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LogMeIn GripesLogMeIn.com offers free PC remote control |
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FYI: LogMeIn.com competes with GoToMyPC.com. Both offer PC remote control via a web site. LogMeIn.com offers remote control for free; extra features, such as file transfer, require the paid version. Nothing is free with GoToMyPC. For simplicity sake, I refer to the machine being remotely controlled as the controllee and the machine doing the controlling as the controller. Both products require their software be installed on the controllee machine. Both use ActiveX and Java to dynamically install software on the controller machine.
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Today I got around to updating the LogMeIn software on that machine and it did not go well. |
When I checked for updates using the LogMeIn software (right click on its icon in the system tray/notification area) it said the software was up to date. The version was 2.00.461 from February 15, 2005. Someone was wrong.
TheLogMeIn status window had many relevant messages, some of which looked like errors. I opened an incident with 3AM labs but I could not get the data from the status window to them. You can't save the status window, even though it appears to be a log file. You can't select the text out of the window and save it either. All you can do is take a screen shot. But when you open a problem ticket, there is no way to send them a screen shot. No wonder the software has so many bugs. The screen shot of the errors is shown here at the right. |
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At this point, I opted to un-install the software and start again from scratch. Again there were issues. |
May 14, 2005. I remotely controlled a computer using Internet Explorer and opened the remote machine in a new window. After telling the LogMeIn web site to disconnect me from the machine, it said it did and then I logged off the LogMeIn web site. Despite all this, the window on my computer still showed the remote machine and I was still able to remotely control it. BIG BUG. The remote machine was using version 2.20.475 from May 12, 2005. I asked the vendor (3AM Labs) about this and they suggested turning on extended logging, re-creating the problem and then sending them the log. As this later happened to me on another machine, I assume its a global thing and they can re-create it too.
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I asked the vendor (3AM Labs) and their reply did not address the question. I asked about the local computer, their response was about the remote machine. I asked about IE, they responded about their software. (May 16, 2005) When I asked again, they said that previous versions of LogMeIn and the ActiveX control could cause this because LogMeIn used a listening TCP socket for the peer-to-peer connection. This was changed, however, in version 2.00.461 and the LogMeIn ActiveX program no longer uses listening sockets. May 20, 2005. |
May 9, 2005. The LogMeIn online user manual requires horizontal scrolling when viewed with IE on an 800x600 display.
April 13, 2005. I tried to install LogMeIn on a Windows 2000 computer but could not. When it asked if I wanted the free software or the trial version of the Pro software, I opted for the free software and clicked the Next button. Nothing. Again. Nothing. I tried asking for the free trial of the Pro software. Nothing. Could not get past the Next button. No errors, it just got stuck on the Add Computer web page. I emailed technical support, got a reply, but have not yet followed up on it.
LogMeIn seems very slow to disconnect from a remote computer. I haven't used it enough to form a valid opinion yet, but twice today it took a very long time to disconnect and once it never disconnected cleanly.
On the flip side, it is annoying that you have no control over a controllee machine setting itself up with LogMeIn. Their software runs when the computer starts and initially, it is in off-line mode. After a while it goes into on-line mode, meaning it is eligible to be remotely controlled. You have no direct control over this.
April 6, 2005. On a Windows 98 machine the installation of the LogMeIn software failed. Their ActiveX installer control started to run and tried to download additional software from the LogMeIn web site. This is what failed.
Scrolling a window vertically with a wheel mouse does not work. I found this very annoying as it is something I do all the time.
May 18, 2005. When LogMeIn prompts you for the Windows userid and password, it seems to be case sensitive for the userid. Interestingly, Windows userids are not case sensitive (passwords are).
May 10, 2005. FYI: The below is FYI, not gripes. A number of times using LogMeIn I was tripped up by the Windows userid and password rather than by LogMeIn. One thing that can go wrong on Windows 2000 is the userid may be flagged such that the user needs to change the password at the next logon. Another thing that can go wrong is that the password can expire. You may want to consider having two userids on each machine used with LogMeIn just in case there is a problem with one of them.
It is interesting to note that if user1 is logged on to the remote machine and you connect to it using LogMeIn and thru LogMeIn provide the Windows userid and password for user2, it will be accepted by LogMeIn and Windows but the session that you see is that of user1, the currently logged on user. No doubt, this is a violation of Windows XP and 2000 security.
In this case the remote machine was running Windows 2000. The local machine was using Firefox v1.0.2. This is from April 2005, the LogMeIn software has been upgraded since then and may handle things differently now. |
March 15, 2005. Controller machine was Windows 2000 running Firefox v1.0.1 which uses Java as the controller remote control software. Controllee was Windows XP Professional.
The home page of LogMeIn.com has a box where you enter your email address (which serves as your userid). It's too small, my email address never fits in the box.
The software installation instructions on a controllee machine are for Internet Explorer only. Installing the software from Firefox is a bit different and not mentioned.
 While connecting from the controller machine to the controllee, I was presented with this Java Security warning. Very few people will understand this. Even the fact that it is a Java warning is not stated anywhere. There is no explanation or warning that this will happen. Do I trust the applet to do what? |
On the controllee machine, LogMeIn requires you to poke holes in your firewall.
 When I right clicked on the desktop of the controllee machine, I got two Windows that popped up. One was for right clicking on the desktop of the controllee and the other was for right clicking on a web page on the controller machine. While you may not do this too often, the same thing happened when I right clicked on a link in a web page in a browser running on the controllee machine. |
Three times, in the space of a half hour or so, I was disconnected. On the controller, there was no error message explaining why. Both computers were connected to broadband. In fact, both were connected to the same cable modem. On the controllee machine, the Log Me In status window has an audit log of messages, including the error that caused the disconnection. However, you can't save these messages to a file and you can't copy them to the clipboard. To save them requires a screen shot. I got:
Socket Error (in SSL read) 0x2745. An established connection was aborted by the software on your host machine.
When I re-connected Windows said the computer was in use and had been locked. This required entering the Windows password to unlock the machine.
You can not completely shut down LogMeIn on the controllee machine, another weakness compared to NetMeeting. You can disable it, but this still leaves the LogMeIn icon in the system tray/notification area. It also leaves program LogMeInSystray.exe running. Even killing this program with Task Manager does not get rid of the system tray icon. One good thing though, disabling it does disable the two LogMeIn services.
When you install LogMeIn on the controllee machine, it adds program LogMeInSystray.exe to the list of programs that run automatically at boot time. There is no notification of this during the installation.
Two LogMeIn services are also installed and set to run automatically at startup time. Again, you are not told of this and not given an option not to run LogMeIn automatically when your computer boots. There is no description of either service. I didn't check to see if LogMeIn would work with the services set to a Manual startup.
While LogMeIn is running on the controllee machine, it is actually three programs: LogMeIn.exe, LogMeInSystray.exe and raimaint.exe. All programs show up as being from 3am Labs.
Debugging LogMeIn: Debug logging can be switched on under Preferences->Advanced Options. Activating it requires the Logmein service to be restarted. To do so, right click on Logmein's icon in the taskbar, and select Disable Logmein - then a minute later enable Logmein. Your PC will not be accessible for about 2-3 minutes after the restart. The log files end up in the LogMeIn folder.
When the controller machine is using IE under Windows, LogMeIn runs as an ActiveX control. When the controller is using Firefox under Windows, LogMeIn runs as a Java applet.
The first thing you notice after establishing a remote control session is
that the controller does not see the Windows desktop background image on the
controllee machine. Instead the background is a solid color. This is a good
thing as it cuts down on bandwidth, but it was surprise.
To log into a controllee machine you need to know first your userid/password
for the LogMeIn.com web site and then a Windows userid/password on the
controllee machine.
There is a nice option to lower the display quality for better response time or to raise it for better color reproduction.
There is a remote control screen recording feature. I haven't used it.
I first learned of LogMeIn from Beaming Into Your PC From Anywhere in Business Week magazine March 7, 2005 by Stephen Wildstrom.
My Webex PC is also free. I have not tried it. As of this writing it only allows free remote control of a single computer. LogMeIn allows remote control of multiple computers.
My preference is for NetMeeting, which is also free and is pre-installed in Windows XP and 2000.
LogMeIn is from 3am Labs in Boston, Massachusetts www.3amlabs.com
| Page created: March 15, 2005 | Page last updated: May 23, 2005 |
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May
12, 2005. After establishing a remote control connection, the ZoneAlarm firewall
on the local computer warned that Internet Explorer on the local computer wants to act as a server.
What's this about? The source IP address is that of the remote computer
(controllee). Until I respond to the ZoneAlarm alert, I can't access the
remote (controllee) machine. 
When
I tried to use a userid whose password had expired, I got the error show
here: Error (login): 0x5 Access is denied. It took me a while to
figure out the problem because the userid/password had worked many times
before.