And if you want me to invite you, well...
Always have your stuff when you need it with @Dropbox. 2GB account is free!
The great advantage of Dropbox is that, if it indeed does what you need, it synchronises efficiently. Therefore, even if the computer/server at one end is currently inaccessible, the data is still accessible. And updates can still be made by either end. And there are mechanisms for resolving update clashes.
Further, if you create one account for "home" and one for "away" you can share one of the "home" folders with "away". Leaving the whole of the "away" 2 GB allowance to be used by "away" for backup purposes.
And if "home" invites "away" there is a small increment in data allowance. And if you want me to invite you, well...
Always have your stuff when you need it with @Dropbox. 2GB account is free!
In message , polygonum writes
Sugar sync gives you 5 gig
Thats 7 gig between the two
Thanks guys. A few suggestions to try out there.
Thinking about it, she probably only needs access to files and save files on the home PC. She doesn't really need to take control of it.
Steven.
Indeed it does! Have been mulling that fact over.
I use Dropbox every day at work - and at home. And find it fantastic. Unfortunately my company does have reservations and would really like a self-hosted version. Even if it cost quite a bit. And everyone in the company would love to abandon traditional FTP.
That is precisely what I assumed. If she needs control, well I use LogMeIn every day...
Ooh - didn't realise that there was a free version
Indeed there is! A number of our customers have paid-for accounts and share access with us. But many simply let us add their computers to our free account. The one significant limitation is that free accounts cannot invite others to access their computers using their accounts - they have to give us their LogMeIn account name/password. (This was a change a year or two ago. Invitations sent from accounts set up before then continue to allow such sharing to continue.)
And for dynamic use, try join.me - from the same company but doesn't need to be installed as such. (A small program dynamically installs on the machine that is inviting you to access it.) Really useful for companies that can't get their arses in gear enough to install LogMeIn.
If you use it a lot, get LogMeIn Ignition - on Windows or iPad.
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