About the company: GoToMyPC allows you to remotely access your computer from any other Internet-connected computer in the world with almost any operating system through a secure, private connection. Acess files, programs, email and your network, increase flexibility and productivity, work on your office PC from home, and travel and use your PC remotely.

The big pitch: 45-day free trial, and additional $10 discount upon joining.

You're on the road, you're staying at some crummy Motel 6 off the interstate somewhere near Lincoln, Iowa, and all hell is breaking loose. Important documents are needed for tomorrow's meeting, but the templates needed to load them are on your office computer, and it's now past midnight so there's nobody in the office to get the files to you... Basically, you're screwed. This will cost your business thousands.

But it doesn't have to be that way. GoToMyPC is a piece of remote access software designed to allow you to 'log in' to your computer from anywhere in the online world, from any web browser, or any wireless device - with just a 2 minute installation.

Imagine that same situation as mentioned above breaks out - while you're in the meeting itself - and you tell your client, "Excuse me for a moment, I'm just going to use my cellphone to access that file on my office PC..." - Well, hello Mr Slick!

Here's how it works: You simply join GoToMyPC at their website, then you install their software on the computers you want to remotely access. Your home computer, your office computer, your laptop, a fax server - in fact, you can install the program up to 20 times on different machines if you use the GoToMyPC Pro option - even more if you use GoToMyPC Corporate.

Once you've done that, whenever you're away from the computer, just go to GoToMyPC.com, log in, then choose the computer you want to work on. GoToMyPC then connects to that computer and lets you access it from your remote desktop, as if you were directly connected to it - which, in essence, you are.

So, let's understand what this means. It basically means that, from any computer, anywhere on the internet, you can connect to your home or office PC like you connect to Hotmail now. You can access your email, your files, your company intranet, Excel spreadsheets, and you can do all that from a hotel internet connection in Kowloon, or an airport internet cafe in Bangladesh, or your buddy's home computer that you use to play Halo on.

This is not entirely new as far as concepts go. In fact, traditionally, the remote access market has been dominated by Symantec's difficult-to-install PC Anywhere program, but the beauty of GoToMyPC is that you don't need to have two pieces of software loaded on the two computers you're using. With GoToMyPC, all you need is a web browser and you can connect to home base as if you were hooked up with a USB cable.

with goToMyPC, you can work from home, administer your office systems from the road, get to your office computer after hours, even stop dragging around discs and CDs and flash drives with business documents on them. It's all there when you need it.

As far as pricing goes, the 1-PC monthly plan runs at $19.95 per month, or 25% off that price if you pay for a full year up front, or you can add a second PC to that plan for just an extra $10 per month. Additional PCs after that are $15 per month, per computer (or $135 per year), so you could conceivably be hooked up to every computer in your office... if you wanted to be. Heck, you can even print a document on your office printer from the Starbucks across the street!

To make calculation of your final price easy, GoToMyPC has a plan calculator on their website, and they offer a free 45-day trial where you can use the product at no cost, with no commitment, if you prefer to try before you buy.

Personally, we say don't even bother trying things out - just get straight into it. Laptop Magazine gave GoToMyPC an editor's choice award, and the program isn't feature heavy, so it's really easy to use if you're a bit of a newbie. And if you're worried about it working with your company firewall - don't be! It'll work just fine on the majority of systems and can be tweaked to work with the others.

The Product Trends rating: Without question, this program is awesome. Five stars; well worth the money, well worth your time.

To try GoToMyPC for yourself, click the image below:

About the company: Travel Guard International is the industry's leading travel insurance provider - covering more than 6 million travelers worldwide each year. Their travel insurance plans offer coverage for vacation and trip cancellation, travel interruptions and delays, emergency medical and health expenses, lost baggage and more. Plus, every Travel Guard insurance plan includes a 24-hour "911" travel emergency service for urgent medical assistance, last-minute or emergency travel and flight changes, lost luggage tracking, pre-trip travel advice, and more.

The big pitch: With every Travel Guard insurance plan you will also receive 24-hour travel assistance.

When I was six months pregnant, my husband and I were celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary when we decided to take what we thought would be our last trip together as a couple before our baby. Hours before we were supposed to leave, I started having contractions, forcing us to cancel our airline tickets, our hotel reservations, and in the end, it cost us a lot of money. Little did I know that had we held a travel insurance policy, we could have been protected from loss.

Travel Guard offers policies catered to your needs as a traveler. They sell coverage for cruises, international travel, single trips, flights, students, travel medical insurance, and annual policies. The company also offers 24-hour protection and assistance for a number of problems that can occur while traveling.

The two biggest risks that travelers can incur are the costs of canceling or changing travel plans and medical care during your trip. Travel Guard not only covers these issue, but they seem to have the broadest scope of coverage in the industry.

The Wall Street Journal recently said, “In the future, you might consider buying insurance to cover the cost of canceling hotel or rental accommodations because the property is uninhabitable. Travel Guard of Stevens Point, Wis., offers such insurance at a cost between 5% and 7% of the trip's total value.”

Moreover, the 24-hour hotline, with live people answering, is a real plus. While other companies offer similar plans, they don't all offer this nifty extra. One problem with the policy, however, is that they have a strike list posted on their web site. The policy does not offer coverage if an airline on their list goes on strike during your vacation time. As much as this is annoying, it is, however, a standard practice in the industry.

It is important, when purchasing this travel insurance, to decide how much coverage you truly need. Consider all possibilities, then decide if the cost of the policy is actually worth it if those issues crop up during your vacation. And when you decide that travel insurance is for you, Travel Guard International should be your first stop.

The Product Trends rating: Four stars. This company offers very reliable customer service and fast claims. If you're interested in travel insurance, this is certainly the way to go. –- Reviewed by Mindy Matter

To try Travel Guard International for yourself, click the image below: