Recomendations for Remoting in to your Mac via PC and iPhone

[beatledud]

Just set up my iphone MyNZB app to work with my home MBP. I set up DynDNS to direct the app to my dynamic home IP and I'm hooked. I wanna do more!

My computer at work sadly is a PC. If I want to use my mobileme back to my mac option, I've gotta find a Mac to login and do so with. It's great, but it's not convenient.

Question is, there's so much VNC and RDC type programs out there, both paid and free. And there's different stuff for the iphone. What's people's recommendations? Is there a good free/cheap option that works on iPhones, PCs, and maybe even other Macs for me to remote into? Something so if I wanted to get some tasks done at home I could use my work computer? Of course any port forwarding that I'd need to do on the work end can't happen. But at home it's no problem of course. Oh, and my home's router is an AEBS.

 

[Halcyon]

Look into Logmein. They have a free and a paid service.

HTH

 

[beatledud]

Look into Logmein. They have a free and a paid service.

HTH

Works with PCs, iPhones, and Macs? Does it require router adjustments on the remote end?

I'll check it out.

 

[beatledud]

Woah, $30 for the iphone App? And yes, there's a free version for a computer, but the pro version is $70/year? Frankly I don't care about much the pro offers except for background login. And what's with the ignition app for Windows? That one costs $60 one time.

Frankly, the free desktop version could do, but how do you log in? Are there real dropoffs to the pro or ignition versions? Seems interesting, but I'm not about to drop $30-$90 instead of $10 or $0 compared to others. What about other options, and how is logmein better than those?

 

[beatledud]

Woah, $30 for the iphone App? And yes, there's a free version for a computer, but the pro version is $70/year? Frankly I don't care about much the pro offers except for background login. And what's with the ignition app for Windows? That one costs $60 one time.

Frankly, the free desktop version could do, but how do you log in? Are there real dropoffs to the pro or ignition versions? Seems interesting, but I'm not about to drop $30-$90 instead of $10 or $0 compared to others. What about other options, and how is logmein better than those?

Let me specify what I'm looking for:

1. Screen control of my MBP from my iPhone, on and off network.
2. Screen control of my MBP from my work PC, off network.
3. Prefer both softwares to be the same company for ease of settings and use.
4. Low cost to free versions of each.
5. SSL or other secure connection.
6. Background login
7. For PC, login via portable software or web browser.

What I have already:
MacBook Pro
iPhone 4
AEBS
DynDNS hostname.

Any more suggestions?

 

[Halcyon]

I've only used Logmein, so I can't speak for the other options themselves or how they compare to Logmein.

With Logmein it doesn't matter if you're on a Mac or PC because it's all done through a web browser, of course unless you're on a iPhone.

Try the free version and take it from there. I know a lot of IT guys use it to remotely monitor, diagnose and repair/reinstall stuff on client machines. I use it a lot to connect to my office Mac when at home so I can get ahead with some work.

 

[beatledud]

I've only used Logmein, so I can't speak for the other options themselves or how they compare to Logmein.

With Logmein it doesn't matter if you're on a Mac or PC because it's all done through a web browser, of course unless you're on a iPhone.

Try the free version and take it from there. I know a lot of IT guys use it to remotely monitor, diagnose and repair/reinstall stuff on client machines. I use it a lot to connect to my office Mac when at home so I can get ahead with some work.

Well the free version sounds great, and the only lacking feature that I can tell is the background login, which isn't a deal breaker but would be handy and useful.

But this has yet to address the iPhone side of this. Do you or anyone else, have suggestions on such? I see that logmein has an iPhone app, but at $30 I can't seem to justify it over, say, the Mocha Lite VNC app.

 

[beatledud]

Upon even further review, I've seem to come across the following three options:

LogeMeIn:
Pros: Web base client access, Polished interface, simple firewall passthrough.
Cons: Free desktop version doesn't include file transfers, printing, or background login. Pro version costs $70/year. iPhone version costs $30.

VNC:
Pros: Of all the VNC variations, RealVNC seems to be the only one that supports Macs, Windows, and iPhone. Browser based access.
Cons: File Transfer and Remote Printing only available with $30 personal edition. Mac support only available with $50 enterprise edition. Background access doesn't appear available. iPhone application costs $10.

TeamViewer:
Pros: Free for non-commercial for iPhone and desktops. Works across all platforms. File transfer for the free version, and remote printing via VPN. Firewall Friendly.
Cons: Requires a program on the client side, although does work off of a non-installed .exe file if needed. No background support.

Am I missing something with the pros/cons of these programs? Do others have other alternatives? It seems from what I found, TeamViewer beats the other out of the water with their Free version, and not being able to access via a browser is OK, especially if I can use the money I saved to buy a USB drive that will have a file that runs the client to access. Although Teamviewer doesn't seem to get quite the same popularity from tech blogs and sites as LogeMeIn and VNC programs do, maybe because it appears their iPhone app was only recently released. What are other people's opinion?