Desktop Transporter - 2.5

My goal in testing this product was to get home-related work and data off of my work computers. I work from several locations and, unfortunately, the best affordable financial software is offered for Windows only (that is another discussion). Since, my only PC was in my Office, I installed some of these applications there. I could access these programs at any time and from anywhere using the Mac version of Microsoft Remote Desktop (RDC). RDC, not to be confused with Apple Remote Desktop, is a fabulous program. Even run under Rosetta, the connection is quick, and smooth. Although I wouldn't recommend gaming on it, or running heavy graphics programs, it was much faster than Virtual PC and on par with Parallels. Nonetheless,I was uncomfortable having this personal information on this machine.

With the maturing of Parallels, I thought that I'd move all PC personal information to my home system. My options were to try to use 1) RDC to solely access the Parallels Virtual Machine, or 2)Timbuktu, Desktop Transporter, or SpyMe, to access the OSX on my home system (2.66 Mac Pro). I did not consider Apple Remote Desktop due to price and reviews that suggest that it doesn't work well over the Internet.

Well, first it is a hassle to get things to work on a computer connected wirelessly to a home network using an Apple Extreme Router! Fortunately (at least so far) my IP is static, so that was a major headache that I did not have to deal with. Nonetheless, I got everything working. Here is what I found:

Timbuktu was pretty damn slow! At least significantly slower than RDC. It was functional, but for the price, it needs to fly like RDC. There are ways to cut down the overhead, but I only realized marginal improvements doing this.

I got RDC running. You need to open up port 3389 on your Router, and set up an Windows home network, but it works. I was shocked that it was essentially as fast running on my home computer through Parallels as running on a dedicated PC through a very high-speed network connection. I don't like to complement MIcrosoft, but RDC is one hell of a product. There is nothing comparable to it in terms of performance on the Mac side (please correct me if I'm mistaken). The major downfall is that you're stuck in Windows. You need something else if you want to access OS X on your Mac.

I next tried Desktop Transporter. This is a wonderful little program. It is slick and probably the easiest program to configure (actually, I don't recall. Spyme may be comparable). Once I got it working, it works like a charm. It is at least as fast as Timbuktu. It has a very intuitive interface. It has a graphical representation (thumbnails) of the the host computer. This allows you to easily switch screens if the Host has multiple monitors. It also has tricks to reduce the overhead. You need them. It is as slow as Timbuktu, but definitely useable. Other commentators have mentioned that it doesn't do anything that you can't do with VNC. Well, one of the reasons I'm a Mac user is that I recognize polish is worth paying for. Distant computer control is hard. If this product makes it easier to do, then it's worth buying.

The final product I tested was Spyme. Spyme is faster than TB2 and DT but still significantly slower than RDC. It uses a lot of tricks to speed up screen rewrites. Even using full color, it is noticeably faster than DT. Its UI is not as slick as DT, but it has other notable unique features (look it up to see). It seems pretty polished. However, when I leave it running, it seems to crash quite a bit. It has never crashed while accessing a distant host, but I fear that it might crash sometime leaving me unable to access a distant host.

So, I think Spyme is the best Mac distant control software that I tested. At $12 a license, it is also the cheapest. DT has the slickest interface and is rock solid and is much cheaper than TB2. I've purchased two DT licenses. TB2 makes sense to me only if you need to control a Mac from a PC or other system or you need the support of a huge Corporation. I don't see any other major reasons to go that route. RDC is an absolutely fabulous program. If you need to control a PC or a Parallels (Fusion) VM, this is clearly the route. I just hope that one day the Mac-control programs reach that level of performance.

I use Teleport http://abyssoft.com/software/teleport/ which has been developed by an Apple Inc. programmer, I recall. It's free and works for me on my LAN. Maybe I am missing something, but I od not see what Desktop Transporter does for $30 that Teleport does for nowt.

If the developer would like to come back on that with some distinct advantages I would certainly give the app a go. Effective shareware apps are one oif the best reasons for using a Mac, so come on Developer, give us your sales pitch versus Teleport!