Linking to your computer when you’re away from home

Question: How do I access my PC over the Internet when I am away from it, say while travelling in a another city? – Beth

Answer: If you want to work directly on a remote machine from some other location, perhaps the simplest method is to sign up for GoToMyPC. It works by loading a small program on your computer you want to access, before you leave home or the office where it is located.

This home computer (whether it’s at your home, your office, or some other location, it’s still considered the “home” computer in this situation) has to be connected to the Internet all the time. So it’s advisable that you have it connected to a high speed Internet service such as DSL from your phone company or via cable modem.

When you are away, you need to find any computer that is connected to the Internet. It could be your own laptop that is connected to the Internet, or anyone else’s Internet-connected computer – perhaps a computer at another office, at a cyber café, or even a friend’s computer. It can be a Windows, Mac, or even a Unix computer.

To access your computer back home, you simply log on to the Internet and visit the web page at GoToMyPC.com. Then you initiate a session by logging on with a user ID and password that the service will have assigned to you when you set it up on the home computer.

The remote desktop (the one back at home or at your home office) appears in a window on the computer you are working on. Or you can command it to display the remote computer’s information in full screen mode, simulating the experience of sitting in front of the remote computer

You can get a one month free trial account by clicking here. Thereafter you pay a small monthly subscription fee.

I highly recommend this service. It’s easy to use and remarkably handy.

You can read more about it from the TechnologyTips Software Library here.