Alternatives to Hamachi

NathanE

NathanE

NathanE

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So Hamachi just announced that the free version will no longer be able to support "unattended" computers. So if you leave your PC on at home to access it from work, you'll need to pay them money.

What is the best free alternative?
 
OpenVPN. Some routers / most of the custom router firmwares have a server built in too so it's even easier. You'll probalby want the community edition rather than the one of their main downloads section from what I remember.

http://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/wiki/Easy_Windows_Guide (it's not as scary as it looks and once it's setup you're good).

Teamviewer also has an in-built VPN / file transfer mode.
 
NathanE said:
What is the best free alternative?
Click to expand...

That's a question that I've been trying to answer too.

The competition to Hamachi seems pretty lame. NeoRouter looks like the closest to Hamachi, in terms of functionality, but it requires at least one computer to be always on (to help the other clients negotiate firewalls and NAT).

I'm going to try it out properly later today (when my Home Server turns itself on).

Comodo Unite was junk and I gave up with it after about 10 minutes.

All of the other alternatives seem to be: heavily orientated around gaming, difficult to understand/setup, dodgy as ****.
 
Teamviewer, I fully switched over to it and never looked back.

I do miss the 'direct network' side of it, but I also use Windows Skydrive for keeping folders in Sync, so I rarely need to get any other files. It does also have a built in VPN and file transfer option, never used them though.


With teamviewer, I have it on my android phone, server, main pc, work pc, mum's pc.

I login with my details into my account, then I can connect to any of the machines. It's a good alternative to remote desktop.
 
bledd. said:
Teamviewer, I fully switched over to it and never looked back.

I do miss the 'direct network' side of it, but I also use Windows Skydrive for keeping folders in Sync, so I rarely need to get any other files. It does also have a built in VPN and file transfer option, never used them though.


With teamviewer, I have it on my android phone, server, main pc, work pc, mum's pc.

I login with my details into my account, then I can connect to any of the machines. It's a good alternative to remote desktop.
Click to expand...

This is what I do. I use it mainly for starting steam downloads on release day so they're ready when I get home :o but it's useful for other stuff too. I couldn't get wake on WAN working with my router so it has to be switched on already (or I text my gf to tell her to switch it on as she works from home lol). Quite handy having your PC available with 2 touches on my phone.
 
For wake on lan.. you can forward port 9 to your static internal IP and do it from work etc.. or on your phone.

Just need to know the mac and external IP
 
Yeah, I really like TeamViewer for supporting family and friends. I might try it for this.

It's still not as straight-forward as Hamachi and Remote Desktop though. :( (Plus with Hamachi I could easily access web apps running on my home PCs).

I read that some Windows Home Server users were having problems with "commercial use detected", due to WHS being a server OS. Anyone here seen that?
 
I got an email a few weeks ago then the system popup on Friday. Was trying to figure out the best/easiest free alternative but in the end just coughed up the £14.50ish (£12+VAT) special offer they were doing for a years subscription. I'll no doubt change to something else that's free within the year but at least it gives me plenty time to look at the options and figure out what works best. Besides what I paid is not a lot for something I use all the time and works without any real config. Although I must admit I wasn't that amused when I got the email and still don't agree with them moving the goal posts like that.
 
What do you need from it?

The connection is always live... I just right click the machine I want to control and click 'remote control'

No need for any user input.



I did like the old Hamachi though, before they made it look all glittery
 
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