In this world, everything is going faster and faster. We can hardly keep up with homework, 40-hour a week jobs, the trip for the meeting in Beijing, let alone wait for the microwave to finish the popcorn. There are too few hours in the day, and too many ways to spend those hours we have. Another major aspect of this world is that due to the increased rate of travel, distances are getting smaller and smaller. Yet in the computer realm, physical distance is still a limiting factor. When I am at work, I cannot use the computer I have at home…or can I.

Microsoft, as well as a number of other companies, have proposed very appropriate solutions for many of these problems, depending upon the needs. For the user, Microsoft has developed and implemented VPN, or Virtual Private Networking. This allows a user from anywhere in the world to connect to their corporate or home network using the internet as the transport mechanism. Its essentially like treating the internet as merely a gateway on your local area network.

Symantec, another company in the distance computing playing field, has targeted a different kind of user. Either administrators or power users can benefit a great deal from Symantec’s pcAnywhere product line, which allows a great deal of flexibility in not just accessing a network over great distances, but in accessing a particular computer. Being a power user and administrator myself, I shall start the perfunctory dissertation with pcAnywhere.