Seecreen v0.8.2 Review

Seecreen (meaning "See Screen," and previously called Firnass) is a small, portable, and free remote access program that's built specifically for on-demand remote access. Advanced features are available, like session recording, voice chat, and file transfers.

More About Seecreen

• Windows, Mac, and Linux are all supported operating systems
• You can connect with full control or view only mode
• Seecreen is a JAR file that doesn't need to be installed, so it can run right off a portable device, like a flash drive
• Text and voice chat are supported means of communicating during a remote session
• An account can be created so you can keep an address book of contacts to easily reconnect to them
• No port forwarding through a router is needed

Pros & Cons

As you can see, there's a lot to like about Seecreen:

How Seecreen Works

As with other remote desktop programs, Seecreen requires two computers to have the same program open—one for the host PC and one for the client. The "host" is referred to as the computer that will be accessed from a remote machine. The "client" is the computer doing the remote accessing.

When it's first opened, you're asked to log in. Choose Create a new account so you can keep track of the computers you wish to connect to.

After logging in, you must add the other user through the Contact menu by either their email address or username they've chosen when they signed up. Alternatively, you can open Seecreen on any computer, log in to your own account, and add that computer to your account. This means you can log in to your account again from a different computer and see it listed under the Computers section to easily connect to it.

Once another user has been added and they add you as well, you can see when they're online and just double-click their name to open a P2P connection.

From the initial window, nothing has really occurred yet, but you can easily start a remote viewing, text chat, or voice call. File transfers can only occur once you've opened the remote viewing portion of Seecreen.

Thoughts on Seecreen

Seecreen is one of the best programs for on-demand, spontaneous remote support that we've used. It's similar in ease of use to AeroAdmin.

We also like how lightweight it is. The file is around 500 KB, which means you're barely using any disk space if you wish to keep it on a portable drive. But even with a size that tiny, it manages to pack in a number of great features.

After the initial connection, which only takes moments to establish, you can immediately begin text chatting or make a voice call without seeing the other person's screen. So, essentially, you could use it as a VOIP or chat program apart from the screen sharing capabilities.

Another plus in our book is how both the host and the client can record the session to a video file. Unfortunately, the format is a PRS file type, which we've been unable to view in any media player we've tried except Seecreen's built-in Session Player.

While a client is transferring files to and from a host PC with Seecreen, a log is shown on both the computers. This is a nice security measure so the host can see what files the client is downloading and modifying, unlike similar remote desktop programs like Remote Utilities.