With total confidence we can state that LogMeIn Pro is one of the best remote access services on the planet. It boasts outstanding security, speedy transfers and an impressive array of advanced tools. This remote access software has a remarkably long list of features and deservedly earns our TopTenREVIEWS Silver Award.
LogMeIn takes remote access seriously. Their aim is to keep you remotely connected to your important information so you are not chained to one desk. If you are the main go-to person when it comes to computer maintenance and troubleshooting at your office, LogMeIn can lower your stress level and get you out of the office. With this service, you can monitor your remote computer's hardware and software health and you can remotely access them to fix problems as they arise, from anywhere. On the other hand, if you are casual user this service can securely transfer and synchronize your files for one low yearly price.
LogMeIn Pro offers advanced remote control features including diagnostic tools, reporting and full application control. During testing, we experienced that this remote service could work with Adobe Creative Suite (CS4) with minimal lag and produced good image quality. It also ran other applications such as Excel and media players easily. However, like most services it cannot stream music that is playing on the remote PC.
One of the features we liked about LogMeIn is their remote viewer. Most services display the entire host PC screen with a small toolbar for the viewer, but often the screen view is frustrating to scroll around to access all areas of the desktop. However, LogMeIn has the host display image set inside the viewer and it displays the entire screen without the need for time-consuming scrolling. You can also choose how the remote screen displays. For mobile access they offer a tool called Ignition that can provide remote access from your iPad or iPhone, Android or Windows mobile phone.
This remote access service has management tools that others in this review do not include. Most of the tools can run without disturbing the remote user. It has a diagnostic toolkit that can evaluate the health and status of remote machines, and it can send you an alert based on your alert criteria. It can manage remote hardware and software inventories and create reports. If you just need to access, and not manage, a computer or two, you likely do not need these tools, but if you need to manage a handful of assets they could help streamline your workload.
LogMeIn's file transfers are speedy. In fact, during our tests it transferred an entire music album in about half the time of other services, at 11 minutes. Many other services took over 20 minutes to transfer the same music file. The average transfer time for 1MB images was under four seconds. If you need to perform regular file transfers and synchronizing, you will appreciate LogMeIn's swiftness.
Other sharing tools include the ability to share desktops and chat between PCs. This service also can employ a shared clipboard and drag-and-drop file transfers. LogMeIn Pro has a useful file share tool that can help you share large files. The share tool can create links to a secure download of the files you want to share. This negates the need to send large email attachments or give permissions to FTP or online storage sites.
This service is a bit more complex than others are. It provides numerous customization and configuration options. Nonetheless, it is not overly difficult to use. Since it includes a diagnostic toolbox, alert monitoring, asset management and reporting it is most suitable for those who need remote management or remote support abilities. By nature, the people who need these functions are likely technology adept and should easily be able to manage the complexity of this software. If you manage multiple computers you will enjoy the ability to finely tweak how this service works. One thing to note though is that this service performs some things on PCs that it does not on Macs, and we noticed some functions such as the chat tool that worked better on Internet Explorer than Firefox. Many services are still working on perfecting complete cross-platform compatibility.
LogMeIn Pro leaves no room for error when it comes to security. They employ numerous layers of protection to keep your data safe including end-to-end 128- to 256-bit SSL encryption, one-time passwords, failed-attempt account lockouts, IP blocking, Windows authentications and RSA SecurID two-factor authentications. The lockout feature can help protect access even while you are not actively watching what is going on. If someone fails five attempts to log in to your account, it will lock them out, block that IP for 30 minutes and send you an email reporting the details of the event. The only issue we ran into was while using Internet Explorer we were blocked and had to bypass the Windows firewall to get LogMeIn to work. Since our local computer connects to an extremely secure network, we were comfortable bypassing this block, but this could be a concern for some.
We found LogMeIn Pro easy to install and use, therefore we had few reasons to contact technical support. However, if you need to contact support you can submit a support ticket by email, or you can reach them by telephone. They provide telephone support in 10 countries including the United States, Brazil, Germany and Australia. We contacted them by email three times and typically received a response the same day. Online they also provide instructional videos, FAQs, a community forum and a searchable knowledgebase. We were pleased to see they have a LogMeIn help Twitter account that they manage on a regular basis. The only support option we would like them to add is chat support for instant technical assistance.
LogMeIn Pro provides advanced configuration options, helpful diagnostic tools and quick, secure data transfers, which helps push this service near the front of the line. In terms of total features and flexibility, LogMeIn Pro outperforms its competition by a landslide.
