As you already know, I am a huge fan of GoToMyPc for the "just like being there" experience of controlling my office computer from any Internet connection. Now there is a viable competitor to GoToMyPC that works in a similar way but has a version that is absolutely free. Here's the skinny on remotely controlling your office computers on a $0 budget.

The professional version of LogMeIn.com (aren't these names getting just a bit too cute?:o) has a service that provides essentially the same capabilities as GoToMyPc except that it only costs $69.95/yr compared to $179.40/yr for GoToMyPc (prices are current and in US$ as of this writing).

In addition to remotely controlling your office computer from anywhere, you can also transfer files (to and from the controlled computer), print documents from your host computer and invite guests to view or control your host computer.

Now if you don't need the file transfer, "invite a guest" or remote printing capabilities you can use the free version of LogMeIn.com.  This is a completely free version for unlimited use, (not just a "trial") which still gives you complete control of your remote PC. Not only that, apparently you can add as many host computers as you want under the free version (NOTE: this is anecdotal and not yet formally confirmed with this vendor). This means if you have a number of computers in your office, you can set each one up as a host computer to be controlled remotely —absolutely free!

One of the things I love about the Internet is that competition for innovative online services continues to enhance our capabilities and drive prices down. In fact, if they went any lower, they'd be paying us to use them!