remote pc

[hooch]

I will ask a friend in IT.
I'm confused about your above statement, do you mean that logmein is fine for using at work? I've been doing it for about 2 months almost every day to check home email.

What he means is that due to the nature of how GoToMyPC's networking code handles things, it's much more likely to be noticed by IT than other remote access methods.

All are bad if IT disapproves, so see what your friend in IT says.

Out of curiosity though, why are you remotely controlling y our home PC just to check email? Wouldn't webmail be more practical?

[ItemFinder]

Why? I use logmein.com from work, should I be expecting a visit from IT?

First, I wouldn't trust an external website to make connections to my home computer. If malicious, they could do a lot of harm. While they may have a great privacy policy today, it may disappear tomorrow. It's the same reason I won't use Hamachi or really any closed source application.

Second, if your IT department is worth its salary, they should have a list of blocked sites, including the one you mentioned.

Third, if your IT department is competent enough, they can detect the type of traffic being sent through the firewall. If the site uses SSL, it'll be difficult to decipher compared to regular SSL traffic. They will be able to detect SSH, RDP or VNC traffic.

[myversa]

Yes, Windows Remote Desktop is the easiest way and cheapest way to go.

No need to install extra software.

[sunnyd71]

What he means is that due to the nature of how GoToMyPC's networking code handles things, it's much more likely to be noticed by IT than other remote access methods.

All are bad if IT disapproves, so see what your friend in IT says.

Out of curiosity though, why are you remotely controlling y our home PC just to check email? Wouldn't webmail be more practical?

I talked to my friend who works in IT Security and she said she had never run into it. I will take a look at the policy to see if it is stated that it is against it.

I am using the remote desktop feature because I use Thunderbird to check multiple accounts. It is an extreme hassle to have to check each account individually and each serve different purposes. I will also respond to emails from my home computer while at work which I believe is essential. This means I will connect quite often throughout the day or leave the connection open. I will also do some surfing from home because I *thought* it would be less objectionable to visit RFD from my home computer by remote than using their network. (in the traditional sense) It is all encrypted traffic so I don't think they would know what is being sent. They may however take screenshots of my machine but with 7000+ employees in the building I don't find it too likely that they would ever look.

Second, if your IT department is worth its salary, they should have a list of blocked sites, including the one you mentioned.

Third, if your IT department is competent enough, they can detect the type of traffic being sent through the firewall. If the site uses SSL, it'll be difficult to decipher compared to regular SSL traffic. They will be able to detect SSH, RDP or VNC traffic.

We do have blocked sites but this and all other remote log in websites I have seen are not blocked. I have only ever used logmein.com but researched others when deciding what to use.

VPN is used to connect many people from home to work but there is a large monthly fee involved so it is not set up for everyone. I am doing the reverse.

Logmein.com uses 256 bit SSL encryption. Also note that there is no file transfer between PC's possible. Only remote control of my home computer.

I would love to continue using this but asking someone in IT would probably get a no response just given the fact that if you ask anything out of the ordinary you usually get a no. I don't know how much of a serious offense this would be, I could plead ignorance and stop if I got caught. If it is not too serious and the likely hood of them noticing (keeping in mind the encryption detailed above) is slim, I want to keep doing it. But if it is a serious matter and there is substantial risk of IT noticing, I will be forced to stop.

What do you think?

[Bing]

The OP was asking about remote access on his home network.

I use UltraVNC. Just setup static IP's for your computers. Start the UltraVNC Server application on the computer you want to control. Connect to it with the UltraVNC Viewer app.

This also allows me to VPN into my home network from anywhere and have access to all my computers.