The Cultivated Web Blog » Software http://www.cultivatedweb.com/blog Getting the most out of web and graphic design Sat, 05 Mar 2011 16:55:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Remote Access Made Easy http://www.cultivatedweb.com/blog/reviews/software-reviews/remote-access-made-easy.html http://www.cultivatedweb.com/blog/reviews/software-reviews/remote-access-made-easy.html#comments Sun, 25 Jul 2010 14:10:36 +0000 Mitch Cohen http://www.cultivatedweb.com/blog/?p=150 Continue reading →]]> As a web designer and tech support agent for my friends and family, one of the most elusive capabilities has been remote access. So many times it would have been so much more productive than trying to figure out what they were trying to explain to me if I could have seen what they were seeing on their computer and then actually show them how to fix their problem or answer their questions. I’ve always been frustrated with the remote assistance feature of Windows. It’s just too technical for most of us to make it worth the effort to figure it out. Maybe it’s just me and I just don’t get it even after reading the Windows Help file and searching on the web.

There are many commercial solutions to remote access if you’re willing to pay for them. Recently, I found a free (for personal, non-commercial use) and simple solution in TeamViewer. After reading reviews of several remote access programs, I tried TeamViewer on three computers running different operating system; Windows Vista, Window XP, and Ubuntu Linux. TeamViewer is also available for the Mac.

The Bottom Line

TeamViewer works. It’s easy to download and install. It’s easy to establish a connection between two computers regardless of which operating system they’re running. That’s right. It took only seconds to connect over the internet to my Ubuntu desktop from my Vista laptop. It was as if I was sitting in front of the remote computer running programs and even updating the operating system. Here’s a screenshot.

A screen capture showing how TeamView connects to a PC running Ubuntu Linux from one running Windows Vista.

Connect to any computer running Windows, Apple, Linux, or mobile operating systems.

Check it out and put it to good use. But be careful who you tell. Once the word gets out, you may get more calls for help than you have hours in the day.

If you have experience with TeamViewer or other remote access software, leave a comment and share your experience.

Share

]]> http://www.cultivatedweb.com/blog/reviews/software-reviews/remote-access-made-easy.html/feed 0 Free Software with No Strings Attached http://www.cultivatedweb.com/blog/reviews/software-reviews/free-software.html http://www.cultivatedweb.com/blog/reviews/software-reviews/free-software.html#comments Sun, 31 May 2009 00:44:23 +0000 Mitch Cohen http://www.cultivatedweb.com/blog/?p=131 Continue reading →]]> Since delving into the Ubuntu version of the Linux operating system, I’ve been very impressed with the wide array of quality software not only available for Linux, but also for Apple, Windows, and several other specialized operating systems. So here are some of the sites that index totally free software.

The Free Software Directory from the Free Software Foundation (only for free operating systems)

The Free Software Portal from Wikipedia

And let’s not forget the venerable SourceForge.net.

Now, there are many other sources of “free” software and some of them are very good. Google offers some great stuff, WordPress, CNET’s Download.com, and SoftPedia to mention a few. But I wanted to bring to your attention a couple of sites that index software that is totally free in all ways; free to use, free to share, and free to modify.

If you know of other sources of free software, please leave a comment and share.

Share

]]> http://www.cultivatedweb.com/blog/reviews/software-reviews/free-software.html/feed 0