Easy Way to Access Your PC Remotely

[Iman74]

I just came across this on The Screensavers website http://www.go-to-my-pc.net/

The products site appears to be down at this moment but however I like the theory. But it also sounds a bit risky. You would have to trust the website and those that administer it that your PC would be secure. There probably is fine print that they are not reliable for such possibilities. But offering this to the general public, especially those that are not computer savy I think is ingenious. Personally, since computers is part of who I am, I would feel like I would be cheating myself if I didn't setup a VPN at my house instead of using that utility.

[doctorgonzo]

This seems like a bad, bad, bad idea, mainly because you have to trust this website's security in addition to your own. I don't know how bad it would be in practice, though, because most people already don't practice safe networking or computing.

[Iman74]

Most is too strong of a word. I would rather say many don't; but I met quite a few people who are not computer literate but have been making an effort on setting up firewalls and encrypting their wireless network.

[glc]

I have customers using Go To My PC, it works beautifully, and it's well encrypted. It's a lot more secure than opening ports in a firewall to use PC Anywhere, VNC, or similar remote control apps.

[ktkendall]

If it's XP pro to XP pro pc's then I believe it is built in there, but I don't know how secure over the internet it is or if its even designed to connect over anything beyond a LAN..

[Iman74]

Originally posted by glc I have customers using Go To My PC, it works beautifully, and it's well encrypted. It's a lot more secure than opening ports in a firewall to use PC Anywhere, VNC, or similar remote control apps.

Really? How?

[glc]

https://www.gotomypc.com/ourTechnolo...360D92A13/null

It uses SSL and 128 bit AES encryption. No firewall ports need to be opened, it's just like surfing a secure website. Their site is only serving up Java applets to allow the machines to direct connect.

[gunrunnerjohn]

I personally don't see how having a 3rd party website in the path makes the communications more secure. As far as encryption, this is an exerpt from a description of tightVNC, one of many remote control packages.

The TightVNC enhancement to the original VNC freeware application from AT&T research labs in the UK adds secure communication channels for remote administration sessions. TightVNC secures these communication channels using Secure Shell (SSH).

Unix and Linux administrators have used SSH for years, and now Windows administrators can take advantage of it using TightVNC. To demonstrate how it works, I'll show you how to implement TightVNC and SSH on a Windows NT server. You can use the same logic to secure communications on other TightVNC supported systems.

First though, a few words on SSH. Not only does SSH encrypt authentication parameters, it also encrypts all the session traffic. SSH is meant to replace insecure session protocols such as telnet, rsh, and rlogin. It allows the secure movement of data and files across insecure channels, (e.g., the Internet). In the case of TightVNC, SSH can secure remote administration commands.

SSH is in widespread use across 60 or more countries. SSH comes in two flavors, SSH1 and SSH2. Both encrypt different parts of a packet. Both are different protocols -- SSH2 is basically a rewrite of SSH1 with improvements in security, portability, and performance. SSH1 is no longer under development, but SSH2 is still being developed.

[glc]

The 3rd party site in itself is not increasing security - it's eliminating the need to open ports in a firewall. Even TightVNC needs open ports.