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Many of us use VNC or the Windows XP Remote Desktop feature to gain easy access to our home PCs. But opening up a port on your firewall or a connection to an administrator account on your system is very dangerous.

After opening a well-known port in your firewall, you are bound to receive lots of forced logon attempts, sometimes within days. Also, lots of free tools exist that help hackers eavesdrop on your VNC connections or break into Windows Remote Desktop sessions. The paid version of RealVNC does have some encryption and enhanced security built-in now, but here is a quick way to protect yourself for free:

Download and Install Remobo

Remobo is a free network application that creates an instant private network between any computers. You can get it here. It’s extremely easy to use, with no configuration of any kind necessary, and the interface resembles a simple buddy list as you would find in your favorite chat program.

Launch the Remobo App on Both Computers

Now, just login using the same username on both ends, and the two computers will be securely connected via a virtual connection, similar to a VPN. The coolest thing about this is that you can login from any number of computers and even add your co-workers and friends to your buddy list for instant secure connectivity.

Connect VNC or Remote Desktop Using Your Virtual IP or Remobo Username

Here is where this solution really shines. Now, instead of trying to remember your home computer’s IP address, you can simply use the virtual IP shown on the Remobo app’s interface to connect to the remote computer or even use your Remobo username, ie remobo_username.remobo.com - It’s like having a built-in dynamic DNS service so you never have to know the remote computer’s IP.

Everything is Now Secure

Any traffic sent over this Remobo connection is now securely encrypted and you didn’t even have to open any firewall ports.

Additional Features

In addition to securing your VNC or Remote Desktop connection for free, you also get a simple built-in secure chat client, secure file transfer client and also secure file-sharing via the Windows folder sharing interface. This gives you easy access to the files on your home computer. I personally use this file sharing feature to share bulk photos and media with my friends and family, so they will stop nagging me to upload my digital camera pictures to flickr