CrossLoop — a Simple PC Remote-Control Solution

Have you ever been in a situation where you needed to remote-control someone else’s PC? Maybe you’re the family “go-to” guy when it comes to computer problems. Maybe you’re a tech-support guy in your company. Maybe you’ve been in situations where it would just be easier to show someone how to do something rather than to try to explain how to do it. There are many ways to remote-control a user’s PC but few are as simple to set up as CrossLoop and LogMeIn Free. I’ve already written an article on using LogMeIn Free so this time we’ll check out CrossLoop.

Like LogMeIn Free, CrossLoop is a free software program designed to make remote-controlling a PC as easy as possible by eliminating just about all of the configuration steps which plague other remote control solutions. There are no firewall rules to configure and no ports that need to be opened, even if both the local and remote users are behind routers. The local and remote users simply need to download and install the CrossLoop application (about1MB to download and 2MB to install). The CrossLoop website does a good job of walking a user through the installation and configuration steps.

Once the remote user fires up the CrossLoop application he’s given a 12-digit remote access code. This code needs to be provided to the local user trying to establish the connection to that remote PC. After the local user has the code he can use his local copy of CrossLoop to establish a connection to the PC running the remote copy of CrossLoop. When the connection is established the local user has control of the remote user’s desktop and can do just about anything he’d be able to do if he was sitting in front of the remote computer.

CrossLoop includes a version of the popular open-source TightVNC screen sharing software to work its magic. The binaries for theTightVNC client and server are installed automatically as part of the CrossLoop installation in order to make installation as simple as possible. TightVNC on its own does not encrypt its traffic so CrossLoop also installs its own “VIP Tunnel” to encapsulate and encrypt the traffic during a CrossLoop session to guarantee that there aren’t any other eyes watching the remote session.

CrossLoop requires Windows (Windows 98 or newer) on both ends of the connection. Broadband connections at both ends are also recommended and, although the software will run using dial-up, performance will suffer greatly.

CrossLoop is a simple way to gain access to a remote computer. It’s simple to install, simple to use, and free. What more could you ask for?

Next Up

Although CrossLoop and LogMeIn Free are both remote-control solutions there are some major differences between how the two packages operate. I’ll have another article comparing the two solutions soon.

Edit: The article comparing CrossLoop and LogMeIn Free is up here

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