Remote access software

[#1]

Can anyone recommend some free software for accessing a remote pc? What I'm trying to achieve is I have some software at work and it only has one user license but would be handy to be able to access it from home now and again. 

[#2]

Well I know several people who use GoToMyPC http://www.gotomypc.co.uk/remote_access/remote_access but it's far from free, except to try, so not really appropriate for occasional use. 

[#3]

TightVNC will do the job plus you can run the server as a service so that you can login at the welcome screen remotely unlike older versions of VNC. The server even offers a java client so that you can use it via an inbuilt http server on port 5800.
Handy for systems that don't have a terminal server for RDP like windows XP pro.

[#4]

It takes a bit more work,  but you can also add SSH with port forwarding into the mix to add a layer of security to TightVNC.

[#5]

You could try LogMeIn (logmein.com), the free version is adequate for most purposes.  I use it to access Autocad on my office PC from my Laptop at home.  One limitation is lack of remote printing on the free version (I can print remotely but only to the office printer from the office PC) though I can print to a pdf and email that to my home email then print the pdf at home.
Team Viewer is another possibility but I have not really used that so I don't know if it's much good.

[#6]

I can highly recommend Teamviewer, its at the top of my list. for remote support software
http://download.cnet.com/TeamViewer/3000-7240_4-10398150.html
Regards
Mike

[#7]

Thanks, logmein looks just the thing I'm after. They should change their site to read free instead of free trial I think I came across this before but fobbed it off under the impression that it was just a trial. I just need access to sage now and again I have mostly duplicated the rest of the software on my laptop.  Will have to investigate security and firewall settings. Ammy was another I come up with ironically when someone tried to rip me off. Probably perfectly good software but forever associated with scams in my head. 
I see tight vnc is also available on Linux. I wonder if I can access a windows machine from a Linux system now that would be handy. Thanks guys I'll have a look into then and see which works out best. 

[#8]

Yeah team viewer looks like it's cross platform as well   do all these support wake over lan? I would have to also wake up the computer remotely.

[#9]

Teamviewer no , logmein yes
see here http://help.logmein.com/SelfServiceKnowledgeRenderer?type=FAQ&id=kA030000000DGB3CAO&search=1&kw=wake
Regards Mike

[#10]

I find LogMeIn extremely useful and control 7 PCs with it including SWMBO's brother's in Ukraine.
Just ensure when you install the software on the remote PC that you do select Free Trial as it defaults to Pro. It can be changed in the control panel later, though.

[#11]

Until relatively recently LogMeIn offered Free, Pro, and Pro Trial - now it's Pro or Pro Trial.
As Mav says, just ensure you opt for 'Trial', and it will automatically revert to free in a couple of weeks or so.
I've been using it for about three years with about a dozen 'clients' and have encountered no problems.

[#12]

Quote from: AverageWhiteBloke

I see tight vnc is also available on Linux. I wonder if I can access a windows machine from a Linux system now that would be handy. Thanks guys I'll have a look into then and see which works out best.

TightVNC 1.3 is available for Windows and Linux (viewer and server),  and there is also a Java viewer.
TightVNC 2.5 is available for Windows and Java.
There are several other VNC clients and servers which should interact.
This may also be helpful    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_remote_desktop_software

[#13]

Quote

I see tight vnc is also available on Linux. I wonder if I can access a windows machine from a Linux system now that would be handy.

Yes, no problem.

[#14]

I've tried letmein first to see how I get on with that. Popped into work as I'm actually on holiday. Self employed so not much chance of that  I set up the software on there and enabled wake up over lan in letmein prefs. Never found any settings in the bios of that machine to enable wake over lan, closest thing I could find was wake by external modem??? Didn't enable it just in case. I did go into device manager and made sure that the ethernet controller allowed wake over lan in properties.
Just tried it now from my home laptop through the web interface and there is no option to wake up that computer. It says that the computer needs to switched on already!
Maybe I need to enable the wake over modem, thought I'd look a bit more into it first before releasing a work computer into the wild. Curious, would I also need to change some settings on the router? Another thing that worries me is at which point in the boot up process will be able to access the keyboard? Reason being the machine at work I need to accesss dual boots with ubuntu so I would need to use the arrow buttons to start up windows or possibly set that machine to boot into windows by default on that machine. Worse case I can uninstall ubuntu, I only dual boot on that machine so I can mess about with linux at work before making any changes to my home system.

[#15]

I assume you mean LogMeIn?
As far as I know when you use Wake Up Over LAN it's because the remote PC is already booted into Windows but in sleep mode.
I have just done a test here with my laptop and rebooted remotely hoping to be able to press Delete to get into BIOS. Unfortunately as soon as the remote PC is shutdown the LogMeIn connection is lost and you can only reconnect once it is back into Windows. You can, of course, at that point enter any relevant passwords to access a specific account.