If you happen to be a road weary traveler who works in or even with any significant amount of technology, I am certain you would agree that accessing your data on the road is one of the banes of your existence.  Between lugging your “desktop replacement” aka your carry-on boat anchor (so that you have all your critical data with you - just don’t forget your Chiropractor’s phone number) and attempting to remember which files you’re going to need and then synchronizing them to your small and light “travel computer” aka your anemic, expensive, carpal tunnel causing DVD player.

On the one hand you end up dragging around this behemoth computer that does everything you need (so long as you are within cord’s reach of a power outlet) while on the other, you have ample run time however your productivity is limited by how well you planned ahead as to which data you needed to synchronize as well as how quickly you succumb to the hand numbing discomfort courtesy of attempting to work on a cramped keyboard.

Personally, I have found a third solution that allows me to use any computer while on the road and so long as the computer I’m at has a reasonable Internet connection it is pretty much just like I’m sitting at my own desk, working on my own computer.  LogMeIn isn’t really one program - rather it’s a company that provides an entire array of services that for the most part revolve around providing remote access and administration for one or more computers.

Their basic program, LogMeIn Free is free just like the name says.  Unlike most free products, however, this is not a frustratingly crippled version of some functional program that is purely intended to force you to upgrade if you really want the promised utility.  This is not the “walled garden demo-version”.  In fact, LogMeIn Free is not only the version that I, myself, am currently using, it is so robust and provides so many sophisticated capabilities that there are literally certain things that this program allows you to do to a machine remotely that are all but impossible to do while physically sitting in front of the machine that you are accessing via the LogMeIn Free interface.

Not only is LogMeIn Free truly free, it also works on both Windows and Mac and in addition to letting you access a remote machine, it lets you screen share, chat with a remote operator, and using the LogMeIn Free Control Panel actually control virtually every imaginable function on the remote computer.  You can change security parameters, stop or start a service, log off someone using the remote machine, blank the screen, lock the keyboard, reboot and that’s not only just the tip of the iceberg, it’s also right off the top of my head.  Honestly, I have been raving about how truly amazing this software is for the past four or so years and it just keeps getting better and better, more stable, faster, more like you’re at your own machine no matter where in the world you are.

If you’re wondering how this company can possibly make any money if the program that they give away for nothing is so good that you don’t need to upgrade, there’s no need for concern.  The folks at LogMeIn have that sorted as well.

You see, there are people that don’t need to access one remote computer or even half a dozen, but tens or even hundreds of remote computers.  Plus they may need to be able to monitor them all simultaneously in real time.  For these folks (and I know because I used to be one of them and I specified this very setup for my company) a combination of two LogMeIn products are essential and also represent one of the best software deals imaginable:  LogMeIn IT Reach and Network Console.

Between these two products you can do remote installation, manage assets, handle just about any help desk emergency, and solve anything that doesn’t physically require your hands to be on the remote machine.  So effective is this system that I was able to personally manage four remote locations, nearly one hundred workstations, and half a dozen servers all from the comfort of my home office.  Now I don’t for a moment think that will impress some hard core network administrators who can do that in their sleep - however the caveat is the users of these machines were and I swear I am not making this up - truly the most technologically impaired group of individuals you could ever have the misfortune of supporting.  Questions like “What’s a virus?” or “you mean I shouldn’t have downloaded that zip file that my computer was saying was a virus even though it was from my friend?”  One of my friends coined the term “tech-tards” to describe these unfortunate people.

One guy I had to support would actually instantiate a new instance of Outlook for each email that he opened.  Then, when he’d managed to slow his machine to a complete crawl, he’d get pissed off, crawl under his desk and yank the cord.  I am not kidding.

Anyway, before I digress further and someone ends up scorching their sinuses with hot coffee imagining this crew, let me say once again how exceptional and convenient LogMeIn software has been for me.  The only downside - and this is certainly not the fault of LogMeIn  is that you’re still dependent upon network stability and to a certain degree bandwidth.  If the network gets hosed at either end you better find your car keys because you are going for a ride.  As networks get better and better and as mobile operators role out more and more 3G locations, this problem which used to be a crippling factor far too often has been reduced to a secondary consideration and eventually will cease to be a concern.

Of course someday all our data and applications will live in the cloud and computers will be so completely integrated into everything around us that programs like LogMeIn will probably be superfluous or they will have changed along with everything else in ways that make them unrecognizable from what I’m describing here.  Until then, however, I can’t give a more enthusiastic reccomendation on behalf of a company that earned every dollar I ever sent it and with whom I have no relationship whatsoever except that of one very satisfied customer.

A few screen shots are included below so you can get an idea of the interface and options:

Tags: Downloads, Getting Things Done, Oliver Starr, Software, Tips - How To's //