LogMeIn - Best Remote Management Tool - How to Setup

Tweet

Pin It

In a few days, we'll be opening up our internet cafe here in Cebu. One of the things that bothered me was how to check our desktop PC here at home remotely. What me and Mai are planning to do is to leave our desktop PC on so it can continue to download whatever or run certain applications that we want to stay on while we're at our computer shop. I know that a remote management application/software is what I need.

Okay, I'm starting to sound like this is a paid review or blog post but this isn't. Really. I was searching for the best remote management app and found out about LogMeIn.

Most of the reviews I read about the program were positive. So, I decided to try it out myself. I'm actually familiar with remote management tools since my previous account used something like it to help customers fix network problems. That said, I know what I'm looking for.

And I'm glad I found LogMeIn. They have 5 products that you can choose from but for me, LogMeIn Free with Remote Control only is more than enough for exactly my needs. This post is all about LogMeIn Free so if you want to know what the other packages offer - LogMeIn Pro, LogMeIn Rescue, LogMeIn IT Reach, RemotelyAnywhere - then check out this Product Comparison page.

It's so easy to set up LogMeIn on the PC you want to access remotely. And, you can access it ANYWHERE as long as you have a browser and internet connection. That said, the PC that you're trying to access remotely should have internet connection, too, for LogMeIn to work.

I'm gonna show you how I set it up. Let's say you have 1 desktop PC at home and you want to access it from your laptop anywhere.

Step 1:
First of all, you have to setup your home PC with LogMeIn.

• Go to their website: https://secure.logmein.com/ - and create an account with them.
  
  Note: Now, after signing up, close all your browser windows then open a new one to check your email to verify your account. Once that's done, go back to their site and log in.
  
  
• On the upper right hand of the site, you'll see a link to My Computers. Click it and it should give you a page like this:
  

click image to zoom in

I already have 2 computers set up when I took the screenshot so just ignore that.

Click on the + Add Computer link on the right side and it will download and install LogMeIn to your home PC. Just edit the settings to your liking.

IMPORTANT NOTE: During installation, it will ask you to setup an ACCESS CODE. This is VERY important since this is the code that you have to enter before you even get access to your home PC from your laptop. Do NOT forget it.

Step 2:
After LogMeIn has been setup on your home PC, make sure that it's enabled always. You can disable it when you're at home. Also, LogMeIn ensures your security from breaches and you can still run your firewall or anti-virus if you want. Our ESET firewall and anti-virus were on during the whole setup.

Step 3:
How to access your home PC remotely? It's very easy, too. I suggest you test it first.

- Make sure all browser windows on your home PC are closed.
- Go to your laptop and access their website and login again: https://secure.logmein.com/
- Click on the My Computers link and it should show you a page with your home PC's name listed. It should say "In Session" so you can access it.
- Click on your home PC's name and it will open up a page like this:

click image to zoom in
- Click on Remote Control. I suggest you open the link on a new window.
- Wait for the next page to load. It's trying to connect to your remote/home PC. After loading, it will ask you for your ACCESS CODE.
- After entering your code correctly, it will show you the screen below while loading your remote/home PC's screen. Just click on Continue and you're ready to control your remote PC!


- On your home PC, there'll be a popup message saying that the PC is currently being remotely accessed/controlled by someone at a certain IP or address:

You can close it if you want since it doesn't really do anything but notify anyone using the remote PC that you're trying to access it.

That's it! Well, you might experience some lag, especially when your graphics card isn't that high-end. But LogMeIn Free for me is the best remote management solution ever. I'm glad I found it.

Now, I can check on our home PC, stop downloads, reboot it or even shut it down. If I want to get a certain file remotely, well, I have to do it the old-fashioned way - email it to myself through a web-based email account like Yahoo! or Google Mail. But if it's a big file, can't do anything about it. I might decide to buy LogMeIn Pro if I want file management, too.

Finally, what's best with using LogMeIn is that you get the same customer support as the subscribed customers. It's really worth the money if you decide to pay for LogMeIn since it's very useful for people like me and Mai or people who are on the go.

Try it and tell me about your experience with it. From what I've read, IT people are using it to access client or customer PCs so they won't have to travel to fix or check on anything. You can even use this if you're at work and you want to access your home PC.

Try out LogMeIn now!


P.S.:
I had to remove our computer names and IP address for obvious reasons so pardon the screenshots.