Soon LogMeIn Free will no longer be available...

[Darren Dirt]

...so what do you guys suggest is a decent easy-to-connect-remotely freeware app so I can rarely-but-usually-critically access something on my home PC while at work?

Because I've got 2 choices, choice 1 is to switch to another free app, choice 2 I don't much like:

To continue using remote access, you?ll need to purchase an account subscription of LogMeIn Pro. As a loyal user, you?re entitled to discounted introductory pricing, with packages starting at $49/year for two computers.* Your new account includes our signature remote access with premium features like remote printing, file transfer and cloud data access, plus desktop and mobile apps to improve your experience.

Please note: If you do not take action, the Free computers highlighted in your account will become inaccessible on 2/3/2014. Only 7 days left!

The thing I love about LogMeIn is that it has a lot of configurability including how much color depth (and therefore speed), and of course the fact that you don't need someone "on the other end" to approve the attempt to connect.

Suggestions?

[Darren Dirt]

and maybe I should do the initial work myself... or let Google do it anyways...

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/logmein-discontinues-free-option-teamviewer-still-free/ suggests TeamViewer (does that allow connection without host approving each time? Does it allow text-clipboard sharing? How about seeing both monitors, even if just switched and viewed separately? < -- These 3 are the critical features that made me choose LogMeIn a couple years back. Also, connecting via a WEB BROWSER is a must (i.e. can not require installing of anything beyond a Chrome extension on my remote machine)



http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-57617598-285/how-to-control-remote-pcs-for-free-now-that-logmein-free-is-dead/ also suggests Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection (aka RDP?) , and a comment mentions Supremo.

The comments also mention this apparently-good-news...

jifbrodeur Jan 24, 2014
Hi, none of the solution you mention here allows for hands off operation such as LogMeIn, it requires someone to let you in, which sometime is not possible i.e. if you connect remotely to your PC at home. Google as a solution we are testing and can be run in hands off operation.

vanaya Jan 24, 2014
@jifbrodeurI have used TV with great success. Yes, someone has to be in front of the computer for the initial install. When you install, follow the instructions for unattended access. Then you are golden.

scott46ac Jan 24, 2014
@jifbrodeur oh contrar. Once Teamviewer is installed, you merely set a remote password and tell it to run at boot up. I've used it for a year or two and it works great.

jifbrodeur Jan 24, 2014
@scott46ac@jifbrodeurThanks for the precision, I will test it.

also

tsdryden Jan 24, 2014
A co-worker found a free program called SplashTop and I've been playing around with that. Pretty impressive for a free product. Handles multiple monitors well and allows unattended access to the remote computer (nice when I want to access my home computer from work). Even YouTube videos playing on the remote don't slow it down.

Any other thoughts?
At lunch I'm also gonna check out the remaining Google results...
http://www.citeworld.com/cloud/22884/logmein-kills-free-tier
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/21/users_wail_as_logmein_drops_free_service/
http://blogs.computerworld.com/cloud-computing/23429/free-logmein-alternatives-review-roundup-itbwcw
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2014/01/21/free-alternatives-to-logmein/
http://www.ibtimes.com/logmein-alternatives-6-tools-remote-access-your-computer-1547089
http://winsupersite.com/windows/replacing-logmein-free
http://www.citeworld.com/consumerization/22897/best-alternatives-logmein

[Melbosa]

Dynamic DNS registration service and RDP (with native encryption) is usually enough.  Otherwise http://www.teamviewer.com/ should meet your needs, but I use just RDP myself.

[Darren Dirt]

Dynamic DNS registration service and RDP (with native encryption) is usually enough.  Otherwise http://www.teamviewer.com/ should meet your needs, but I use just RDP myself.

I'm pretty sure I won't be able to rely on any kind of Dynamic DNS, I don't have a hostname that I know of that is stable (just basic Telus internet service, no websites that I host, etc.)

Just need a simple app that launches on my home PC during bootup that registers with a central service, to which I can connect from any web browser anywhere, possibly without even having to install an extension (e.g. the public library). And ideally including the other 2 features mentioned above.



This week I'll be trying out these steps offered by the most-often-mentioned alternative:
http://www.teamviewer.com/en/help/407-How-do-I-switch-from-LogMeIn-Free-to-TeamViewer.aspx

edit: oops, "...Done! You can now access this computer at any time, from anywhere using your TeamViewer account and TeamViewer for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android or Windows Phone 8 - for FREE." <-- I notice it says nothing about web browsers

[Melbosa]

Dynamic DNS registration service and RDP (with native encryption) is usually enough.  Otherwise http://www.teamviewer.com/ should meet your needs, but I use just RDP myself.

I'm pretty sure I won't be able to rely on any kind of Dynamic DNS, I don't have a hostname that I know of that is stable (just basic Telus internet service, no websites that I host, etc.)

Dynamic DNS clients don't utilize your host name for your device.  They either install on one of your desktops and upload your Internet IP to a DNS hosting service, or your Router (if you have your own) does the same thing.  I've used dyndns.org since forever this way with all ISPs in the city.

[Thorin]

Oh wow, LogMeIn Free is going away?  That was such a useful tool for remote debugging of customers' machines at night!  We used it at the cow tracker place quite a bit.

Dynamic DNS is done through a program that runs on your computer or on your router, that every so often reports in to DynDNS so they have your current IP address.  You register a certain domain/directory with DynDNS, and they know to turn that into the IP address your computer or router reports to DynDNS.  So then you can Remote Desktop to, say, dyndns.org/DarrenIsSoAwesomeHeMadeThisWholeName, and that will resolve to whatever your IP address is for your home machine.

The only problem with DynDNS and RDP is if you have multiple computers behind a single router, DynDNS only gets you to your router, so you'd have to find a way to differentiate the multiple machines (I dunno, maybe by using unique port numbers for each?).

[Melbosa]

The only problem with DynDNS and RDP is if you have multiple computers behind a single router, DynDNS only gets you to your router, so you'd have to find a way to differentiate the multiple machines (I dunno, maybe by using unique port numbers for each?).

Or bouncing into one dedicated computer, and using it to bounce into others.

Anyway its free, it doesn't require any software if your router supports it, and its encrypted as much as the free versions of other software.  Only it doesn't keep a tunnel with an intermediary server, no does it handle multiple ways into more than one computer behind your firewall (which may not be a good thing if thinking security).

[Darren Dirt]

I've used dyndns.org since forever this way with all ISPs in the city.

Years ago for a while I remember using that too, it seemed you pretty much required a "ping every few minutes" app to also be running all the time otherwise DynDNS.org or whatever would get "out of sync" and boom there goes your remote-control ability.

The only problem with DynDNS and RDP is if you have multiple computers behind a single router, DynDNS only gets you to your router, so you'd have to find a way to differentiate the multiple machines (I dunno, maybe by using unique port numbers for each?).

Ugh.

IN BRIEF, what I want is simple-to-configure-once-never-configure-again run-on-host-during-boot unattended remote control via the web browser (aka zero-install client for the viewer).

LogMeIn Free did it simply, did it all for me, was decently fast and I didn't use it often enough to justify more than maybe $20/year to keep it. Now they did the dick-move by giving 7 days notice (if that!) to the free users, which means that even those users who DO give in and pay $98/year initially will probably spend the next year looking for a company that keeps it word instead of changing pricing plans after promising they will be the same lifetime (I'm not talking about LMI FREE here, but their mobile "Injection" product for sure comes to mind, among others).


Right now my "short list to try tonight" is TeamViewer (presuming some of the rumors about a "zero-install Flash client" viewer = true?) and the extension from Google: http://www.google.com/search?q=Chrome+Remote+Desktop

[Melbosa]

Good luck then. RDP isn't what you want based on the browser requirement.  Sorry I missed that.

[Darren Dirt]

Good luck then. RDP isn't what you want based on the browser requirement.  Sorry I missed that.

I'm hoping that http://www.google.com/search?q=Chrome+Remote+Desktop is sufficient* for my zero-install needs. Especially because looks like the TeamViewer web viewer is "TeamViewer Web Connector" = "TeamViewer Web Connector is available with Premium level licenses and above"


*a little pessimistic though, one review mention this:
"Super simple to use RDP. I was so happy to tell LogMeIn to get stuffed. The only drawback is if your desktop has rebooted, you can't use Chrome RDP to log it back in. You have to be logged in for it to connect." damn(?)...

Another comment somewhere mentioned http://www.2x.com/rdp-client/chrome/ = another Chrome extension for connecting to RDP. We'll see what, if any, works for me...

[Tom]

Could set your desktop to auto login, and then lock the screen. chrome might work then. assuming if you leave it set to pre-load chrome as is the default, it should run the chrome rdp stuff automatically on boot.

[Mr. Analog]

Since I'm not sure what you were using it for and setting up a dynamic DNS+SSH tunnelling was already suggested for RDP/VNC (and shot down?). Maybe what you are looking for is something like NeoRouter? http://www.neorouter.com/Downloads_nrfree.html

But it sounds like TeamViewer / Chrome Remote Desktop is going to work for you...

Or, y'know, you could pay for LogMeIn if it's that useful?

[Darren Dirt]

I think that Google Chrome Remote Desktop extension is good enough for my needs.

My worry was routers and firewalls and whatnot getting in the way of GCRD "seeing" my home PC... but it worked fine.


I just followed the basic steps @ http://www.howtogeek.com/142146/how-to-use-google-chrome-to-remotely-access-your-computer/ and http://www.sbits.biz/what-is-a-good-replacement-for-logmein-free/ ...
I utilized my remaining LogMeIn Free connection to get to my home PC and got GCRD running -- and from that super-quickly succeeded in getting in a "second" connection from my work PC via the Chrome web browser -- which I then used to end the LMIF connection. From that point on it seemed to be decent speed, very much comparable to LMI, if not faster.

PLUS it had clipboard sharing (which recently the FREE version of LMI took away!).

And it showed me both monitors as a single double-width screen (and thus tiny text) -- but when I clicked "Show Full Screen" I saw just my main monitor in full screen , which works out great for my needs.


So yeah, I think this will be sufficient for me.

My typical uses = I just need to take 5 minutes to double-check something on my home PC like get a kid's AHC or grab my current budget or something else that I normally don't know in advance to take from my home PC before leaving for work). The speed is definitely good enough for those kind of uses (it's not like I need to play an FPS during lunch )

#whew (for my own and possibly others' benefit, to this post I attached my "research" notes)




edit:

Could set your desktop to auto login, and then lock the screen. chrome might work then. assuming if you leave it set to pre-load chrome as is the default, it should run the chrome rdp stuff automatically on boot.

Looks like there's 2 ways of configuring a host to enable a connection. One is to generate a "key" which is different each time, the other is to pre-enable connections via a PIN (6+ digits, for some reason only numerical digits(!) ) and that latter option is what I just tried during lunch. I am going to remotely connect again and do a reboot and see if I can get back in... But I expect that will indeed work (just like LMI).

Since I'm not sure what you were using it for
...
Or, y'know, you could pay for LogMeIn if it's that useful?

re. My typical uses: see above.

re. paying LMI a ridic cost for a rarely-needed service: after how they handled this situation (and a few others)? not bloody likely. The timing aspect of this switch = they lost a lot of credibility, hard to trust them as a company now (so say THOUSANDS of would-be-paying-customers via comments all over the info-sphere).

[Thorin]

Found this post: http://www.techshout.com/alternatives/2012/17/logmein-alternatives/

Then from the comments:

"As a result of this abrupt action, we are offering 50% off of our industry-leading service. Same features, from $1-$7 per month. Use offer code: LOGMEOFF at checkout.  http://remotedesktop.eblvd.com"

and

"I work for Citrix and GoToMyPC is offering 6 months free then 3 computers for $69/year. Go to gotomypc.com and enter promo code: welcome.  6 month should give you a good idea if it is worth the $69 or not."

Let us know what GCRD is like, and if it does indeed require someone to be logged in with Chrome running...

[Darren Dirt]

Found this post:

Then from the comments:

...

Let us know what GCRD is like, and if it does indeed require someone to be logged in with Chrome running...

I saw those 2 alternatives. Had to nix both, can't remember the reasons off-hand, but pretty sure either was due to the client being installed on the viewing PC, or else was VNC-based and thus would likely be challenging to make it connect from my work environment to my home environment due to the routers and whatnot. Both were not free, also -- so I had to first confirm that GCRD didn't work for me.

But GCRD did work for me! It is certainly at the present time the basket to which I am placing all my remote-control eggs for sure; now I just:
navigate to chrome://apps
single-click "Chrome Remote Desktop" -- in the same was as you single-click Gmail -- and
click the nickname I chose for my home PC
enter the PIN, click [Connect] and within 5 seconds BOOM I am connected*.

more info about GCRD @ https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/1649523?hl=en

Q: You're unable to use certain keyboard shortcuts while connected to your remote computer (e.g., Ctrl+W, Ctrl+N).    Because Chrome Remote Desktop runs in Chrome and Chrome reserves certain keyboard shortcuts for its own use, by default these shortcuts won?t be sent to your remote computer.

A: However you can override this default behavior by right-clicking the Chrome Remote Desktop icon in the Applications list and choosing "Open in Window". In this mode nearly all keyboard shortcuts will be sent to your remote computer.

^ that's freakin' awesome to see, especially in a web browser plugin! Also, it even allows "Curtain Mode" aka blank screen while connected -- without special video drivers (which is what LMI was telling me it required!) #imLovinIt



*and yes, I just now finished my final test, confirming that after rebooting my home PC, I am able to get back in just fine with GCRD.
Uninstalling LMI tonight for sure! #goodRiddance