That's a pretty open-ended question. I will say PCAnywhere is probably the most popular, best selling remote control software on the market, for whatever that's worth.
I've used it, and generally have had positive results. Maybe you could be more specific.
the exception to the above is if you need to use dial-up connections. VNC works best in a networked situation since it doesn't provide dialup service of its own.
if i had to use dialup, i would probably shell out for PCanywhere just to simplify getting connected.
I agree VNC is a great product in a support environment, but it will only work over TCP/IP, so if you are using novell 3 or 4, and only have IPX/SPX installed VNC will not work, apart from that its fantastic!
I have used pcAnywhere extensively and I believe that I can answer your questions.
The product, as previously stated, is quite popular and probably that is its major plus. It also supports 'gateways' - one computer acts as a 'hub' and routes all incoming or outgoing remotes through it, and therefore only one computer needs to be accessible to other computers or the outside world and the gateway will route the requests to the proper pc that it is networked to. So, for instance, 100 computers can use only 1 gateway which has one modem to connect to another system.
I even have pcAnywhere for my WinCE palmtop - yes, I remotely connected and controlled my server systems from my palmtop!! Oh, that was sweet.
It can have different security levels for different users and you can set schedules for operation or access. It is fairly easy to use and system flexible in that it will automatically scale the displays to work best with the systems in use.
OK - now the minuses.
Security - my biggest pain. The system can set differing security levels for different users, including the amount of time a user can be on the system. But it does not allow setting of how many times that user can log on, or the time between log ons. So if one gets bumped off the system by hitting their time out they can just immediately log back on again. That caused me major, major problems in my configuration because that is exactly what people were doing.
Also the different schedules are rather difficult to configure - Symantec tells you to use the Windows Scheduler, but doesn't tell you how. Not *too* difficult, but then to have modified security levels on each schedule you have to create multiple subdirectories for the security settings - another vague area. Got that too, but if you are not computer intuitive it will seem a major, major headache.
I used gateways when possible, but the gateways system is a little slow. And if it cannot connect on the first try you have to cancel and start the process completely over again - it will not do so automatically.
After security the other main problem was the server system itself - it locks up. When it did so you lost all connectivity. That does not happen on a regular basis, however it happens enough. Your mileage may vary...
Just a quick note. I enjoy PC Anywhere also, its a good program but if your using Zone Alarm firewall Ive had all sorts of problems with it. Ive had to turn off my Zone Alarm in order for it to be used but with a High Speed Connection I dont enjoy leaving my firewall off to long.
You are going to have Zone Alarm problems with any remote control program, as they leave a network port open when running so the remote can connect in. All are a security hole. Oh, well. Your mileage may vary...
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