Many of us have computers both at work and at home. Many of us sometimes need to get something from our work computer while we're at home. PCAnywhere is a great program which gives you total remote control of a distant computer, all via a regular internet connection.

You can use PCAnywhere to transfer files from one computer to another, either through a local area network connection, an internet connection, or a direct connection (this is really fast!). More impressively, you can use PCAnywhere to actually control another computer. Yes, you can be sitting at home, dial into your ISP account, connect to your office computer, and actually work on your office computer. Yes, run programs on your office computer. Yes, access your local area network at work from home. Yes, it is amazing.

Be forewarned that the remote control operations are slow. You would not want to use this for regular work. But in a pinch, it's great. And, the file transfer capabilities are really quite fast.

1. Modes of operation
   The figure below shows PCAnywhere's main screen, which displays the three basic modes of operation:
   • Be a Host PC,
   • Remote Control, and
   • File Transfer.
   
   The Remote Control and File Transfer modes actually share most information, so in a sense, there are only two modes to configure: Host, or Remote. In either case, your connection between the two computers can be:
   • Direct,
   • Modem, or
   • Network.
   
   
   
2. Settings
   Configuring your connection is very easy. As the figure below shows, you have several options for connecting your computers. If you are connecting via the internet, simply check TCP/IP for both your Host component and your Remote component.
   
   
   

   You will need to know the IP address of your host computer to connect to it. The figure below shows setting the Host computer's IP address in the Property window of the Remote computer. If your host computer has a dynamic IP address rather than a permanently assigned static address, this will be somewhat inconvenient, but still possible. If you have a static address, this configuration step is quite simple.
   
   

   
   
3. File Transfer
   The final figure, below, shows the File Transfer window after a connection has been made. File Transfer uses a standard windows-style interface. You can copy one, or multiple, files in either direction, either from the Host PC to the Remote PC, or from the Remote PC to the Host PC.
   
   
   
4. Software
   One final note: PCAnywhere includes both Host software and Remote software. Be sure to get both pieces so you can make your connection.