Over the years, I’ve used Teamviewer, Logmein and RDP.
Everything I do is Mac —> PC
RDP had become problematic to setup so I have been using Teamviewer lately. Except I’ve been flagged despite my low usage and now can only stay connected for 5 minutes at a time, not always long enough to get something done!
Any suggestions would be appreciated. I’m going to have to try RDP again but just seem to remember it was difficult to do in the past.
Thanks
Diane
I’m going to add that I don’t mind paying for software, but LMI and TV have insane pricing these days.
Diane
By RDP you mean Microsoft Remote Desktop? I think you may be using the ancient one. Get the current stand alone one. Works great. We have people doing CAD over it, Mac -> Win.
But you have to be able to put in an IP or URL maybe followed by a :port to get to the machine. Unless you Win folks have set up special routing for you.
Yes, sorry, the Microsoft one.
I am using the newest one on my Mac, one of my clients uses it for his VPN and I have it set up on a PC on my own network. That was easy.
Not so easy to set it up on a remote machine. I am the closest thing to an IT person and it’s been years since I’ve had to mess around with Windows networking. The machine in question was broadcasting an external IP and it still couldn’t find it.
Years ago I had a job that used it, and we did use ports. I have no idea where they came from though, there were actually IT guys on call.
Diane
The MRD can work great. But you will have to port forward from the WAN to the internal IP. There’s only one port you need and to be honest you should likely map it from one in the 50,000 range down to the actual one for a big better secruity.
You also will have to have a certificate shared between the Win box and any “outside of the LAN” computer that wants to control the Win box when not on a VPN that puts you “on the internal LAN”.
I have 10.x
I keep it updated because a client uses it for sensitive work.
Diane
Fumble fingers.
BIT better SECURITY.
After casting about for the best remote software for years, I settled on Jump Desktop four years ago. I use it mostly on my LAN — but also to support off-site clients. Both Jump’s macOS and iOS clients work great.
Thanks! I had found a few lists of software and that one wasn’t listed!
It looks like it’s free on the Windows side, with a one time charge for Mac?
Diane
I Work with dozens of people using TV free and I’ve never once seen a time limit even though we’ve left connections open for more than 24 hours straight and connect several times per week/month. I’m not seeing any user facing docs indicating this policy, either. I wonder if they’ve flagged you for commercial use based on IP or number of machines or maybe your account is registered as a business?
There are other truly free, but less capable options, like GoToMyPc and the like; it really depends on what you need for features and how you prefer to interface.
I’m not sure if Chrome Remote Desktop is a viable option for you, due to the need for each machine to be logged into a Google account, but it’s pretty good and fairly reliable if you don’t rely on multiple displays on the host machine, and it’s free. privacy policy seems pretty reasonable, considering whose supplying it.
EDIT: silly me, my search skills are waning; I won’t embarrass myself further by posting what I submitted on my last attempt.
https://www.teamviewer.com/en/support/commercial-use-suspected/
Looks like I paid $15 four years ago for the Jump Desktop Mac client, and it was regularly $30 at that time. I don’t know whether they charge for their Windows client. All major and minor upgrades since then have been free.
Jump Desktop Connect runs on the host machines you need to connect to; I think it’s always free.
Teamviewer does notice if it appears the use is commercial, but I never got cut off. It’s just that after a while I really felt like buying was the right thing to do! It’s a worthwhile product.
I was able to get the single-user license for about 1/2 price by calling and asking if they had any cheaper alternatives. Apparently they are working on this, but until then the agent gave me a lower price and extended it for two more renewals. Very fair, I thought.
I’ve done quite a bit of testing in the last few weeks. I’ve downloaded and installed 4 products. Some were so expensive I didn’t even try them.
The four I tried are:
Anydesk $20/99/month
Jump Desktop $30 for the Mac side
Remotix $39.99 for the Mac side
VNC Viewer
Every single one required me to setup an account before using it (Teamviewer did not)
Remotix was the only one where I could figure out how to blank the remote screen. (this is critical for me).
Every single one was almost as slow as using PC Anywhere on dial up.
I couldn’t figure out how to print or transfer files on any of them either.
Another thing that’s important is connection time. Remotix shows it, but it is grey on a black background at something like a 6pt typeface so……
I’m at the point where I’m done with my trial periods, and now trying to contact the companies to figure out my issues. I was in contact with Remotix from the beginning and they’ve finally decided to respond to me about the speed issues - after my trial ran out.
These were crossed of my list completely due to cost: Teamviewer, logmein, GoToAssist, Gotomypc
There are others I found, but haven’t tried yet:
RealVNC $140/yr (but I think VNC Viewer is the same company)
Splashtop $60/yr (I use this with a client currently and find the screen resolution/size to be wonky)
Shareconnect have to call for pricing so it’s probably expensive
RemotePC free for one computer, $52.10/yr for up to 10
join.me found it in a search and didn’t research it
Mikogo $16/month for up to 25
Hopefully some of these comments helps someone else!
Diane
NoMachine has a free version, and runs faster than RealVNC. But it seems to have some bugs.
Interesting @dianed143 about Remotix and the ability to blank a remote screen, Any chance it will let you blank the computer monitor (eg an iMac) but permit showing an attached screen (eg a projector). This remote tutor would like to know…
I wish I had an answer for you! I’ve never had a need to do that. I do have a client that has multiple screens and I have the ability to remotely choose either or both. But I almost think theirs is a proprietary system by their IT company. It says Strategic Microsystems Web Portal when I log in.
That said, it’s the only client I have with multiple monitors, so I’m not sure if the other programs I listed below would do it if more than one monitor was sensed.
Diane
Wikipedia has a comparison page for remote desktop software; there are a lot I’ve never heard of that might be worth a look, though you have to jump between tables to check for OS support, features (not an exnesive list) and price.
You just made my day! To think I made my own spreadsheet for this lol!
I need to revisit this anyway, for some reason iTeleport stopped working for me recently and I’ve been using the free version of AnyDesk since. But I still can’t do things it says I should be able to do, like file transfers.
Thanks!
Diane