I use the free version of logmein from
www.logmein.com on my pc & others in the home network, to be able to view them remotely. I have also been able to help some friends even as far as Hong Kong to solve some problems right on their desktops. U can even move the mouse, install stuff & so on.
When installing, u set the access code, which u can change anytime & control when even authorized people can access one's pc. One can also set it not to start automatically at Start Up etc.
If need be, play online games with my boy, from 100km away - if he's no one to play with at the time.
One cannot access a PC secretly as a window on the desktop warms one the pc is being remotely contolled by xxx ... It's not spyware.
The paid versions have many more functions.
So as u can see, this is is different, but I guess not bad.