Access Anywhere is the new hosted service offered by WebEx to anyone who needs to access his computer remotely, in a safe, reliable and very easy-to-use fashion.

On the tracks of GoToMyPC, eBLVD, Linktivity Web Interactive and similar solutions, Access Anywhere is WebEx reply to the need of diversification in this space now too crowded by too many vendors and systems claiming to be everything to everyone.

Access Anywhere allows secure remote access to one or multiple PCs. Accessing a remote PC with such a system is as effective as sitting in front of the original PC back in your office or at home. Obviously, a 56 Kbps or better connection is given as a default.

To access a remotely enabled PC the only thing to do is to access the Access Anywhere Web site, log in to your account and then select the PC that you want to be connected to. Place in your username and password, security code and after a pretty substantial download (less than a minute on a standard ADSL) blam, you are in: Sitting in front of your "remoted" PC nonetheless you may be thousands of miles away from it.

Once you see the screen of your remote PC you can start working immediately as if you were indeed sitting in front of it.

Access Anywhere also integrates a few simple extremely helpful functionalities when accessing your selected PC remotely. You can:

a) Do a direct file transfer.

b) Resize your local desktop resolution to match the one of the remote PC (so that you can alway see the full remote PC screen).

c) Lock the remote keyboard and mouse.

d) Blank the remote PC screen.

e) Reset/Restart the remote PC.

f) Print a document residing remotely to your local printer. You need not install the application or any printer drivers.

g) Copy and paste text between computers.

It is also possible to access the remote PC while in an optional Full Screen modality which allows you to see nothing on your screen but the remote PC screen including the bottom taskbar and the full desktop.

The File Transfer facility is very intuitive and is an much faster than what is available inside GoToMyPC. This a real performer. Well done.

No firewall issues. You need not configure any network settings, set up a VPN, or open ports in your firewall. As long as both your remote and local computers are connected to the Internet, you can access your remote computer securely. Access Anywhere works through ports 80 and 443, the standard ports for HTTP and HTTPS-based communications. These ports are already configured to permit traffic in almost all firewalls.

But what about security?
Access Anywhere operates over the WebEx MediaTone Network, a global network designed to deliver secure, reliable, real-time communications services. The MediaTone network consists of protected servers located in highly secured data centers around the world.

Access Anywhere integrates also multiple levels of authentication though the new Phone Authentication feature is the real innovative breathrough on this front.

Phone authentication is a unique option that provides extremely high security. Once you attempt to access your remote computer, the WebEx server calls your phone number. You must then enter the correct pass code, using your phone's keypad, to obtain access to the computer. Thus, this option provides two-factor authentication: it requires both something you have (your phone) and something you know (your pass code).
Access Anywhere utilizes 128-bit encryption using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) for all data being transferred.

It is also to be noted that Access Anywhere is the first one in this market niche to offer the ability, if desired, to allow remote access only to selected applications while preventing access to the desktop and to other networked resources from remote users and thus providing a higher level of security to corporate networks.

Prices:
Access Anywhere is free until January 15 2005 and after that you need to do nothing as you will automatically be enrolled in the 1-PC plan at $14.95/month (since you need to surrender your credit card number to sign-up into the trial).

You can cancel at any time and access to additional PCs costs proportionally more.

For 2 PCs the cost is 19.95/month.

For 3 PCs or more the cost is $9.95 per PC per month.

More info at: http://www.accessanywhere.com/

Give it a try and let us know what you think of it!