Virtual Network Connections

For busy folk like me who use multiple PCs daily, the ability to remotely connect to your other machines in a different building, town, county or country by a VNC (Virtual Network Connection) application is incredibly useful. My main use for such a programme is accessing my work computer from home in the evenings if there is something that needs doing/I forgot to do. Some would suggest it is not healthy to take your work home with you to such an extent but there have been many situations where it has saved me the hour commute to and from the office.

For example, this article is currently being written at 21:30 on Wednesday evening and since I don't have my e-mail account or address book on this machine I will log in to the office computer when complete and send it directly from my regular company e-mail address.

In the past I have covered RealVNC which although being a fantastic little free application is somewhat rough around the edges and is relatively difficult to set up and use. This week I discovered 'WallCooler' which is a little more polished and simple to configure but still free of charge.

To get started, first download the 30mb application from www.vedivi.com, install it on the machine which you wish to control. You then set up a login name which will be used to locate the computer when you are connecting from the road; at this point you will of course also set up a password so that only you can gain access to the machine.

The use of login e-mail address to locate the computer rather than a specific IP (Internet Protocol) address is a nice touch as you won't be adversely affected if your unique address on the Internet changes. This is very important for many users as a lot of Internet Service Providers will change your IP address each time you connect to the Internet.

Step one done and dusted, just repeat the process on the second computer and enter the same login details as you set up previously and immediately you will gain control the remote machine and can transfer information between the two. The software automatically configures itself to work around your firewall, so there should be no need to perform any further installation; however more advanced options are available to customise your setup to your specific needs.

With all this potentially sensitive information flying around you will be glad to know it is SSL encoded, so nobody who shouldn't have access can get their hands on it. As with most things computer related you should ensure that your password is secure. For example, rather than something obvious try to pick a relatively long combination of letters, symbols and numbers that couldn't be easily guessed.

I personally don't see how accessing a remote computer could get much easier than this and although the same company do sell a scaled up application which includes a few extra bells and whistles, the free version should be substantial enough for most users.


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Chris Holgate writes a weekly article of all things tech related. He is a director and copyrighter of the online computer consumables business Refresh Cartridges who sell cheap ink cartridges, toner cartridges, computer hardware and other computer consumables online. An archive of his work can be found at www.computerarticles.co.uk.