How to Remote Control a Computer or Laptop

Have you traveled on a business trip, vacation, or any other get away only to discover that you forgot to copy a necessary document or graphic from your desktop to your laptop? Unable to take a side trip home, that leaves you in a position where you have to entirely recreate it or, if that is not possible, in a position where your blunder could get you fired, make you lose your hotel room, or any other mishap you can think of.

Luckily, a prepared person will be able to remotely access their home computer via a server link they created between their desktop and laptop - this is known as remotely controlling a computer. You may have witnessed this in action at times - Dell, for example, can fix most problems with your computer as soon as you contact customer support. They do this via a remote link which you authorize them to use.

There are a number of different methods that can be used to create a remote desktop controlled environment. A tech-savvy individual could manually open a port and create a sever on their desktop and then configure their laptop to access it via the Internet. While perhaps the best option for those who want absolute control over the entire process, it is rather difficult and, if not done correctly, can leave your desktop open to viruses, spyware, and attacks.

A much simpler method has been created, and only takes a few moments to implement - this is the method that will be described in this article. You simply sign up for and download a program called LogMeIn, a certified, secure company that offers a simpler method of remote controlling your computer. There are several packages available - for the purpose of this article, we will use the FREE version. If you need to do this to several computers for, say, a small business, I suggest looking into one of their commercial plans.

To set up your home PC or Mac to be remote controlled from an external location, follow the next simple steps.