ShowMyPC provides affordable remote PC Access solutions that can manage anywhere from one to 50 PCs for one low monthly fee. It also has a Mac/Linux viewer for viewing and controlling PCs. Their remote tools include screen sharing, desktop sharing and everything you need to provide remote technical support to your friends, family or customers. We tested their "Access Home or Office PC" service #1 and ran into a few issues, not with the service but with their support and billing.
ShowMyPC uses TightVNC for remote access, which is Windows and Unix compatible. Utilizing TightVNC and ShowMyPC software, you can remotely use applications, view images, edit Microsoft Office documents, access the internet and reboot remote PCs. When we tested this remote access software, it could use Adobe Creative Suite to edit images, Excel, Outlook, Firefox and more. However, we could not remotely hear music that was playing on the host PC.
This software has a file sharing tool for directly transferring files between the host and local PC, Mac or Linux. It also includes a shared folder that all machines can view using the file sharing tool. ShowMyPC has the ability to disable or enable a shared clipboard as well. It does not have a chat tool or drag-and-drop file transfer ability.
After installing and configuring the software, it was rather simple to use. We did not have to worry about port information or reconfiguring our firewall to connect, and the file transfer tool is simple to use. Though we managed to get this remote access software to work, we would like to have seen more assistance for those with less experience with remote PC control. For example, it does not include a user manual to help with troubleshooting and configuring. Additionally, it uses TightVNC for the remote connection, but the non-ShowMyPC icon popping up may be confusing to some and they may wonder if there is a security issue or if they downloaded the incorrect file.
ShowMyPC provides secure transfers with SSH AES 256-bit encryption, and they even have tools for tracking lost or stolen PCs or laptops. They use the cloud-based Google App Engine and other data centers to help keep your data secure. Additionally, this software requires two passwords to access a remote PC from the viewer. We would like to see them add a few things like the ability to set timeout options and screen blanking.
You can contact ShowMyPC by email or through live chat. We contacted them numerous times by email and chat to resolve a few issues. Our first issue was that after two different representatives told us via chat that they would not charge our credit card for our first month of service, they charged us. This started a round of emails to get our account credited. Then at the end of the month when we needed to cancel our subscription, we discovered that it looked like we had to call 2CheckOut (a credit card processing service) to cancel. To verify this we emailed ShowMyPC and instead of answering our question, they just asked us if we were having problems with the service. After we told them why we were canceling our subscription, they sent our support ticket onward. In the end, our experiences with 2CheckOut were positive and they cancelled our subscription quickly.
In terms of other support options, they post a few FAQs. They have a Twitter account for announcements but they do not offer Twitter support. We did not see a user manual posted online for any of their products, and there is not a help button included with the software. Overall, we found our experiences with ShowMyPC support frustrating and hope that our readers do not experience the same troubles.
We were not overly disappointed with ShowMyPC's remote access performance, but we would like to see them resolve some of their communication and billing issues. If they can amp up the quality of their support, it will match their extensive feature list.
