GOTOMYPC SECURE INSTALL
I also was able to install programs on my home system and do some trouble-shooting. I don’t have a photo-editing program or any digital pictures on my laptop, but I was able to remotely run my home PC’s copy of PhotoShop to edit some pictures.
I also have access to resources connected to my home PC including external drives, other computers on the home network and printers. The company plans to offer an optional screen and keyboard-blocking feature in its next edition-due later this month-so someone looking at a home or office PC can’t see what is being done from the remote computer. That, of course, has privacy implications. Sure enough, my son could hear it in the house. Just for fun, I launched an Internet browser on my home PC and played a RealAudio file. Anyone at home looking at my screen would see everything I’m typing. While connected, users are literally in control of the PC. GoToMyPC is a service of Expertcity Inc., a privately held Santa Barbara company with backing from Sun, ZDNet, Bertelsmann Ventures and Wit SoundView Ventures. Prices after that haven’t been set, but the company is thinking about $10 to $20 a month. That it can be done at all, though, is very cool. With a slower modem, the delays can be quite annoying. But even with a high-speed connection on both ends, the remote PC lags a bit. The faster the connection, the less sluggish the program feels. But it also works with a standard phone line.
GoToMyPC works best with a high-speed connection.
GOTOMYPC SECURE SOFTWARE
I’m able to access my home machine because my notebook is connected to the Internet via a Ricochet wireless modem and my desktop machine is hooked up to my home DSL and running a piece of software called GoToMyPC () that enables me to access the machine via the Web from any Windows machine anywhere in the world. What’s unusual is that Word isn’t running on my notebook here in Los Angeles but on my home PC in Palo Alto, 350 miles north. There is nothing extraordinary about my using a notebook PC at a restaurant. I’m writing this column in Microsoft Word from the Original Pantry Cafe near the Los Angeles Convention Center.