Testing PC remote control products
By Toni Kistner, NetworkWorld.com, 02/07/05
Usually, I don't need a PC remote control service; I just tote my laptop with me everywhere. But this weekend, I thought I'd leave it home, download the free 3amLabs LogMeIn and WebEx MyWebExPC remote control clients onto the system, and try to actually to work remotely.
The idea was to cede my apartment to my college son and his girlfriend in town for the weekend, and go camp out at my boyfriend's place--logging in using his desktop PC. He's out of town, so I'll get some work done, was my thinking.
Since I'm in the throes of producing the March 28 issue of Network Life, I'm stressed and short on time. I'm thinking, okay, products, this is serious. You better work.
Friday 6PM: I download both LogMeIn and WebExPC clients on my corporate system. No problems. I set up user accounts, can see my system, all that.
Friday 630PM: The first test run; I head down the hall to access my desktop from my younger son's PC. LogMeIn works fine, not so WebEx.
Friday 8PM: A call from WebEx tech support (not formal tech support; the PR guy got the product manager to call me) helps us realize I'm using the wrong browser. WebEx only works with IE. My family and friends all hate IE. Everybody uses Opera, Firefox, anything but.
We dig around for IE on Jake's system and I successfully access my desktop using WebEx.
Friday 10PM: On the other side of Cambridge, I log into my boyfriend's PC, load up IE (which I had to dig around for too), log on to my MyWebExPC account. I see my computer is available for access. I click on it and get a page saying to prepare this system I need to download the client software. Huh? No other options. I reload and futz around for a while, get nowhere, give up.
Friday 1030PM: I log on using LogMeIn just fine. Click on "match computer resolution to host" or some such, get a good-looking full screen view of my computer's desktop with LogMeIn toolbar floating around up top, out of the way, but there if I need to log out or make adjustments. Sure there's a bit of lag time, but nothing aggravating.
Friday 11PM: Send a note to WebEx folks reporting my problem.
Get a response Monday morning the likes of: "Given your description of the situation, you wouldn't have gotten that message."
Wanna bet?
Ideally, solving the problem, when we do, will teach us something. I hope I'm doing something criminal to break the product, rather than serving as an unwitting software debugger. Stay tuned.
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Comments
I've also had these "I should have stayed home" moments. It's funny--used to be I couldn't figure out how to work from home. Now I can't figure out how not to!
Hope you catch up on your work! ;-)
Posted by: jeneane on March 1, 2005 08:06 PM
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