LogMeIn Pro review

LogMeIn Pro is a web-based remote-access service based in the US but perfectly usable from the UK. As with most web-based services, it involves installing a proprietary service on the remote machine to maintain an HTTP connection to the company's servers, enabling you to connect, via the website through even the strictest firewall. The website also acts as an administrative front end: log in and it offers a list of PCs to which you can connect on providing a password or, for extra security, a single-use code.

Despite the slightly roundabout connection method, LogMeIn is fast. In both our Word 2007 redraw test and our full-screen paste test it beat all comers except Windows Remote Desktop Connection. When we dragged windows around, the graphics became choppy, but it offered real-time responsiveness.

But speed is far from LogMeIn's only merit. We also appreciated its breadth of useful and distinctive features, including bandwidth-saving file transfer-only sessions, the ability to publish files on the remote system via HTTP for a user-definable period and "whiteboard mode", which lets you draw on the remote screen with the mouse.

The standard remote-access functions are all there, too: local printers are made available to the remote host, and local drives are mapped into My Computer, although there's no sound. You can save bandwidth by remotely changing the remote resolution, all the way down to 320 x 200 should you so wish. Another nice touch is the option to try remotely rebooting a machine if it's unresponsive, including a "hard reboot" function that simulates pressing the reset button.

As you'd expect from such a professional product, there are also plenty of management and auditing options: the web interface offers access logging, user-specific permissions and IP filtering, and users and systems can be managed by group, making LogMeIn a practical solution for the office. Vista isn't as yet officially supported, but it worked for us without a hitch. The free edition lacks file transfer and remote printing, but if you have any use at all for LogMeIn's advanced features then $70 (£34) a year for a single PC, or even less for multiple licences, is a terrific deal.

Author: Darien Graham-Smith