Remote Login To My Home PC

[s1mp13m4n]

Hello everyone. I want to be able to log in to my home PC from a friends house, a public library, etc and use my music, video, and document files. How do I go about doing this? I am running Win7 64bit on my home PC. Thanks for the help.

 

[koso]

Probably the best-known of the products that do this is PCAnywhere.

 

[s1mp13m4n]

I am looking for a free resource to do this without paying for subscriptions and such. I forgot to mention that, doh.

 

[ajkimmins]

Probably the best-known of the products that do this is PCAnywhere.

+1 The built in remote desktop program is crap!! The other good brand is gotomypc

 

[s1mp13m4n]

Hmmm, I was just looking in to PC Anywhere and it is about $200, hmmm. It also seems to have one major flaw for my use. It requires the host and client to run the software. That is hard to do when you are using a freidns PC....lets say staying over my cousins house.....and you can not install PCAnywhere on a library PC or college campus PC. What else can I try? VPN maybe?

 

[Moe]

Here.

 

[professorchaos]

Try LogMeIn.

 

[s1mp13m4n]

I was pondering Logmein. I found out about it from Lifehacker. It looks like a neat idea as well. Thank you all for the help and ideas.

 

[Grumpy Old Git]

I use LogMeIn but just the free version so can't hear my music on a remote PC.

A collegue of mine used a OpenSSH and PuTTY to get past our corporate firewall and could then play iTunes directly from his home network. However, this was not exactly trivial.

But then - he was the poster-boy for why you should not let staff have admin access.

 

[akuri]

vnc is a good one but that doesn't stream media

 

[s1mp13m4n]

I am not that interested in streaming media, I simply want access to my files. Lets say I have a song I want my cousin to listen to and it is on my hard drive at home, I want to at least be able to get the file and transfer it to his PC where I can play it from there, etc. Lets say my wife and I are away from home, I want to be able to log in to my home PC from her netbook and get a movie saved to the hard drive, transfer it to her netbook and watch it from her netbook.

 

[DizzyArnaz]

Depending on how much data you want to sync between PCs, Dropbox might be what you're looking for. 2GB of online backup for the free account. It is cross-platform, and there is an iPhone app as well.

 

[Confuzius]

I use a combination of openssh/putty/winscp/Dropbox to ensure I've got everything I need from everywhere, It's saved my butt once or twice, and been generally convenient on a daily basis.

Openssh is way easier to setup on *nix but you can do it on Windows too:
http://lifehacker.com/205090/geek-to-live--set-up-a-personal-home-ssh-server

 

[shavewithbigelow]

I used to use RealVNC. I liked it. Once I got it set up it was easy to use.

 

[yuppiejr]

Given your requirements thus far (Free, easy to use, Windows 7 compatible, file transfer feautre) I'd suggest the free <for personal use> Teamviewer.

I've used them all (VNC, PCAnywhere, Windows Remote Desktop, GoToMyPC, LogMeIn, Office Communicator Desktop Sharing, SMS Remote Control, etc..) and Teamviewer is the best free remote access tools for Windows that I've encountered in the consumer space. I use it all the time to do remote support for relatives and friends and it just works, no firewall oddities or difficult configuration to sort out on the client end since Teamviewer brokers the connection before handing it off. It can run from a USB stick (no install footprint for non admin rights users) and even has an iPhone client...

 

[iamyourfather]

Given your requirements thus far (Free, easy to use, Windows 7 compatible, file transfer feautre) I'd suggest the free <for personal use> Teamviewer.

+1 for Teamviewer, quickest solution I've found yet. It works great, and it's free, two big things for me.

With Dropbox and Teamviewer, I almost have no need for flash drives anymore. It's a beautiful thing to be able to access my work/home computer anytime!

 

[C Reed]

While we are on the subject, I would really like to be able to acess files either on my Mac Pro at the studio, or my MacBook at home on my iPhone at other locations for the purpose of attaching them to emails composed on said phone, OR telling either mac to upload files to an ftp server from my phone so I could then email the link to the FTP to whom ever i want to have the files.

Its spring and I want to be able to chill in the park, not sit in my studio.

 

[Y2K]

Windows Home Server is fantastic for this. Web access from anywhere (with free URL) and great web interface. Granted, it requires purchasing this OS but it has a lot of other advantages as well. Depending on your needs, it could be a good choice. I love mine.

 

[C Reed]

Windows Home Server is fantastic for this. Web access from anywhere (with free URL) and great web interface. Granted, it requires purchasing this OS but it has a lot of other advantages as well. Depending on your needs, it could be a good choice. I love mine.

Windows OS is a no go, I do heavy image work, need to keep it apple

 

[Slartibartfast]

I run SSH on mine and enforce key authentication. Then I am able to do forwarding for HTTP,RDP,etc.. via the ssh connection.