Screen sharing apps?

May 7, 2008 8:39 AM

Does anyone know of good, free, and easy to use screen sharing applications?

We use MeetingPlace where I work, but it doesn't work often. Is there a simple screen sharing application I can use that works for multiple people? Ideally, this would work across company VPNs, be free, and be easy to install and use.

About 90% of my job depends on me being able to work with others in real time on a shared screen. Help me MeFi, you are my only hope! :-)

posted by xammerboy to technology (13 comments total)

VNC is probably your best bet I guess (VNC is a class of programs that inter-operate with each other for the most part. The one I use is RealVNC. It's free, it works well, it probably does most of what you want)
posted by RustyBrooks at 8:42 AM on May 7

I'd second VNC, but I believe xammer is looking for something more collaborative. If you were to try running VNC with multiple users, it would just turn into a blind competition for who gets to control the mouse.

GoogleDocs actually has pretty awesome collaborative elements, though it's not realtime.

I've not had experience with this one, but Microsoft's own Tahiti sounds like it might suit your needs.
posted by tybeet at 8:49 AM on May 7

If you're looking for a service, we've used Yugma and GoToMeeting at work a lot. Neither is free, unfortunately, but both work great - very easy to use, and work fine across VPNs.

Is there a reason why something that 90% of your job requires doesn't have room for $200/yr for yugma?
posted by Tomorrowful at 8:51 AM on May 7

I think I used GoToMeeting once, it seemed OK.

VNC has options to make some people who attach just be able to view and some to interact. If you really want two seperate mouses doing something at once, it doesn't do that though.
posted by RustyBrooks at 9:08 AM on May 7

GoToMeeting and WebEx are both pretty decent. Not free, though.
posted by twiggy at 9:18 AM on May 7

I use GNU Screen to share terminal sessions with far-away people in my group on those occasions when a shared Emacs/shell session is all we need. There's a nice introduction here, and information on shared sessions here.
posted by harmfulray at 9:20 AM on May 7

I don't think there are any solutions that allow two people to act independently on the same screen.

xammerboy, can you give some more requirements? Do you just need screen sharing, or do you need things like integrated video/voice/text chat?

If it truly is just screen sharing, then yeah, go VNC, as long as you know all the participants. Getting strangers to use VNC, particularly if you need to tunnel, can be a hassle.
posted by mkultra at 9:22 AM on May 7

Seconding Yugma - the screen-sharing web service with the terrible name.
posted by zippy at 9:53 AM on May 7

Thanks all, these are great suggestions! I really only need to be able to share my screen with multiple people. I don't need everyone to interact on the same document.
posted by xammerboy at 10:40 AM on May 7

UltraVNC SC will allow a customer or colleague to share their screen with you by simply downloading and running a customized executable that you build by editing a simple config file. It's great if you ever have to work with people who would find the task of installing and configuring a full-blown VNC server challenging.
posted by contraption at 11:04 AM on May 7

Have you tried Adobe Brio Beta. It is a beta product so I don't know how robust it is but I have played around with it and it seems nice. (Better than meetingplace.) And it is free. Worth a look at least.

If you could post back here once you find a workable solution, I would appreciate it. I am interested in hearing what works out and why.
posted by D Wiz at 11:29 AM on May 7

I have used VNC, WebEx meet me know, and GoTo Meeting.

TEAMVIEWER is the easiest, freesest, and most versatile screen sharing software I have used.

http://www.teamviewer.com
posted by yoyoceramic at 12:51 PM on May 7

Thank you all! I'll experiment with these and post back as to which works best for me!
posted by xammerboy at 10:53 AM on May 8