I've been doing a fair bit of research on online collaboration tools (mainly free ones) and was wondering what does everyone use? There are so many out there (some with great reviews) and I'm getting quite confused and spoilt for choice!

What do you use for:
1) Managing your clients' calendar and synching to it or updating it

2) Screen sharing - to collaborate on running progs and docs. I've added on yuuguu to link with my Skype but haven't had a chance to test it out just yet to see if it really works. It says it does screen sharing.

3) Remote control - to gain control of a PC (with permission) to resolve PC problems.

4) Remote access - to access files from your PC or from your client's PC.

5) Whiteboards - I found several but liked this one called Twiddla - it allows you to browse webpages together and comment on it. I think this is useful if you provide web design services and the client is reviewing or critiquing the site. Though it can be a bit sluggish with slow internet connections. You can play around in their sand box before signing up and best of all it's free.

6) Document sharing and collaboration - I use googledocs for this and have no problems with it. What are the alternatives that are also free?

7) Video/ voice conferencing - I use Skype for this. I came across Dimdim which allows you to host meeting conferences and all but I haven't had a chance to test it. It's free for basic functions.

If anyone's come across an all-in-one program that encompasses screen sharing, remote control, whiteboards, document sharing and video/voice conferencing do share! May be a bit far fetched!

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Suze
http://www.globalvirtualsupport.com

You could try HyperOffice collaboration software. It includes most of the tools you want in a single solution - shared calendars, shared documents, desktop sharing, online meetings amongst many other tools. It is also the tool used by the VA chamber of commerce. But its not free. They've got a pretty reasonable per month fee.

Personally, I love Google for Calendar sharing and documents.

Dropbox for sharing files is great AND I am using it for another backup method...

@dmcgee - wow, it exists! And it looks sophisticated too but pity it's for a fee. I suppose the best things in life aren't always for free. From what i understand of this program, the client will also need to have it downloaded on their system? This could be a bit tricky. To make my clients' life easier, I try not to get them to download too many things to help us collaborate, but I suppose you can't help it if you want to do more than email huh?

@caliann - Yup, Google is great - simple and no downloads required! I've set up my virtual workstation using iGoogle, it has my notes, to-do's, sync'ed calendars, emails linked up from my other GVS account and documents my clients and I share. My only concern is that not all clients have Google accounts or are willing to set it up. I suppose if that's the case it's purely just chat or email that we're left with. Looks like it boils down to educating your clients on how to work virtually, and we'd be lucky if they were IT savvy too!

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Suze
http://www.globalvirtualsupport.com

After doing more snooping around on this site and through another posting, I found this resources - software page on here that lists a bunch of programs. They're not all free but teamviewer gets pretty close to that I need and it's for free! There's screen sharing, remote control,document sharing and voice option too. Maybe more but I'm yet to discover it.

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Suze
http://www.globalvirtualsupport.com

Someone on here recommended myoffice.net which is indeed great. It costs only a little and it gives a lot of work space, calendars, document sharing, email. I find it a very useful tool (and I'm only testdriving it).

Google is also great, but I'm not sure it would give the same sense of security for the clients.