
LogMeIn to discontinue free remote access product - heywire
http://blog.logmein.com/it-management/logmein-changes
======
chuable
Whilst I completely respect their decision to withdraw the LogMeIn Free
product offering I found the notification period way too short and badly
communicated. I received an email this morning saying there would no longer be
a LogMeIn Free offering from today and a subscription would be required to
continue using the service. Digging further it appears there's a 7 day grace
period for existing users - although there's no mention of that in the email.
It's a stellar product for sure so I now find myself asking if I want to do
business with a company that communicates this badly with it's users.

------
uladzislau
TL:DR: LogMeIn decided to screw up the customers who once paid $99 to get
their premium Ignition iOS app and wants them to pay monthly/yearly.

~~~
xoail
I think Ignition was always $29.99 or less. I don't remember seeing $99 any
time. Is that what you payed?

~~~
riahi
The app has been as high as $149 on the AppStore.

[http://appshopper.com/productivity/logmein-
ignition](http://appshopper.com/productivity/logmein-ignition)

------
dquigley
Anyone have suggestions for an alternative? I haven't ever found a product
that works as consistently and seamlessly (without having to fight firewall
issues).

Edit: I should add that I'm willing to pay for a service, but most of the
options I've seen are for enterprise customers, not individuals with a few
clients.

~~~
mhp
Copilot.com - It's free on the weekends!

 _source: I am a founder of Fog Creek Software, makers of Copilot.com_

~~~
s_dev
Joel Spolsky . . . Do nerd celebs really just wander around HN?

~~~
mhp
I'm not Joel Spolsky, but yes, nerd celebs do wander around HN.

~~~
pasbesoin
Joel is on here. Still pops up, occasionally (that I've noticed).

Many presences have seemingly declined, in the last few years. Interests and
competing demands change for everyone; there's also some ongoing speculation
that as HN has grown and, for lack of a better term, the signal/noise ratio
has declined, those more interested in a focused and concentrated "signal"
have lost interest, or patience with the noise.

Also, any individual's participation, even if held at a steady level, is
likely to decline in prominence at least somewhat amidst the vastly increased
HN traffic.

I can't speak for Joel on this (I don't know him, even remotely). But since
the grandparent was speaking about presences more generally.

------
j45
Been using LogMeIn's products since RemotelyAnywhere, which was cut up into
many smaller products. Their software has generally been the most updated and
worked. The few times a month I have to remote login it was worth the free, in
exchange I put more active clients onto their own Pro plan.

The LogMeIn product I happily pay for is join.me, it's head and shoulders
above anything out there. Having to pay for two that I use once in a while
isn't too appetizing.

It would have been nice to decide within 30 days but I suspect LogMeIn has
calculated how long it took customers to switch when they limited the plans
down to 10 free computers and that 7 days is enough of a squeeze to get the
payers paying.

I had been reviewing TeamViewer and a few others, this will likely hasten my
review of paid offerings. LogMeIn's pricing seems more reasonable than
GoToMyPC which is $10/machine/month. If there's any other options worth
exploring please share :)

~~~
nobodysfool
NoMachine.com is worth checking out. The client is kinda heavy, and uses a
fair chunk of ram, but it's free and workable.

~~~
j45
Great, I'll check it out, thanks!

------
xoail
I've been using logmein for over 5 years and although at times I was tempted
to go Pro, I stayed with Free simply because there was no need for it. The
free did wonderful job. I was able to login to my computers from iPhone, Mac
or PC without firewall or dynamic IP problems (stuff that use to matter back
then). I always wondered why they did not charge this awesome product. I do
not mind paying for the service now but I wonder how will this impact less
frequent users who wants to fix their mom's computer once a year or so? They
say join.me remains free but is it as good as logmein Free? I had mixed
results with it. Disclaimer: I own logmein stocks.

------
chesh
Why would I believe that any of LogMein's other services like join.me or Cubby
will remain free. Join.me is no problem because there is no switching cost.
However I would never entrust my files to Cubby because of the risk they pull
a fast one like they are doing with LogMein remote access.

They really should have thought this through and figured a way to allow low
intensity users (I use it maybe once a quarter) to continue for free.

If you do want to depend on free services be ready to switch easily, or check
to make sure that the vendor offers free-for-life.

~~~
tunap
While I am really frustrated with this 7 day notice, I do feel the need to
plug the Cubby paid service. I keep 0 bits in the cloud, but the accompanying
Direct Sync service that comes with Pro is very useful...in fact, anyone know
of any other direct sync services, sans cloud storage, that work well?

~~~
carlozt03
BittorentSync is very handy.
[http://www.bittorrent.com/sync](http://www.bittorrent.com/sync)

~~~
tunap
Even better. Thanks for the tip.

------
Larrikin
Whats a good pay alternative that isn't LogMeIn? I find this 7 day notice
disgusting and simply a tactic to make the existing user pay without giving
them much time to find an alternative.

------
S_A_P
This is the best news I have heard all day. I HATE LOGMEIN, though one of my
clients uses this in preference to a VPN into their network. I don't know if
this is a free client limitation, but the remote window is stuck to the
resolution that the pc is set to. They built a bargain basement PC and stuck a
1024X768 monitor on it. It ends up looking horrible on my 1440x900 display and
is barely usable. Im hoping this spurs the client into providing a reasonable
way to access their SQL server...

------
penguinlinux
I once wrote a pretty cool batch script that would use a minimal vmc
executable which then tunneled a reverse vnc session using putty's plink . I
used to package it and sent it to people that needed tech support, they would
click on the icon and it would then route their session over ssh to my
computer at the office. Then we moved to free logmein but i guess now i have
to search for that script again.

~~~
mhp
Here's a PDF spec that we wrote for copilot.com back in 2005, which basically
did _exactly_ what you are saying (except in a cleaned up, hands free way):
[http://www.joelonsoftware.com/RandomStuff/copilot_spec.pdf](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/RandomStuff/copilot_spec.pdf)

~~~
penguinlinux
I am the guy on this thread on the Old Joel on Software on this threat trying
to sell my remote support script :)

this was on 2005 too

------
chesh
I just installed Teamviewer. It is free for personal use. The installation
procedure is a wiz. Looking forward to a great remote access experience.

------
PLenz
And now I stop using your product. I already paid - I won't be paying again.

------
RankingMember
Damn, I used this a ton back in the day, and still use it occasionally now.

~~~
neals
Wanted to say the same thing. Except that I totally don't use it anymore.
Wanted to try it again last month but couldn't find the free remote
controlling anywhere. Figured they stopped offering it.

------
skrowl
Is there a FOSS alternative that I'm missing? I've just been doing RDP/NX/VNC
with NAT (aka port forwarding).

~~~
SloughFeg
I mostly use sshuttle for this sort of thing now. It works well and is fairly
customizable but you're out of luck if you are on an OS that doesn't use
iptables.

~~~
skrowl
You mean nftables, right ;)

------
jonknee
There is curiously no way to delete your account (at least that I can find).
Some Google searching led to a forum post where they said you can contact
support, but as a free user I don't even see a link to support.

~~~
ToastyMallows
[http://www.accountkiller.com/en/delete-logmein-
account](http://www.accountkiller.com/en/delete-logmein-account)

Looks like you're right. In my opinion this is one of the worst things that a
website can do.

------
maximilian
Shit. I use it often to fix my Mom's computer. Gonna have to find a decent
alternative.

~~~
orf
Windows Vista, 7 and 8 come with "Remote assistance" which I find to be quite
useful, get your mum to run it and (the gods willing) you will be able to
access her desktop via it, without the need for extra software. I use it to
fix my dads computer often.

~~~
drunkenfly
This won't work for me - my parents login as restricted user, and LogMeIn
allows me to switch users when I need to.

I guess that £29/year is a small price to pay for that kind of feature.

~~~
rrouse
You could try an old trick that I used during my tech support days.

You can kill Windows explorer with task manager and then use the File/New Task
option to restart explorer with a higher level user. You can then do whatever
you need to as that user (e.g. control panel, delete files, add hardware,
etc). When you're done, you can just repeat the process and start explorer
again as the original users.

I haven't tested 100% in Windows 8 (killing and starting explorer as another
user does work), but it should work in Windows 7 and below.

I used this any time right clicking an exe and selecting "run as" wasn't
enough

------
Dystopian
Chrome Remote Desktop for family - gonna finish setting up VNC for the
personal stuff (already have it running locally on my Win box, just didn't
finish the setup and boot LogMeIn cause it was so easy).

------
Lence
Aeroadmin is free. Check it out. Looks quite simple and pretty fast.
[http://www.aeroadmin.com](http://www.aeroadmin.com)

------
imissmyjuno
Doesnt Skype have screen sharing these days? most moms are sure to have skype
too.

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
It does. But screen sharing and remote access aren't the same thing.

------
Edvik
Sooo.. how much will it cost, and why is the price so difficult to find?

~~~
dale386
Looks like $50/year for existing free users. No idea what it will raise to
after the first year.

~~~
breakyerself
I talked them down to fourty, but had to turn them down because it only allows
access to two computers. I've had free access to ten computers for years, now
they want 130 bucks to keep that same level of service? Screw that!

------
SSilver2k2
What about join.me?

~~~
j45
It only solves part of the experience, when someone is on both sides of the
remote session. Quite often folks want to remote access another computer when
no one is there.

------
SippinLean
Meh. On to Teamviewer.

