Jerry Seregni
Eyewitness Morning News Technology
Analyst

Have you ever been out of town and found yourself desperately in need of a file on your home PC or work PC? Forget out of town! I often find myself in this situation when I'm visiting people across the street. Next thing you know, I'm headed home -- or back to the office -- to get some document or some utility.

Well, no more! At least three web apps now make it possible to connect to your PC from any computer connected to the Internet, using only a web browser. This is assuming, of course, that the PC you're trying to reach has an always-on, high-speed Internet connection.

Some of these apps have been around for a while. You've probably heard of GoToMyPC. They advertise a lot, and several years ago, I featured an early version on the Eyewitness Morning News. It worked well, but it required an annual fee. At the time, it seemed like it was being marketed more to corporate IT managers than home users, but with more and more consumers moving to broadband access, that's changed.

You may have also heard of WebEx, particularly if you work in IT. Today, when you contact a vendor for technical support, it's not uncommon for the technician to initiate a WebEx sesssion, so he or she can take control of your keyboard and mouse to troubleshoot a problem. WebEx recently introduced a GoToMyPC-type service, called PCNow, but like GoToMyPC, an annual fee is involved.

Image: WWLTV.com

This brings us to LogMeIn Free, a service of 3am Labs, a remote-access software company that claims it has more that one million remote access subscribers.

3am Labs says its on-demand instant SSL VPN technology provides secure access to any computer with high-speed Internet access, combined with advanced security features to prevent unauthorized intrusion.

The software works by maintaining a constant SSL-secured connection from the remote computer to the company's Internet gateway servers that are kept in a super-secure data center. Because the data is encrypted, the privacy of your data is protected both coming from and going to the gateway.

The software allows you to access your email or your desktop from anywhere using any Internet-enabled device with a browser, including PDAs, smart phones, and Linux, Windows and Macintosh systems.

As you may have guessed, LogMeIn Free is a free service, but 3am Labs also offers a commercial version, as well as other services, such as Web-based backup.

If you're curious, you can download the software from the company's website, www.logmein.com, and have it working in minutes.

Oddly, when you sign up from LogMeIn FREE, what you actually get is a free trial version of LogMeIn Pro, the commercial version that has more 'bells and whistles, such as file and folder synchronization, secure file distribution, and automatic remote-to-local printing.

The trial, however, only lasts 30 days or two hours, whichever comes first. When it expires, if you haven't been convinced to spend the $12.95 per month (or $69.95 per year) for LogMeIn Pro, you can convert your trial subscription to LogMeIn FREE.

This business of signing up for LogMeIn Free and getting an evaluation of LogMeIn Pro rubbed me the wrong way, but the process of converting the expired trial version to the free version is supposed to be seamless, although I did not witness it first-hand. The company, however, has a good reputation, so you shouldn't have any problems.

3am Labs, which is based in Woburn, MA, but also maintains a development facility in Budapest, Hungary, is also the creator of RemotelyAnywhere, the remote control and administration software for PCs that has been around since 1999.

Last Updated: May 25, 2006