Ichijo's Journal: Remote Desktop Software Reviewed

I wanted to be able to access my work computer from home. Sometimes I hit upon some inspiration and I want to test it out on the software. (Downloading the source code to my computer at home is not an option.) So I tried a few types of remote desktop software.

My work desktop is set to 1600x1200, but my computer at home can only do 1400x1050. So in addition to the slow network connection, this was the other problem I needed to deal with.

The first, UltraVNC (free), won't work for me at all since VNC is already installed on my work computer, and this both precludes me from adding a VNC account and from installing other VNC software. Apparently you can't have two copies running at the same time, even if they are different implementations. VNC was already installed for the benefit of the help desk.

Another one I tried was Remote Administrator 2.1 ($35). It worked surprisingly well over the slow network connection. Upping the pixel depth to its highest setting didn't seem to make a difference in speed. And while the resize mode sucked (no bilinear filtering), the autoscroll mode was usable (just like a virtual desktop in Windows). The fact that you had to use Ctrl-F12 to get to the menu was kind of annoying. Still, I hoped for something better.

Then I tried the most obvious solution, Symantec pcAnywhere 11.0 ($200 retail). I was able to get a copy off eBay for about $20. This one fully bilinear-filters the desktop when resizing, but like Windows Media Player and Quicktime, the "bezel" (actually an Outlook-style side menu) takes up space that cannot be reclaimed. Also, pcAnywhere seems to be very frugal on network traffic. Unfortunately, and this is the real deal kiler, pcAnywhere is slow! Refreshing a certain window takes four seconds in pcAnywhere, where it took 2.5 seconds under Remote Administrator. Changing to a different pixel depth didn't seem to make any difference. pcAnywhere is still usable, but only in emergencies, whereas Remote Administrator could be used pretty much all the time if you wanted to.

So if you're looking for remote desktop software, I recommend Remote Administrator.

i recommend...

[Zoarre]

microsoft terminal services client. it works with XP professional as well as with windows server.

Re:i recommend...

[Ichijo]

microsoft terminal services client. it works with XP professional as well as with windows server.

Yeah, that would be the best option, but my work computer is Win2k Professional.