Ask Slashdot: Best App For Android For Remote Access To Mac Or PC?

An anonymous reader writes "Hi, I need to get remote access to my home Mac and Windows PC. At home, it's basically for watching TV, whereas at the office, I need it to work on files I am not allowed to take out when leaving. I know there's a lot of choice out there, but I need something free and reliable. What do you all recommend?"

Comments

Easy

[mog007]

TeamViewer. It's free and easy.

Re:Easy

[PcItalian]

Best solution ever! We ended up purchasing enterprise for my department but free works just the same.

Re:Easy

[wonkey_monkey]

It's not as easy as Teamviewer.

Re:Easy

[Kagetsuki]

As much as I would love to disagree with that I honestly can't. TeamViewer has a lot of advantages over VNC. Though I'm not sure it would be easier if you had a really restricted network like in a locked down office. I've run VNC over an SSH reverse tunnel disguised as HTTP traffic on a closed network with a proxy server that only allowed HTTP and only outgoing connections. Since the tunnel was already established VNC was trivial to run. But as long as you don't have any super-locked-down proxy setups designed specifically to defeat remote access *cough* TeamViewer is just dead easy and surprisingly reliable.

Re:Easy

[v1]

TeamViewer has issues you should be aware of.

A friend showed me how easy it was to use, and we decided to give it a try at our shop, where we do computer sales and service. Being able to do remote support would be very useful, we have several customers that live a good distance away from us and that occasionally need to schedule us to come out and help them, and this would allow us to help them at significantly lower rates.

We set up team viewer 6 (iirc) and bought one license. Come to find out that it could only be installed on one physical computer. We were used to remote apps that only allow one simultaneous USE at a time, and that's all we needed. Too bad the GM installed it on his computer before we could stop him. So now we have to go into his office to do remote support. (or HE has to do it)

I discussed this with teamveiwer and they basically told me to buy another seat or get lost. More on principle than cost I think, we continued to use it from that machine. They have a nice tool to create a wrapped installer that you put on your web site and your customers just click to download. It installs, and immediately launches, configures, and connects to us. I must admit that's slick. Too bad it only connected to the GM's computer.

So more frequently lately I just connect from my computer to the customer the more manual way. It pops up a "for non commercial use only" note on launch but hey we already paid for our license and I'm the only using it so whatever, it works fine. We never use more than one instance at a time, so as far as I see it, we're playing fair, we paid for one instance and are using one instance,

I had been seeing an update notice for teamviewer and I made the [i]mistake[/i] of running it and it upgraded me to version 7. Now it disconnects me after 15 minutes. Back to 6 I guess. Finally found the old app in a backup and reinstalled it. Nope! They "upgraded" my account online and now I can't use teamviewer 6 anymore. Bastards. I really hate it when computer software actively fights me trying to get my job done. (6 is compatible with 7, the only difference apparently is the timeout they added, so don't be a fool and "upgrade") So they're not on my Good List anymore. I have to pay twice to use once, and they absolutely do NOT care to work with me on it. Greed wins over customer service with them, unfortunately.

I hate to see that happen with good products. Alsoft DiskWarrior is the same way, incredibly useful product, horrible customer service.

Re:Easy

[wonkey_monkey]

VNC is not easier than Teamviewer. If you've got internet access, Teamviewer will just work from anywhere to anywhere, and it gives you all the information you need to establish the connection. VNC is not that simple.

In fact, Teamviewer can be too easy. I had to completely lock a computer down so it could only access anything off the local network through a VPN - but Teamviewer still worked, even when the VPN was off. It either discovered, or remembered, a proxy server on the LAN and used that to make itself available.

Re:Easy

[Lumpy]

VPN home over https port. I've shot straight through every single corporate security I have encountered, it's not hard to get through.

Re:Easy

[profplump]

Only if you're okay with your remote access solution registering with a third-party that writes all of the software involved and with whom you don't have a contract.

Re:Easy

[Kagetsuki]

Interesting!

I wouldn't consider setting up the SSH reverse proxy difficult either. I forget what I used to mask the traffic as HTTP but it was something that was bundled with SSH to begin with.

How do you do this VPN setup? I've never used VPN extensively so I'm acutally not sure where one would start. If you have a link to a howto on the tools you are using I'd be quite interested.

Re:Easy

[zugmeister]

On the plus side it's open, runs on everything (server and client), and free. I use it as the failover from MSTS (mac client sucks) or ARD (which has no PC client).

On the minus side, it's not fast so remote admin is fine but movies mostly unwatchable. No sound. No file xfer or printer sharing. It doesn't tunnel, so you are looking at a minimum of a VPN tunnel (or piggyback it off a ssh tunnel is you wanna be geeky) should you want access while off the server's network. DO NOT PORT FORWARD VNC TO THE WORLD! It does not have strong security (8 character pw no username) and the VNC data itself is not secured.

Note that there are proprietary versions of VNC that address some of these issues.

Re:Easy

[l0n3s0m3phr34k]

at my work, VNC wouldn't ever actually connect through all their firewalls. The window would open, but the3 actual connect would time out. Teamviewer went right through without any issues.. It was entertaining trying to use it while driving (being driven, I wasn't actually driving while attempting a remote session lol), and it would drop every time I switched towers...but I'm assuming that's due to loosing the encrypted tunnel.

Re:Easy

[Chas]

Better?

This is an opinion, flavored by specific circumstance.

Faster? I dunno about that.

With TeamViewer, it's download, install, run, set a password and done.

How difficult is it to set up VNC on both the host and the client device?

Easier? Well, I'm not sure but I think TeamViewer has VNC beat on ease of install.
Easier to use? I dunno. I've used TV for several years now. We can even get our most brain-dead, technophobic clients up and running in under 5 minutes (mostly because we have to talk them through how to open a browser and what to type and where in the browser interface).

And random client installs for support purposes? It doesn't get any easier than their Quick Support client. Download and run. Agree to allow remote access.
How tough is it to get similar functionality for VNC and NOT get caught by their anti-malware scanners?

And I've only run into 5 or 6 people in the entire time for whom TV won't work. Mostly users in Very High Security setups. These are places where you're NOT going to be able to get someone in to install VNC in the first place.

So, about the only one you're being factual about is..."open source".

That's great and all. I love open source myself.
For the majority of users out there, well, they don't give a shit.

Re:Easy

[Chas]

You could have simply uninstalled it from the GM's computer.
You have a channel license. So they don't care who has the license installed.

I will agree that their update policy is bullshit.
We have their 3 seat license. Once we paid for the upgrade literally 2 DAYS before they released a new version. They wanted us to buy the new version again "at a discount price".
The discount being the upgrade price that was already available on the website which is only a few bucks cheaper than the retail new price.

Re: Easy

[iamhassi]

Logmein. There is a free version for just one PC. Been using it for years

Re:Easy

[Zmobie]

Its probably because they use a UDP implementation instead of TCP. A lot of networks don't properly secure their UDP because most things just plain don't use it (or even it is secured, most people don't understand the protocol and data transmission types). VNC uses just a straight TCP setup so its pretty easy to block it.

Re:Easy

[Chas]

Thanks for your supposed opinion (you're an AC, so I can never be sure it isn't a troll), I'll continue to respectfully disagree.

Re:Easy

[Joce640k]

'm assuming that's due to loosing the encrypted tunnel.

It certainly wasn't due to finding the dictionary.

stream video?

[neghvar1]

Are you saying that you need a remote access app to stream video from your home PC to a work PC?

Re:stream video?

[Barsteward]

I have no idea what he's talking about. If he only uses his home PC for watching TV, why does he need to remote into it for work when the files are at work and he can't take them away?

Am i having a post new year brain fault?

Re:stream video?

[CastrTroy]

Yeah, for viewing videos at home, a simple file share would work just fine. As far as files that are supposed to remain at work, accessing them remotely from his android device would probably go against the entire policy. If you can't bring them out on a USB drive, there's no way they're going to set you install a custom server on your work machine. Anything that doesn't require a custom server like DropBox would be out of the question as well.

Re:stream video?

[jedidiah]

Both of these sound like he needs some sort of "cloud" solution that is local to his home and work environment. Remotely accessing the PC is just overkill.

Share files? Samba/CIFS.

Watch TV? Install client for your streaming service or cable provider.

Re:stream video?

[MozeeToby]

Perhaps he has a media center PC which he'd like to drive from his smartphone? Only thing that makes any sense in my mind.

VNC works quite well

[3.5 stripes]

I don't know if I'd want to use it to watch tv though..

Re:VNC works quite well

[rwa2]

"VX Connectbot" for ssh / tunneling setup. It has a few useful fixes from the regular "ConnectBot" app, primarily with keybindings you need to send ctrl keypresses, etc.

I just use androidvnc for occasional VNC access to my boxes. Use UltraVNC server on Windows, and I think "Chicken of the VNC" server for OSX (it's been a few years, there might be better servers now). And play around with tigervnc on Linux.

Of course, VNC doesn't do audio... but I imagine you're using it as a remote control for your settop PC? There's an Android app for XBMC or whatever that you could probably connect to your samba share somehow.

Re:VNC works quite well

[drinkypoo]

"VX Connectbot" for ssh / tunneling setup. It has a few useful fixes from the regular "ConnectBot" app, primarily with keybindings you need to send ctrl keypresses, etc.

Get Anysoftkeyboard and SSH for Anysoftkeyboard and you too will have an Android softkeyboard actually useful for controlling UNIX sessions. You will want to change the theme from the default to one which shows the long keypresses.

Team Viewer

[alta]

I use teamviewer. Free for personal use. Does what you need.

Drive my kids nuts when they're on the computer and Daddy randomly connect to see what the heck they're doing. Keeps them on their toes and off questionable sites. With the help of opendns... I'll eventually put in a proxy when they get older though. Preserving what innocence I can...

Re:Team Viewer

[CanHasDIY]

Facist

Fascist is but one of the duties of a parent who actually cares about his children's upbringing. Obviously, a duty your parents failed to fulfill.

Shame, that.

Re:Team Viewer

[NatasRevol]

I'm just happy I didn't have to milk my dad.

Re:Team Viewer

[DMUTPeregrine]

That, and there's nothing better at getting kids interested in programming and technology than trying to find ways around such restrictions.

Re:Team Viewer

[ClintJaysiyel]

While I tend to agree, your dad's approach was bad for you, but not everybody is you. Some shits need spying on.

Re:Team Viewer

[CanHasDIY]

True; necessity being the mother of invention, and all.

Re:Team Viewer

[CanHasDIY]

Yea, I loved how my parents did everything out in the open; made it a heck of a lot easier to work around all those restrictions since I knew what they were.

(This actually isn't true - my parents were smart enough to know better)

Your problem appears to be that you are conflating parenting with running a government, when the two couldn't be further opposed. A parent has every cause and need to secretly monitor their legal charges, AKA kids, for reasons that should be made obvious by the use of the term, "legal charges." Since the government has no vested interest in making sure every citizen follows every law (much the opposite, in fact: the government depends on law-breaking for fund-raising purposes), they do not have the same cause nor need.

Plus that whole, pesky "Constitution" thing.

Re:Team Viewer

[detritus.]

Facist

He just wants to destroy the concept of privacy for his children early since they'll live in a society with none. It's for the security of the entire nation as his kids could be terrorists.

Re:Team Viewer

[dpilot]

Doesn't sound to me like he's hiding it, because the kids know when he's peeking. Hiding would be if he were doing so undetectably, then "just happening" to walk in the room when they're doing something they shouldn't, and catching them without their knowing how he just happened to come in, right then.

Re:Team Viewer

[l0n3s0m3phr34k]

Ah...yeah...and I'm betting your, probably around 18-25 now? There are these things called "hormones", and during teenage developmental years these chemicals can cause people to make, ah, unwise decisions. Even when a teen "knows better", often they don't really understand "why its wrong", or don't realize just how horrible the "consequences" can be if they are caught doing whatever. Often they won't even be held responsible...instead the parents are. And some kids are just pure evil on the net, bullying others to the point of suicide...it would have been far better for their parents to have been monitoring them and might have stopped such things instead of claiming "facebook was hacked! my kid would never..." because they had no idea what was going on.

Re:Team Viewer

[Fjandr]

Where in the hell did you get "grown children" from? Parents looking over their children's shoulders is not the same as being so overbearing you damage them forever. There's this little thing called "middle ground," which it does not seem you have heard of.

Re:Team Viewer

[CanHasDIY]

Yea, I loved how my parents did everything out in the open; made it a heck of a lot easier to work around all those restrictions since I knew what they were.

(This actually isn't true - my parents were smart enough to know better)

"I was hit on the head by a meteorite once, so everyone should always wear hard-hats. By the way, I wasn't actually ever hit on the head by a meteorite."

TL;DR What??

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sarcasm

Re:Team Viewer

[CanHasDIY]

Where in the hell did you get "grown children" from?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection

Re:Team Viewer

[alta]

Oh, no.... I'm NOT hiding it. I throw in a mix of things they know I'm doing, and since they're smart a few things they don't yet know I'm doing. They'll eventually figure it out. They're 9 and 11 now. I periodically check their history and I'm surprised they haven't figured that one out yet. Once they start to get savvy I'll put in a transparent proxy, change the default gateway to that and have the firewall block access to anything BUT the proxy.

I do this because it's the only decent way to be successful on the non-windows devices, ipods, kindle, wii...

Re:Team Viewer

[Decker-Mage]

I'm intreged by the idea of parenting in the same political philosophy that you would apply to governments. Libertarian children would be interesting. I'd love to see an infant earn his wage, rather than just sucking off his parents teets like a litte socialist rat.

It worked out rather well in my case. I was expected to do the chores (cooking, cleaning) from age 6 on with my younger brothers picking up chores as they became capable. [I should also add that I was learning electronic engineering at that age, taught by my mother to my Dad and myself. Lissitude patterns are fun.] Then again, the very first book my mother handed me when I figured out how to read, age 3, was Robert A. Heinlein's "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel."

Further it should be no surprise that I grew up a Libertarian, able to independently function with or without society, and entered the military for a first career. Funny how standards change. In any rational society, your children are inherent labor force for the family unit. Draw your own conclusions from that.

Files... Not Allowed to Take?

[CanHasDIY]

I need it to work on files I am not allowed to take out when leaving.

Are your bosses going to be cool with you transmitting all that data over innumerable, unsecured pipes they have no control over? Because if they don't want you sneaker-netting the stuff out...

Re:Files... Not Allowed to Take?

[nurb432]

Doubtful.

If his IT people are on the ball, he will run into blocked ports and get reported to management, then let go.

Re:Files... Not Allowed to Take?

[pr0fessor]

I was reminded of a time when I had to do exactly that... It was an awkward situation where an entry level {hourly wage} employee had already placed a request for remote access but had been been denied by his management.

I like go getters that are willing to put in some extra time to do a good job but if the company doesn't want you taking files home and won't give you remote access then chances are you shouldn't be looking for a way to do it.

Re:Files... Not Allowed to Take?

[Lumpy]

IT cant block 443 and encrypted traffic through there is expected.

IT cant cope with us worker drones that know way more than they do.

Re:Files... Not Allowed to Take?

[nurb432]

Its trivial to block that port except for connection to trusted remote addresses. its also trivial to see any attempt to connect to an unauthorized IP, call it a breech, and fire your sorry ass on the spot if you cant explain yourself well enough. ( oh and if you try to install any sort of client that pops up too, if you could even get it on your PC without ringing the alarm, also easy to do )

Want to try again, loser?

Re:Files... Not Allowed to Take?

[bloodhawk]

IT cant block 443 and encrypted traffic through there is expected.

IT cant cope with us worker drones that know way more than they do.

Given the first part of your statement I can assure you that "YOU" don't know more than they do.

HR will have that pink slip ready for ya.

[rodrigoandrade]

> I need it to work on files I am not allowed to take
> out when leaving

Where I used to work, this is grounds for immediate termination. I'm sure there's a reason you can't take those files home in a portable/flash drive (trade secrets, etc) and you want us to help you cirumvent that restriction?

Re:HR will have that pink slip ready for ya.

[CanHasDIY]

I've got 2 theories about whoever posted this question (submitted as AC? Shocked, I tell you, shocked.):

1) They want to commit industrial espionage for whatever reason, but aren't smart enough to do it themselves

2) They work for some sort of group or agency that has an inherent interest in getting internet communities to accidentally help someone commit a crime, thus creating an illusion of culpability for said internet communities.

5 years ago, #2 would have been too tin-foil-hat crazy even for me; today, I just don't know.

Re:HR will have that pink slip ready for ya.

[CastrTroy]

#2 is kind of weird in this context though. It's not like Slashdot is a closed community. Anybody can join at any time, and you don't even have to create an account to post. Slashdot could only be defined as a "community" in the same respects as "people who visit the mall" could be called a "community".

Re:HR will have that pink slip ready for ya.

[CanHasDIY]

Slashdot could only be defined as a "community" in the same respects as "people who visit the mall" could be called a "community".

Politicians, or rather people with political machinations, regularly use the term "community" to refer to any group of people they feel like lumping together arbitrarily.

To that end, AC could post a question of something, er, questionable here, an AC could answer it (maybe even the same AC who asked), and Senator Dumbfuck would spend the next day pontificating how Slashdot is a den of terrorists, and that every member of the site should be extra-judicially 'dealt with.' And the MSM would jump right in behind him.

Like I said, before the days of questionable LEO techniques such as parallel construction, I too would have found such a theory too left-field to take seriously, but now...

Re:HR will have that pink slip ready for ya.

[drinkypoo]

I need it to work on files I am not allowed to take out when leaving

Where I used to work, this is grounds for immediate termination.

Perhaps they mean that they're not permitted to actually copy the files, but the rules don't prohibit them from logging in and working on them remotely. This is really not all that unusual. They're probably already allowed to log in with the MSRDP client on windows, and they're just looking for the best client to do the same sort of thing from their phone so that they can solve quick problems without even leaving the bar.

Dropbox?

[nurb432]

He clearly stated he cant take files off premise. Going off that fact, by accessing his PC remotely i bet he is also violating a few rules in the process.

Re:Dropbox?

[gstoddart]

Really? I find most organizations have done a good job of setting up VPN access to their systems that don't break any rules.

It's a largely solved problem.

Re:Dropbox?

[Anonymous Coward]

Circumventing the company's security would probably violate a lot of rules. Accessing the files from home would however constitute copying, which very well could be considered illegal.

My solution: Ask the IT-department if there is a permitted remote access solution in place already. If not, bring up the issue with your boss. If your boss is sane, (s)he will realize how it will improve productivity. Otherwise, change jobs or move closer to the office.

Re:Dropbox?

[tepples]

Otherwise, change jobs or move closer to the office.

How would that help if it would involve moving farther from the significant other's office?

RDP

[gbjbaanb]

Microsoft's built-in remote display technology.

The best RDP client for Android is Remote RDP

For the MAC, you could install xrdp which provides the same protocol to access linux/osx.

RDP is a very lightweight protocol, originally created by Citrix way back and bought or licenced by Microsoft, as they do with the bits of Windows that are any good.

Re:RDP

[Guspaz]

Microsoft's new RDP client is pretty fantastic. They bought out some company that made a cross-platform RDP client: I've tried both the OS X version and the iOS version (primarily on my iPhone, but also on my iPad), and overall it's worked extremely well. Better than the Windows client, dare I say. It's also available on Android.

Two big advantages for me on the iPhone: it's very fast (and seems to support some sort of progressive image compression that leads to low latency for getting something up on screen but still high quality as it loads in higher res imagery after) and has a very nice trackpad-like control option. For that mode, you basically can use the screen of the phone as if it were a touchpad, moving around a cursor. This works far better than the usual method most RDP clients use where you just tap on the screen where you want it to click. That's super inaccurate on a phone, while the trackpad style lets you be sure of where you're clicking.

I don't want to say that there aren't other clients supporting all this stuff, just that I've tried Microsoft's new clients and they work pretty darned well.

Re:RDP

[Guspaz]

XPRA is completely incapable of replacing RDP, seeing as how it doesn't support Windows hosts.

Re:RDP

[Princeofcups]

For the MAC, you could install xrdp which provides the same protocol to access linux/osx.

And you would get an X session on the Mac. Not too useful. VNC seems to be the preferred choice in the real world.

Re:RDP

[sidnelson13]

I find PocketCloud works great too. Supports RDP and VNC.

Re:RDP

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

I don't see a xpra client for android in fdroid or play store. Is there one you know of?

Re:RDP

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Apparently there is one that is in beta, but not in any stores.

http://winswitch.org/downloads/

Might try it later tonight. Nx worked pretty well, but it would occasionally break with other updates.

Re:RDP

[The MAZZTer]

Only problem I have with MS' client is that you can't pinch zoom like you'd expect... you click on a "move" icon at the top which, for some reason, causes it to zoom in instead. Weird.

Re:RDP

[Guspaz]

They fixed that; the icon is gone, and pinch to zoom is now used as expected.

Er?

[philip.mather5551]

Is it me or does that rather sound like you're watching TV while in the office and working on company documents at home? Confusing summary perhaps but if not then my recommendation isn't going to involve an Android app! ;^)
Also...
"...whereas at the office, I need it to work on files I am not allowed to take out when leaving..."
...sounds like it would violate your contract and get you fired but IANAL.
To at least try and provide some useful response however I tried the one and only android implementation of XServer with SSH tunnelling, it sucked. Hard. I'd try a VNC app if there is one.

2X Client RDP/Remote Desktop

[BingmanO]

I find 2X Client RDP/Remote Desktop to work very well on the Android. It has full support for RDP in Windows. not sure about Mac, never had to use it.

Re:2X Client RDP/Remote Desktop

[slashmydots]

I also use 2X to avoid being a bypass tray "printer sprinter" for custom photoshop print jobs. I don't think it works past a LAN though but I've never tested it.

Re:2X Client RDP/Remote Desktop

[wonkey_monkey]

My only annoyance with it is that I can't use the keyboard of my choice. I do like how they do the mouse, though.

Re:2X Client RDP/Remote Desktop

[DdJ]

I find 2X Client RDP/Remote Desktop to work very well on the Android. It has full support for RDP in Windows. not sure about Mac, never had to use it.

RDP will not connect to MacOS. This should not be surprising -- it's the built-in protocol from Microsoft.

The remote display protocol that Apple built in is based on VNC, and can be configured to work with standard VNC clients. So my answer to the original user's question would be "use your favorite RDP client for the Windows boxes, and your favorite VNC client for the MacOS boxes".

On iOS, I use iSSH for both. It's an SSH client that has a built in RDP client, VNC client, and X11 server (remember that server and client are "reversed" for X11) and tunnels all three protocols over ssh. I do not know if there's a similar program for Android, but for iOS this one has been awesome.

Logmein + Plex

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been using Logmein Professional for the past month and it has been awesome, it will steam HD video but I use a Plex Media Server for that (especially with cloud sync).

Worst submission of 2014 already?

[Anonymous Coward]

My god, I've read the "summary" 5 or 6 times and still can't parse wtf the submitter is looking for.

- Android is only mentioned in the title, nowhere in the rest of the submission
- They need to use remote access to their home machines at home to watch TV
- They need to access files at work that can't be taken off-premises? Ignoring the assumed company policy violations, how does remote access to their home machines help that at all?

4 incomprehensible sentences and we're supposed to suggest solutions? Holy shit...

Re:Worst submission of 2014 already?

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

Don't worry, 2014 is new. It will get worse...

Re: Worst submission of 2014 already?

[Decker-Mage]

That's the first sensible analysis of the requirements yet! Fortunately, unless I'm out in the field, the separation between bed and work is two feet. This has been interesting so far (as witnessed by where this is posted). Nice suggestions all.

You mean VPN?

[gstoddart]

Depending on how your organization has set things up, I installed the Juniper Pulse client on my Android.

The 2X RDP client used to work and then stopped, but I suspect that's more on the VPN side than the RDP side.

For us, since we're already using the Juniper VPN stuff, the Android access was pretty darned easy. Awfully handy for keeping tabs on emails while on vacation.

Confused, so here's a cross platform solution

[PNutts]

Watch TV while at home. Work on files while at work.

Splashtop does a fine job.

[Maximalist]

Splashtop works, but isn't free. I do find it is smoother and less buggy feeling than the free VNCs. There's supposed to be a google chrome RDP plugin too, but I've not played with that yet.

Re:Splashtop does a fine job.

[GSearle]

That comment is mine. Sorry, forgot to log in! (lame)

PocketCloud

[Giblet535]

PocketCloud's fake mouse is quite useful, even on a 4.something inch screen. It costs money, but you didn't rule that out.

Re:PocketCloud

[wonkey_monkey]

I think it's free if you only want to store one connection. though I've migrated to 2X these days.

How about an enterprise solution...?

[mlts]

Assuming this is going to be a company official solution, the IT department should look at Citrix Marketplace and XenDesktop. This will allow use of Citrix Receiver on PC Web browsers, Android devices, and iOS devices.

This is up to par with security, it can be configured to whatever security policies a company has, even including a gateway that one uses a SecurID token to get past, and it is a system that is engineered to handle various corporate and governmental regulations.

Yes, there are other ways, but this is an "official" solution that will pass audits and the legal eagles.

Re: How about an enterprise solution...?

[BillBrains]

Expensive failed projects!!

The summary clear as mud.

[westlake]

I need to get remote access to my home PC. At home, it's basically for watching TV, whereas at the office, I need it to work on files I am not allowed to take out when leaving.

The best sense I can make of this is that you want to watch TV on the job and work at home on documents you are not cleared to access outside the premises. Security at that level comes with teeth that bite. Hard.

ssh host screen

[SMOKEING]

Oh wait...

NoMachine for personal and enterprise use

[BillBrains]

An enterprise solution like Citrix is hardly a solution for a home user. We've been using NoMachine for the past six months and now they've released their Android app, my wife and I are well chuffed for sharing files and doing remote work (we are both architects)

Jump Desktop

[jomcty]

Jump Desktop is very good and SSH tunneling is built-in.

Re: re: Best App for Android For Remote Access to

[BillBrains]

Only works on tablets though, not smartphones

Remote access vs. taking files home

[sl4shd0rk]

If your security policy forbids removing files from the workplace, are you sure remote access isn't going to get you hot water as well? From a security standpoint, remote access to the same files you're not allowed to bring home is pretty much one of the same.

That said, the best free way of accessing a remote desktop is going to be VNC running on the localhost endpoint and then an openssh connection of some sort (forward or reverse) to authenticate and tunnel. You could also use FreeNX but configuration has historically be a PITA.

SSH

[carp3_noct3m]

SSH is what you should be using as your connection core, and then using VNC on top if you want a gui. On windows, I've found the cygwin based SSH servers superior (have tested almost every single windows SSH server that is FOSS).

Side note: Wow it's been a long time since I logged into /.

Re:Teamviewer

[Kagetsuki]

Something something forget Dropbox if you have SSH access something something or if you need DropBox like syncing and have SSH access make a git repo and use SparkleShare.

How about for chromebooks?

[goombah99]

Got my mom a chromebook which is almost perfect for her. There's 3 current problems for the chromebook I have to solve:

1) unlike her old mac, I have no way to remote desktop to her machine to fix her problems. Is there any Remote desktop that lets me view a chromebook's screen. Google's own chrome remote desktop runs on everything except chromebooks it seems. Oh the irony.

2) Chrome books can't print to any USB connected printer. They require a compliant mac or PC to be in the household that they can piggy back off of. Either that or you have to buy one of a very few and not cheap choices of Cloud ready printers google has specified.

3) I need to find an modest priced ~20" external display for this computer that has easy to adjust brightness and tilt. I have an acer screen sh is using but like most screens these days the controlls to ajust brightness are so asinine menu you have to toggle through. The problem I have is that since I don't live near a best buy or a target I have no way to go test drive screens for simple brighness controls. The manufaturer's haven't seen fit to add to their descritpive features the notation: "Does not have jackass menus that old people can't use to do obvious things like brightness controlls". The also should advertise "does not take two hand and two feet dexterity in a standing position to simply adjust the goddamn tilt of the crappy plastic screen stand". Seriously, apple products fit and finish for these little details is seriously underrated. it's so easy to tilt an apple screen with one hand and have no danger of it toppling.

4) the fourth problem I have with chromebooks is not really germain to my mom's needs--- just my own. It appears that despite being a so called cloud computer there's no easy way to mount a local network disk on these things.

I really do like the chrome book idea however so I'm tying to work through this. I tried to go the the Linux route to fix the network issues but Chrombooks are not meant for running linux due to the crippling limitations imposed by having to run in developer mode.

Re:How about for chromebooks?

[goombah99]

btw: I tried to use team viewer but team viewer needs java so it doesn't run on chromebooks.

Re:How about for chromebooks?

[metamatic]

Quote: "Chrome Remote Desktop is fully cross-platform. Provide remote assistance to Windows, Mac and Linux users, or access your Windows (XP and above) and Mac (OS X 10.6 and above) desktops at any time, all from the Chrome browser on virtually any device, including Chromebooks."

So it sounds like it's supposed to work.

Re:How about for chromebooks?

[goombah99]

Quote: "Chrome Remote Desktop is fully cross-platform. Provide remote assistance to Windows, Mac and Linux users, or access your Windows (XP and above) and Mac (OS X 10.6 and above) desktops at any time, all from the Chrome browser on virtually any device, including Chromebooks."

So it sounds like it's supposed to work.

It works from Chromebooks to mount other OS desktops but not from other computers to mount the chromebook desktop. Since I'm trying to support the chromebook user I need the latter. I need to view the chromebook. can't do it with google remote desktop or team viewer.

Re:How about for chromebooks?

[Chas]

No, that's saying you, from a Chromebook, can support other devices.
But there doesn't appear to be any good way of remoting into a Chromebook itself.

LogMeIn

[RedBear]

Kind of surprised nobody has mentioned LogMeIn. It's free for personal use on up to 10 computers. There's a LogMeIn app for iOS and Android, which is free*. Then there's LogMeIn Ignition ($30), which lets you do file transfers, printing and other useful things if you're using LogMeIn Pro on the computers, which I think is something like $70 per computer per year. I bought LogMeIn Ignition for my iPad a couple years back and I've been using the free version of LogMeIn to connect remotely to Windows and Macs for years. Seems to work well even on relatively slow connections and on networks with fairly restricted firewall setups on either or both ends. I've even used it over a 3G connection, connecting to a 27" iMac no less.

LogMeIn are the ones who bought Hamachi, which lets you easily set up secure private networks between collections of Macs and PCs. Also free for personal use, up to five computers or something like that. Been using Hamachi to get secure remote access to certain oddball ports/services on remote computers for several years now. Hamachi however seems to have trouble connecting if certain ports are blocked on the network, so I've had much better luck using LogMeIn for remote desktop connections.

Not affiliated, just a satisfied user of both products. I haven't had any significant experience with TeamViewer so I can't make any direct comparisons, but I do know that when I was checking them out I didn't much care for how anal retentive TeamViewer is about licensing.

* I can't find the free LogMeIn app for Android. Maybe there isn't one. So I guess that leaves LogMeIn Ignition for Android, which is $30. It's one of the most expensive apps I ever put on my iPad (1st Gen), but it's been helpful enough and reliable enough that I think I can recommend purchasing it for Android if you like LogMeIn, especially if you want to do easy file transfers between your computer and your device.

Re:LogMeIn

[bessie]

I have LogMeIn Professional and use it for work. It works well - my main problem with it is that they had a security leak (or sold their user address database), as all the folks who used tagged email addresses for LogMeIn started getting spam on those tagged email addresses.

To this day, LogMeIn refuses to admit there was any leak or anything was sold or anything of the sort. This, despite quite a few tech professionals who know what they're doing seeing this spam.

I still use LogMeIn, but I trust them a hell of a lot less now. :-/

Discussions:

http://community.logmein.com/t5/Miscellaneous-Offtopic/LogMeIn-leaked-my-email-address/td-p/88548

http://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/12/logmein-docusign-investigate-breach-claims/

Re:LogMeIn

[Zaelath]

I've had the same problem with other vendors and I'm beginning to think it's not a leak so much as an addition to the "common list of names we spam".

If you create your vendor addresses as "vendor5123" or some other random addition and they still get spam then we have a much better connection between cause and effect (alternatively the people reporting the spam might already have an infection that is sending their "TO:" addresses out to a 3rd party, but that's possibly even less likely)

Re:LogMeIn

[bessie]

That was discussed on that LogMeIn forum thread - most people had addresses of the form logmein@mydomain.com , but several used random-ish strings and were still getting the spam, which makes me doubt LogMeIn's suggestion that it was an auto-generated type email spam list.

Jump RDP

[NoobixCube]

When I was working for a small IT shop, I was using Jump RDP to access clients' computers from my tablet when we already had them set up with RDP access. Now, the cool thing about Jump RDP is, for computers without a static IP address, it has a companion app which you install on the computer which uses your email address to negate the need for the static IP. Further, if you don't have RDP set up on a computer for whatever reason, it can install a VNC server, and Jump RDP will connect by that. When I bought it, it only cost me $1. I think there's a free preview version, and I'm not sure if the price of the paid one is the same now, but I've found it to be pretty useful and effective.

The big problem with most remote access solutions for tablets is the user experience. Jump covers this by having a little handle under the mouse cursor you can drag around, instead of having to poke-and-pray, given the imprecise nature of the finger tip.

NX, but, in all reality

[popdookey]

On a personal level, I have always liked the NX Protocol. It's easily installable on Ubuntu or CentOS. You can choose between the free and open source route, or for an enterprise roadmap, NoMachine reigns supreme in my experience.

NoMachine packages its free client/server solution for what seems to be any gnu/linux distro. Its IOS and Android clients are due for release in the coming months and can solve the original poster's "problem". I have no affiliation with nomachine other than being a bit of a fan due to their community commitments.

In all reality it becomes a matter of servers, clients, and protocols that fit within your network's architecture with varying degrees of comfort and performance.

Re: NX, but, in all reality

[BillBrains]

Quite agree. Android update: NoMachine have just released their Android app. In beta, and iOS is coming soon.

How bout cross platform(s) client(s)?

[MeBadMagic]

rsync and ssh

B-)

PocketCloud is great

[mpicpp]

PocketCloud has a free version for one machine and a Pro version for rdp/vnc to mulitple machines.

God forbid

[terrywirth5]

that anybody uses Windows 8, but if you did you would hardly need any app band-aids. Access any network or printer anytime, anywhere. Use any browser that you want--EVERY Web site works miraculously--Flash (shudder) and all. Plus, run MS Office 2013 on your tablet and get some fecking work done! I had to buy a cheap Lenovo Win 8 tablet for business purposes and once I acclimated to it, I stopped using my Nexus 7 (I ditched iOS a long time go because iTunes) because everything worked all the time and I never had to run off to my PC in order to get something serious done. The bottom line is that you can't beat remote desktop and whatever the FREE Mac equivalent is (I forgot since I sold off all of my Apple stuff and I need more memory).

re: NoMachine

[BobBrown4809]

Do they offer an app for Android?