Atlanta .NET Regular Guys

Hey, Matt, here are some free alternatives to Captivate (not completely comparable, but good enough for what you describe, I think). One is even an MS solution that many do miss:

http://www.camstudio.org/

http://www.debugmode.com/wink/

Windows Media Encoder 9:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/howto/articles/screencap.aspx

Wow - thanks Charlie!
The Wink tool looks really cool.  I'll have to give it a shot.  Of course, I've also got a copy of Camtasia that I've never tried.  I've got loads of stuff to try out.

Glad to help. Hey, one other question: your blog doesn't have a place to enter email, and as such it doesn't send any email to us if you offer a response to a comment (as above). That leaves us having to remember to come back to see if/when you may have. Is that intentional? Any reason not to offer such an email mecanism? If you don't mind sending me a note to let me know you do respond here, I'd appreciate it. :-) charlie (at) carehart.org

Hey guys. New to the site and I'm really liking it. Remote access is kind of a pet obsession of mine and I was really glad to see you hyping Logmein as I think their product is great. I would definitely reccomend IT reach to anyone in the IT industry as well. Best of luck guys. I'll be reading!

RealVNC together with BarracudaDrive solves ALL of my remote access problems and it is FREE!!. BarracudaDrive is bundled with a HTTPS tunnel that solves two major problems with RealVNC. The tunnel makes the VNC connection secure. The tunnel also bypasses my company's very restrictive proxy and makes it possible to run the VNC client from behind my company's firewall. BarracudaDrive also includes a WebDAV server that makes it possible to securely copy files to and from your home PC


RealVNC client and server:
    http://www.realvnc.com/

BarracudaDrive server:
    http://barracudaserver.com/examples/BarracudaDrive/

HTTPS Tunnel client:
    http://barracudaserver.com/examples/BarracudaDrive/HttpsTunnel/

Let me share my experience with a service called <a href='http://www.remotepc.com/'>RemotePC</a>. With RemotePC, you can gain remote access to any PC from anywhere in the world, share data without full remote control of the remote computer and remotely troubleshoot your friend’s or customer’s computers.

RemotePC gives fast, secure logins and there is no need to download big applets every time. Another plus point is that RemotePC works behind most firewalls and proxy servers. Full screen view gives a feeling that the user is directly working on the remote computer. Full colors also provide a realistic feel of the remote computer during a remote access session. You can remote print files directly from the remote computer to a printer accessible locally.

They have a cool application called <a href='http://www.remotepc.com/remote_data.htm'>RemoteData</a>, which can be used to access emails, documents and photos without full remote control of the remote computer. With RemoteData, you can share files and photos by creating sharable links and emailing them to your friends or partners. RemoteData is offered free along with every RemotePC account. RemoteData uses the same primary authentication process used by RemotePC.

RemoteData also enables you to view and share data and pictures with friends and partners, and use your computer as an online storage service. You can also view and access data, browse emails from the remote machine using handheld devices such as Blackberry, PocketPC and Treo.

For small businesses, <a href='http://www.remotepc.com/remote_helpdesk1.htm'>Remote Access Helpdesk</a> allows remote access to 25 computers or more. You can fix your customers’ computer troubles with Remote Access Helpdesk. This is a secure operation as troubleshooting is allowed only after the customer allows remote access to his system through a license key emailed to him.

For Small Business Enterprises <a href='http://www.remotepc.com/overview_smb.htm/'>RemotePC for Small Business</a> allows access to 25 computers or more with a single account. Remote Access Helpdesk solution is firewall friendly and extremely secure and it helps to improve customer service level, saves time and improves productivity.

 I've talked about LogMeIn.com before, but now there is an awesome new tool from these same folks (I...