Thursday, February 08, 2007

Review: CrossLoop, Simple Secure Screen Sharing

Product: CrossLoop
Version: 1.0.0.0
Description: Screen Sharing / Remote Desktop
Company: Crossloop (Download)
Price: $ 0.00 (The zero's means it free!)

As a techie and all around geek, I'm asked to help out with troubled PCs, from family to friends to clients. Sometimes I am not able to get to their home or businesses so the next best thing would be to remote in to their PC. And well, sometimes setting this up can be a drag. Especially when the user doesn't know much. Having to go through set by step of setting up their router or firewall is and can be a pain. And if that doesn't work, (which we all know can happen) your left with usually making a quick trip anyways, Oh and the time to set that up when you could have just gone there. Other times your not around or possibly in another city or state. So setup can be a pain. Crossloop, Like a mothers kiss to her kids scrape on the elbow, makes the pain go away.

Starting off, after installation your greeted with a very friendly small GUI. You have two tabs, JOIN and HOST. Under the JOIN tab (which is default), Your user name and computer name are displayed for you, so the person your going to connect to knows who you are. Below that field is where you place the Access code that is given to you by the remote PC your connecting to.


Under the HOST tab you have your user name and computer name, under that you are given a unique access code, which changes each time you start CrossLoop or a new session. After giving the code out click on Connect. This will give you a prompt that informs you of awaiting connection. When the user clicks connect on their end to join your screen, They will be given a notice about an awaiting connection, You will then need to allow the connection or deny it. A simple click on Allow and the user that is sharing will get a screen that shows who's connected and how long they've been connected. And the Remote viewer will get a screen that displays the host's screen in real time, in which he or she can move about effortlessly. (Of course your connection speed and speed of your computer can determine how fast the screen is refreshed and so far, I've had no problems with refresh rates.)

Now, when it comes to tech support for software or even hardware
we all know that it can be a pain in the ass to. But with Crossloop, Its one on one. My first time I reported a bug, I was greeted with an email right away by a representative, letting me know the information was passed to the support team, In which I was astounded to have an email from them later that afternoon, ever sense have gotten fantastic results from them. Also, When your finished with your session you'll have the chance to rate the software yourself.

All in all a very satisfying, well rounded remote desktop, er, Simple Secure Screen sharing tool. A must for those that are the "Tech support" for their family. It's a time saver!