Anyplace Control Software

PC remote control software is becoming a common program for many computer users as more and more people wish to access their PC's when they are away from home or work.

One such program is Anyplace Control by Anyplace Control Software. Remote control software allows a person to control a remote computer from another location.

Anyplace Control, like other remote control products, has two components, a host and a remote. During the install of the small download, the installer prompts for a password that will be used when a remote (client) connects to a host computer. Recommended is an 8 character password, and as always, a mix of upper case, lower case, numbers and symbols make any password harder to crack. To increase security, Anyplace Control also provides several levels of encryption and IP filtering up to 320 bit RSA encryption. IP filtering denies connections from any client system that does not come from an authorized IP address.

Options

Anyplace Control has several options of significant interest.

• Allow multiple clients to a single host
  This is a very useful feature when more than one person is trying to trouble shoot a problem on a remote computer.
  
  
• The ability to change the port Anyplace Control listens on
  This feature may help with issues arising from working behind a firewall.
  
  
• Changing connection setting for low or high bandwidth
  Choosing the appropriate connection will make more efficient use of resources.
  
  
• Logging to a text file
  Anyplace Control can create a log file in the program directory to record date and time of access, as well as the remote address that tried to connect to the software.
  
  
• Installation as a service or a simple application
  A service will run as soon as the computer finishes starting and usually does not require any user intervention. Installing the software as a simple program requires the user to start the program, either from the start menu or by placing a shortcut to the program in the startup folder (another option during the install). If the program software is not run as a service, users will not be able to connect to your computer until someone logs in to that computer.
  

Performance

Anyplace Control places an icon in the system tray. When a client connects, the host computer changes the icon to alert the user that another computer is trying to take over the session.

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Anyplace Control loads the initial screen very fast. I was quite surprised on how quickly the first screen loaded having used various flavours of VNC, pcAnywhere and Remote Desktop. Beyond that, the software was quite responsive. There is a slight delay between what happens on the host computer and how the client views it, though the delay is not significant. This however does cause a samll problem in tracking where the mouse is because of the delay. A few other options that Anyplace Control offers is logging off the current user, restarting the remote computer, and shutting down the remote computer. All of these functions are important features in a remote control software and Anyplace Control performs very well with each of these functions.

The admin module allows you to set up multiple host computers to control as well as providing full control or view only options of the client. Another nice feature of Anyplace Control is that it will cache passwords for remote computers, eliminated the need to remember many different passwords.

Pricing

Anyplace Control can be purchased online from Anyplace Control Software and the price varies depending on the number of licenses you require.

Conclusions

Anyplace Control provides a valuable option for remote computing. Whether working from home, not working while at the office, or supporting other users, Anyplace Control is a worth while option. Also, for use in a corporate environment, the option to integrate in the NT domain or AD model to provide access control based on network users would be an excellent addition to this product.

The software represented the colours of the host computer very well, providing full colour support. An option to reduce the number of colours for faster transmission would be nice as well. Finally, the help file was not very extensive. Fortunately, the software is very easy to use and you should not have to reference the help file at all.

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