A Full Review of Seecreen, a Free Remote Access/Desktop Program

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.

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Note: This review is of Seecreen v0.8.2. Please let me know if there's a newer version I need to review.

More About Seecreen

Windows, Mac, and Linux are all supported operating systems for Seecreen

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 to use Seecreen

Pros & Cons

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

Pros:

Can share part of the screen, a single window, or the whole desktop
Completely portable
File transfer abilities
Open to full screen
Record a remote session
Great for spontaneous support
Voice and text chat
Remotely launch (some) run commands

Cons:

Doesn't support clipboard syncing
Recorded sessions can't be converted to well known formats

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 Seecreen is first opened, you're asked to login. 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, login to your own account, and add that computer to your account. This means you can login to you 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.

My Thoughts on Seecreen

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

I also like how lightweight it is. The program 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.

I like that 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 Seecreen as a VOIP or chat program apart from the screen sharing capabilities.

Another plus in my book is how both the host and the client can record the session to a video file. Unfortunately, the video format is a PRS file type, which I've been unable to view in any media player I'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.

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