Remote Access

Here's a quick tip for you:

If you want to be able to access your computer over the Internet from another machine (think PCAnywhere or GoToMyPC) you don't have to spend money. There are three good free options. The easiest being VNC.
There are a number of different versions of VNC available, though the protocols are mostly the same. I like TightVNC because of its "tight" compression, which makes things much more responsive than regular, vanilla VNC. VNC is easy to setup, particularly if you are running Windows. TightVNC comes with a handy installer (download it, run it, and click next a few times). Once it's installed you can start up the server, and open up the settings dialog from the icon that is put in the systemtray. Set a password and any options. If you are behind a router, be sure to forward the necessary ports to your computer (assuming your server is listed as [something]:0 these should be 5800 and 5900, tcp. more on this in the FAQ). On the client you should download vnc viewer (although it is possible to use a web browser also) and enter your server's ip address in vncviewer. You may want to play with the connection settings, depending on how much upload bandwidth your server has. Note that VNC doesn't use any encryption at all, so everything you do is sent clear-text, not that this matters much usually (don't enter credit card numbers over VNC).

Another alternative is NX, by NoMachine. NX is encrypted, and much faster than VNC but it can be pricey and is mostly targeted at Linux users. There is a Windows Client, but the server software is Linux/Solaris only right now. There is a free version of the Server called FreeNX, but it can be challenging to install unless your distribution has a package for it. Look at the NX and FreeNX websites for more info.

If you run Windows XP Pro (or Windows Server), you can always use Remote Desktop, though it requires some major port forwarding if you are behind a router (search the Microsoft Knowledge Base for more info). Other than the port forwarding this is easy to setup, just set a password on your account, right click my computer and go to the remote access tab. Simply check the boxes. The client is built in to Windows XP (under accessories=> communications).

If you use any of these, you may want to consider getting your computer a memorable host name, unless you have a static IP which you can memorize. DynDns will give you one for free.

If you are looking for something like this, I would definitely give TightVNC a try, but you can give the others a look too. Both are faster than VNC but have their own configuration issues. When you get VNC setup, try pointing a web browser at http://server:5800 (assuming the server is running in "slot" 0)

Edit: Minor spelling error fixed (you have to be careful with spell checkers)