All I have to do to share my PC is go to Join.me and click the share button and in about 20 seconds I am sharing my PC. In order to view my desktop the other party goes to the same website and enters the meeting ID that appears at the top of my screen. Honest, that is all there is to it. What I love about this service is that it just works and the fact that it is free doesn’t hurt.

In addition to being able to share your desktop you can also let any of the viewers take control of the mouse. It also includes a conference bridge phone number that can be used for audio.

It doesn’t offer all of the features you find in a service like WebEx, but it provides everything I need 90% of the the time. If you do need additional features, you can always sign up for a free personal WebEx account.

The new service is called Teamviewer.com. All the remote user has to do is download a file and run it. They don’t even need to install it. When they run the setup file, it will ask them if they want to install it or run it. They simply pick run. A unique ID and password will appear on their screen. All you have to do is enter the ID and password on your PC and you are in.

The features offered by Teamviewer are similar to those found in Logmein.com. However, they do offer a couple things that the free version of Logmein does not, such as file transfer and VPN. Another nice feature is that you can choose to push your screen to the remote PC. This allows you to share a document or show the remote user how to do something. Using a feature called, “Browser based Presentation” you can share your desktop with multiple people. Those viewing your desktop do so using a browser so they don’t even need to download the Teamviewer software.

The software that you need on your end is that same software as the remote end. You can install it or simply run it without installing it. You can also access the remote PCs via a web browser. This is handy if you need to access a PC from a PC that isn’t yours.

Teamviewer works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. There is even an iPhone and iPad client available. The iPhone and iPad clients allow you to access PCs running the Teamviewer software -  it does not allow you to remotely control an iPhone or iPad.

The only limitation I can see with the free version of Teamviewer is that  you can’t use it for commercial purposes. That seems fair to me.

Word Processing

I am currently using Office 2 HD to create and edit Word and Excel documents. I decided on this app mainly due to price. Apple has an app called Pages for documents and one called Numbers for spreadsheets. Both of these are fine products, but for less than half the price of these two packages, Office 2 HD offers similar features. If you currently use Pages and Numbers on a Mac, you may want to stick with those apps, but since I use MS Office, there just wasn’t enough reason to pay the higher price.

Remote Access

There are times when you simply need to use a PC for something. I deal with this by leaving my main work PC on at home and access it with Logmein. I have mentioned this remote access solution before. It offers basic free remote access to your PC via a web browser. To access the PC from the iPad, you need to purchase the Logmein app.
At first, it may seem pricey at 24.99, but it is about the best value app I have bought so far. I already owned it for the iPhone and was very happy to see they updated it for the iPad. On a side note, some developers are updating apps for the iPad and making you buy the iPad version even if you already own the iPhone version. Logmein did not do this. They upgraded the single app to work on both the iPhone and the iPad and did not charge their current customers to upgrade. I applaud them for that.

Remote file access

As I was on the plane leaving home, I realized that I had forgot to put a number of very important files on my iPad. No problem! When I got to my destination, I logged into my home PC (using Logmein) and copied them to my Dropbox folder on my home PC. Dropbox is a service that will allow you to access any files you have placed in your Dropbox folder from any PC with an Internet connection. And, of course, there is a Dropbox app for the iPad. All I had to do was fire up that app, and I had the files I needed. Dropbox also allows you to open the files in another app such as Office 2 HD. This allowed me to edit them and save them locally for future access.

PDF Reviewing

When it come to read PDFs, I highly recommend an app by the name of Goodreader. It does a very nice job presenting a PDF in the proper format. However, I often have the need not only to read but also proof PDF documents. That’s where iAnnotate comes in. iAnnotate allows you to view and mark up PDF documents and offers a very clean and simple interface. Currently, you cannot send or receive PDFs via email so you have to install a small app on your PC so that you can send and receive files. They are promising an email feature in a future version.

Of course, all work and no play makes Jack very bored, so in the next article I will discuss the apps I use to help relax or just kill time while waiting for a flight.

One of the things that make working on the road easier is a single point for all communications. In an earlier post we discussed how Cisco’s Unity solution can offer this, but what about people that don’t have the fortune of using such a system? Don’t worry, there are alternatives for individuals.

I use is my Google Voice account. Let’s start with the bad news: it is still in closed beta so if you don’t have an account, you may have to wait awhile. There are other products that are similar such as 3jam. But these services are paid services whereas Google voice is free (at least for now). So what is Google voice? Its core feature is what I call single number reach. You are assigned a phone number. When someone dials that number, all of the phones you have configured ring. For instance, when someone dials my number, my office, cell and home phone all ring. The call is then routed to the phone that I answer. I can also setup rules that route calls based on who is calling. For instance, I may set it up so that if my family calls, it sends the call to my cell and home but not the office number. I can also create personalized greetings based on who is calling. Other features of the system allow me to transfers active calls to another phone; for example, I can transfer an active call from my cell phone to my office phone. If I am unable to take the call, all voicemails go to a single point. Gone are the days of checking my cell phone voicemail and then the home answering machine and then dial into the office to see if there are messages. I receive an email and an SMS message when I get a voicemail. The service includes the ability to transcribe the messages and include the text in the email and SMS messages. The transcription is still a bit sketchy at times, but often I can get the idea of what the message was about. There are other features, but these are the ones I use the most.

Another problem with working from the road is that there always seem to be that one file you left at home. This is where remote access comes in. Most of us have heard of GoToMyPC, and it is a good product. I, however, use Logmein. This service is very similar to GoToMyPC, but the base level service is free. I like free. They have paid plans that allow you to do things like remote printing and file transfer. I have little need for remote printing, and I just use my FTP server for the file transfers. It is a little bit more of a headache and if you think you will find yourself needing to transfer files, I would recommend going with one of the paid plans to make your life a little easier.

Life on the road isn’t always as exciting as some would think. As a matter of fact, it can be a real pain. It adds many new challenges to the job. Hopefully, this post will give you some ideas on how to make your life on the road a bit easier. Even if you never travel, I think some of these technologies can help make the day a little smoother.