Plenty of small businesses have one or two machines that someone occasionally needs to get onto from somewhere else: the PC at the office with the accounting software on it, the workshop machine running a specific tool, the box at reception. The question is always how do I get to it from home, or on the road?

The two common answers both have a sting. You can expose Remote Desktop to the internet — open the port on the router and connect to your public address. It works, and it's also one of the most common ways ransomware walks straight into a small business: an exposed Remote Desktop port is constantly scanned and hammered with login attempts. Or you can set up a VPN — more to configure, more to keep running, and it usually hands the remote device far more access to your network than "I just need that one PC."

TYO Reach gives you a third option: use your normal Remote Desktop app to reach the machine, with nothing exposed to the internet and nothing to forward.

How it works for you

On the machine you want to reach, you turn on "Share this PC." From wherever you are, you pick that machine in Reach and your usual Remote Desktop client opens straight onto it — the same app you already use on Windows, Mac or Linux. It feels exactly like connecting to a computer on the same desk; behind the scenes Reach is carrying the connection to a machine that can be behind the office router, on home broadband, or in another state entirely.

No port opened on the router. No public Remote Desktop for the scanners to find. No static IP to chase. The office machine quietly reaches out to Reach and waits; your connection is matched to it by who you are, not by an address anyone can probe.

Why it's worth the switch

  • Nothing to attack. The single biggest win: there's no exposed Remote Desktop port sitting on the internet. You remove the doormat ransomware keeps knocking on.
  • No VPN to run. No extra box or service to maintain, and the person connecting gets that machine — not the run of your whole network.
  • It just uses your normal app. No new remote-control tool for staff to learn; it's the Remote Desktop client they already know.
  • Reaches awkward places. Machines behind NAT, on home broadband, or interstate — all reachable, because the connection is made outbound and matched by identity.
  • Share it, carefully. You can grant a specific machine to a specific teammate or contractor, and for locked-down access a secure mode switches off clipboard, drive and USB sharing so it's control-only with no data bridge back to the host.

Using more than one screen? Multiple monitors work out of the box — Reach sets it up for you, so a full-screen session spans all your displays, just as it would on the LAN.

Already using TeamViewer, AnyDesk or Dualmon?

Reach does the same job — get onto your machines from anywhere — without the two things those tools are known for. There's no per-seat bill that climbs every renewal, and no "commercial use detected" lockout in the middle of a job. It also sidesteps the reason a lot of people have learned to be wary of a "TeamViewer" call: there's no anonymous access code to hand out, so nobody can talk their way onto a machine — access is tied to who you are. And it isn't Windows-only. Reach gets you onto a Mac (over its built-in Screen Sharing) or a Linux box just as it reaches a Windows PC over Remote Desktop — one tool for the whole mixed office.

The straight version

  • You still need a machine that can host Remote Desktop. That means a Windows Pro/Enterprise (or Server) edition on the far end — Windows Home can't host Remote Desktop, and multi-monitor needs a non-Home edition too. Reach carries the connection; it doesn't turn Home into a host. (That's the Windows Remote Desktop path specifically — to reach a Mac you use its built-in Screen Sharing, so Mac users aren't left out.)
  • Secure mode is a deliberate trade-off. Turning off clipboard/drive/USB is exactly what you want for a contractor and a nuisance if you forget it's on — so it's per-machine, your choice.

If you've got a PC someone needs to reach and you've been weighing "open the port and hope" against "set up a VPN," this is the option that avoids both. Your normal Remote Desktop, to the machine you need, with nothing left exposed.

Reach RDP is part of TYO Reach. Already a Reach user? It's in the desktop app under "Share this PC" and Remote Machines. New to Reach? Start here.