How often do you find yourself at home, wishing you had emailed yourself those files from your work computer that you had hoped to finish that evening? Or perhaps you were working on something on your home computer and saved it to your flash drive in order to take it to work, but in your morning rush, left the flash drive plugged into the USB port? Wouldn’t it be nice to have remote access to your computer from a distance? With certain technology, that fantasy is becoming a reality for everyone.
Small Business
For some small businesses, remote control of computers is not a mere convenience, it is an absolute necessity. Sometimes businesses are so small there are only employees in one geographical area, and managers are several hours away. For these individuals, being able to access computers in other locations would finally enable them to be in two places at one time.
Other professionals work out of multiple locations, perhaps from the office a few days a week, and from home or a laptop on the road the others. Shuffling folders and files from one hard drive to another or relying on an unpredictable network can have disastrous consequences.
Taking Work Home
On those days that demand more time at work than you can physically spend in the office, sometimes it is necessary to take the work home with you. In the past, when it came to projects on your computer, you either had to save to a disk and hope it would be compatible on your home computer, or you could email it to yourself if the file wasn’t too large and you could access your email from home. Now, new technology has opened new doors to you. Instead of worrying about the hassle of taking files from one computer to another, you can use a program that will allow you to access your work computer from home.
Tackling Technology Troubles
Many IT departments would benefit from having the capability of accessing computers remotely. Instead of sending technicians to physically work with a problematic computer, the department could access the computer remotely without the inconvenient physically proximity previously required. This would most definitely save the technician’s time, and would more than likely save the department money.
Free Software
Currently, there are a variety of free software programs available to download to give you remote access to computers. One relies on the popular instant messaging program Skytype. This downloadable software, Unyte, allows the user to invite someone to take a look at their desktop and can control what programs they are willing to share.
You can also opt to have full control of someone else’s computer – assuming they allow it. Other applications available to download for free include iRemote PC Free, which allows users to upload files to separate computers, and GoToMyWebServer. The small file size of this software application makes it quick to download on both computers involved in the sharing.