Connect your home and office PCs

It's a common problem that your documents and important files are stored on your home computer, and now you want to access them from your office PC. There are ways by which you can access your files from anywhere so long as you have an Internet connection. You can use an online backup service such as SugarSync, Carbonite or Dropbox — they will automatically upload onto the Internet files saved on your home computer, and you can then access them via the Web from any other computer.

The upside with this approach is that your files will always be available to you even if the home computer is not running. SugarSync and Carbonite have a mobile optimised website so you can access your files from a mobile phone as well.

The downside is that if you are using any of these services for the first time, you'll have to wait until all your data uploads to the cloud, and this process takes long if you have too many files on your home computer.

Universal connectivity
There are free desktop sharing software applications such as TeamViewer and UltraVNC that let you remotely access your computer files from anywhere else. LogMeIn Pro and CrossLoop Home are other good options for transferring files from a remote computer, but these are paid services.

If all your computers are running Windows, you can use the built-in remote desktop connection feature of Windows (available in XP and later editions) to access your home computer from another Window computer simply over the Internet.

With Desktop Sharing software, you'll always have access to all your files but it requires that the remote computer be turned on. Also, none of these options will help you access files from a mobile phone except LogMeIn which has an iPhone app.

Amit writes a technology blog at http://www.labnol.org/ and tweets at http://twitter.com/labnol