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The Plain Dealer
- Brett Burney
Sep 5, 2005
Computers have become a necessity in our daily lives. Even when we're away from them, we think about checking our e-mail, finishing that letter, or monitoring online auctions.
The aptly named Laplink Software company satisfies our separation anxiety by letting us "phone home" back to our beloved computer, whether it be at work or home.
The Laplink name is synonymous with the act of connecting computers together. It has been around since the days of DOS, the stolid precursor to the modern day Microsoft Windows environment.
Today, Laplink Gold version 12 sustains its proud history by allowing you to connect and control another computer by a physical wire (like serial, parallel,or USB cables) or a virtual network (like wide-area-networks or the Internet).
In recent years, Laplink's reign over remote computer access has been challenged by pure Internet services like GoToMyPC.com. These newer services are tailored for novices who desire simple setup and simple access. More advanced users who insist that their remote access software bulge with features should turn to Laplink Gold 12.
The Laplink software must be installed on every machine that will be involved in a connection. Installation is a little fussy and requires you to enter a serial number as well as register online for a support account. Once you're past installation, you can concentrate on creating a connection between your two computers.
The type of connection that you create is dictated by what you want to accomplish. For example, Laplink Gold offers a slick file transfer service and a neat feature called SpeedSync. Let's say you bring your laptop home from the office and want to copy a few files over to your home desktop. You can connect the two computers with a USB cable (one is included in the physical, boxed version of the software) and easily swap files back and forth. This task could be done without extra software, but Laplink keeps track of which file is newer and allows you to set a handful of other helpful options. SpeedSync goes a step further and synchronizes files in folders on the two machines to keep everything current.
For another scenario, let's say you're at work and need to access a file that's stored on your home computer. As long as your home computer is powered on and Laplink is running, you can securely and safely connect to it via the "Laplink Internet" option.
I was impressed with how easy it was to use Laplink Internet not only to remotely control my home PC, but also to transfer files back and forth. The speed of the services depends on the speed of your Internet connection. Laplink works fine over a dial-up connection, but broadband is certainly preferred.
If the full version of Laplink Gold is a little too much, but you're intrigued with the remote control concept, then you should definitely try out Laplink Everywhere 4.0. Laplink Everywhere is a subscription service that gives you complete access to PCs over the Internet from any computer or mobile device. Whether you're using a public Internet terminal or a Web-enabled mobile phone/PDA, you can access your home computer quickly and easily.
Burney is a free-lance writer in Northfield Center Township.