Full Review

12 July 2007 - Let me guess a scenario that I am sure you are familiar with: you, being a gadget aficionado, go home to see the folk/parents/mamma and papa/whatever you fancy calling them this week and caught unawares, you spend a good couple of hours sitting in front of a PC in a spare room fixing a computer?

No, how about the phone call as you are about to go into a meeting asking you how to load this piece of software, or implement this feature? Sound familiar? Then according to its makers, you need LogMeIn ignition.

Accordingly, "It's not a PC on a stick, merely instant access to your PCs from any digital device", as long as you've got an internet connection.

The idea behind the software, which comes with a free trial, is that you can share your desktop for remote collaboration, share large files and a host of other things all without being there or having to drag around your PC.

Once you've created an account via the company's website, the USB stick gives you instant access to all your PCs, whether they are the LogMeIn Free, Pro or IT Reach computers packages.

To put it simply, Ignition is portable, and can be stored and run from any flash thumb drive, iPod, PDA, BlackBerry, etc.: just plug into a computer and connect immediately without installation or configuration.

If you don't need to carry it around, then you can simply install Ignition on your local PC for one click access to all of your PCs.

Sound great doesn't it, and for the $40 annual fee it is. The software is incredibly easy to use and the interface allows instant takeover of any PC with the software pre-installed.

Being able to control our parents' PC (they live in France, we are in the UK) and fixing problems without having to walk them through step by step is wonderful, as is the ability to share files with other users even though they are far too big to send via email.

VERDICT
If you find that you are always needing to tell people how to perform certain tasks then this is a great affordable product do it. Covering virtually every base from not having to a worry about browsers to leaving no trace once the USB stick is removed, LogMeIn Ingition is a very worthy service.

For the extra cash (i.e., the £25 yearly fee) this removes any fear of browser issues, but still allows you to connect to your PC or your parents' PC at home at the touch of a button.