When I first read the description accompanying a link to the Register’s story, I though it was just another case of a lazy journalist (unlike my highly efficient journalist brother, Nick; more on that to come later…) not bothering to do any research before posting.
It initially sounded as though there was another remote connection application being launched, with some vague claims for industry firsts.
However, if you check the article in question, you’ll discover that this is quite different. Apparently, there will be real remote desktops available (for a fee of course), accessible through either a Java applet or ActiveX control, on a web page. This means that ANY technology capable of interacting with a web site, through the aforementioned methods, should be able to ‘use’ a Windows XP machine. The ramifications of this are quite wide spread, for example people can work on their documents where ever they happen to be at the time, if they can get an internet connection there.
Although I still regularly use various VNC clients, I can see this sort of technology becoming more popular in the future, as the uses of it are realised by people in different sectors.
This post is NOT sponsored, once more I found the information interesting, and hope some of you may do so also…
May 8th, 2007 6:00 pm
LogMeIn.com offers remote connection services. And this is for free. You can connect to your home PC even if it has no own IP. Actually I use their services to access my laptop while being at work. So what’s the buzz? Why should I pay for a pre-defined set of apps, and store my valuable docs on some distant server farm?
May 8th, 2007 6:44 pm
I’m assuming own IP refers to a static IP address? I agree there are plenty of alternatives out there, personally, I’m happy using the no-ip redirector service in conjunction with VNC, but not all of us have the same needs, or required knowledge to operate like that.
If you don’t have your own Windows PC, or it isn’t able to connect to the internet 24/7, or you’d rather perhaps keep work and home PC activity completely separate, I can see the point of a service like this.
I’m guessing that they aren’t necessarily targeting their services at people like you or me, but I still thought others might find it interesting, if not directly useful.
May 10th, 2007 3:55 am
If you don’t have your own Windows PC, that means you either use Linux/Mac or are a Palezoic relic with no knowledge of what computing is. Both cases imply you don’t need a Windows PC at all. 🙂
I had no luck with no-ip, probably because I hadn’t a static IP. Or maybe I put less effort than it was necessary. Hopefully when I change my apartment and my Internet provider I’ll try and configure the no-ip service.
(And yes, “own IP” does mean static IP address. Lost in translation. :))
May 10th, 2007 12:17 pm
No, no-ip is for people with dynamic IPs, that is its main purpose in life…
I am supposed to have a dynamic IP, but it hasn’t changed since I got this ADSL connection! Not complaining, merely an observation…
May 12th, 2007 8:22 pm
I have neither static nor dynamic IP, I’m behind the NAT.
May 13th, 2007 12:10 am
however, eventually your PC does have a WAN IP, even if it is shared with other users. This WAN IP can be detected, and logged on no-ip’s servers. If port access is a problem, you can use an alternative port in the options for the application, port 80 I believe, which shouldn’t be blocked 😉
I have the same situation sat behind the NAT on my router/modem…