Hey guys, Does anyone know if there's any decent FREE apps for the android that i can use for remote assistance? i work in IT and this would be very useful to me but im not willing to fork out cash just yet.
I know you can use VNC but this means installing software on client machines and setting that software upm which is no use to me.
thanks in advance guys
I have tried most and there are no good free RDC clients. (I started to write one myself but it was not very fun so I abandoned it.)
I would suggest biting the bullet and buying xtralogic's Remote Desktop client. At $19.95 it is the most expensive option but the controls on it are the best IMHO.
If you want cheaper ($7.98) there is Remote RDP by Walter Yongtao Wang but i find the controls are not as intuitive.
I know you said you do not want to fork out cash yet but the reality is if you want a good RDC client then for now you are going to have to pay for it. In the grand scheme of things $20 is a minor investment for the aggravation saved.
PhoneMyPC is the best one I've tried and I've played with almost all of them. Multitouch zooming makes it closest to what logmein ignition is on the iPhone. I think until logmein comes out with an Android app, it's the best bet even though it costs a few dollars.
yeah , i also use PhoneMyPC , works great , no problems
I have to agree. PhoneMyPC is extremely (surprizingly) fast and worked better than the RDP or VNC solutions from my testing.
I was very skeptical that it could perform well, but... call me a believer now.
Thanks for the answers guys, I'll try PhoneMyPc out first.
One more question, I would also like to Wake computers via LAN, Do these software's have the ability to send the "magic" WOL packets to wake a system up?
This is another feature i would find extremely useful.
Clearly my brain was not working last night. I misread what you were asking for. PhoneMyPC is nice but requires a client install.
If your goal is end client support and you do not want to require them to install an application you might consider UltraVNC single click for the client ( http://www.uvnc.com/addons/singleclick.html )+ a VNC viewer on android. While it will not perform as well as PhoneMyPC it has the benefit of being a zero foot print solution and works well in situations where the client may not want/be able to install applications on their system. I keep a build on my website and if a situation pops up that requires me to access the end user's machine have them download and run it.
Your request for WOL is a bit confusing though, which implies you are not going for end user support. What are you looking for:
- a solution to connect to your personal machine running in the same subnet as your phone
- a solution to connect to your personal machine from wherever you may be at
- a solution to connect to remote end users machines with a pre-installed application
- a solution to connect to remote end users machines without a pre-installed application
- something else.
WOL can be triggered remotely (with preparation) but regardless requires the machine to be set up properly and that you know the MAC address in advance, not likely in a remote end user scenario.
Does anyone know where can I get the PhoneMyPC installation file for the phone? I couldn't find any download link on their site.
On the market. search for "phonemypc". It is a commercial app (9.99 USD) so that is pretty much your only way to get it.
Trust me on this one, go with Remote Desktop Client from xtralogic.. I've been using it for nearly a year.. its the best RDP you will find, no client install needed.
PhoneMyPC is the BEST!
Wait... we're biased ;-)
I suspect the user base here is savvy enough to know much of this, but a few details for anybody who's interested.
PhoneMyPC uses a technology similar to VNC, but it's custom and generally performs better. It is a bandwidth-limited approach to remoting, and we chose this because (a) we wanted something that made no compromises on visual quality (no missing desktop wallpapers, no changed settings, no missing themes), and we see the trend in available bandwidth going steadily up for the forseeable future. This makes PhoneMyPC a good option for remote video, for example, because it is optimized for pictoral data rather than vector data.
RDP, on the other hand, is optimized for vector data, so typically consumed less bandwidth than PhoneMyPC, but much more CPU resources. It also has the advantage that it is built in to all Professional and Server Windows versions.
The biggest difference between the two however is how they handle the network. With RDP you must know and configure your IP, and you must update it when it changes (or use a DynDNS type solution). You must also know how to configure your router and other security mechanisms for port forwarding.
PhoneMyPC just works, because it uses our servers as a connection point between your phone and PC(s). You don't need to know your IP, or worry if it changes, becuase the PC will actually tell the phone what it's IP is every time you connect. You can use port forwarding to get a better, direct connection, but it is not required for the software to work.
Finally, RDP is a long-lasting, well established (and more or less un-changing) technology; that is an advantage from some perspectives. But if you compare what users are saying PhoneMyPC is at least as good, and it's new, still growing, always getting better, and we're not even close to done yet. That too is an advantage from some perspectives.
SoftwareForMe.com
Makers of PhoneMyPC
I've bought all of them, and I could never get Phone My PC to connect. RDC by xtralogic, Remote VNC Pro Android VNC work great (used with TightVNC).
EDIT: Any suggestions Softwareforme? Also constant f/c's when connected via wifi on N1.
I have been very intrigued about the functionality of available remote desktop clients for the android platform, allowing control of one's PC via 3g/4g data or WiFi.
The question that I pose today is,
"Is there a 'Remote Android Client' available for the Android phone and PC to control an Android phone over 3g/4g or WiFi from a PC?"
The specifics of the software that I am seeking are,
Full access and permissions over a rooted phone.
Full gps, bluetooth, and network functionality.
-Including other additional features.
Is this available? Can a program like this be made?
This is truly a general question! I have a new requirement to use a "mobile device" to connect a field laboratory device to a server. Since nothing has been developed, the whole world is open and I'm interested in what "those in the know" might suggest.
Based on input from a user interface, the mobi device must read a small amount of data (less tha 1KB) from the field laboratory device, transfer this to a server. The server will accept the data, save it in a database, and then crunch some numbers which will be returned to the mobile device for display to the user.
I titled this question as "all things to all people" in that the objective is to be able run this application on as many different devices as possible. It is not in our interest to require that the user have "just one more" mobile device.
With that background, what local communications is most widely used - Bluetooth, NFC, WiFi, USB, etc. (A simple serial port would suffice, but apparently that's no longer an acceptable standard!)
My presumption is that the application would be written in Java, but that may be naive. I also presume that the "server" is just a device on the internet, but not necessarily an HTTP application.
I'm open to suggestions...
If you're designing both the server and the laboratory device, USB, Bluetooth and wifi are all viable choices. If you have to interface to an existing device, the device will determine the interface.
If the device is to run on the user's choice of mobile device, you'll most likely have to write the mobile app in both Java (Android) and C++ (iOS).
So, here's the deal. I manage a number of virtual clients running in hyper-v and each individually connected to non split tunnel VPNs. So I need to connect to the hyper-v system through management tools in windows and administer them using the console interface rather than RDP. All doing this while on the phone.
Currently I do everything LAN side using an analog phone. Which means I am tied to a desk. I want to break away from this constraint and have the ability to be mobile. First, I'll have to figure out how to configure a PBX for call forwarding, and I need to keep the reliability and quality of the analog phone. Most VoIP or cellular providers are out of the question for this. Next I'll have to find a portable system running Windows in order to connect to hyper-v clients. I'll also need a reliable data connection for this these issues are where I need some expert advice.
What device would best suit these needs? Most everything will be via cloud computing through a VPN.
What cellular data provider would work best for this if it even possible? I may just suck down bandwidth in this scenario, I don't know.
Thoughts, opinions, etc?
Dear Members,
Imagine: An Android Black Box without any screen but only USB Power+Data and Wi-Fi ports to be connected with a Lap- /Desk- top computer and the combo used as a Superphone
I have been planning for a long time to use internet — like the thread I had posted in Unix StackExchange in
unix.stackexchange.com/questions/86380/reading-sim-data-via-file-managers-using-usb-datamodem, around September 2013.
There I had posted the links of an idea: If Mobile-> Internet access Modem, why not datacard->mobile, posted in both Knoppix and Debian forums, around March 2013.
A killer of an idea came to me while I began using web.whatsapp.com
I have been doing research on the alternatives of the Android OS available on the web. These two links are sufficient for what I am going to present:
beebom.com/android-alternative/
itsfoss.com/open-source-alternatives-android/
Won't it be easier if, rather than to build free and Open-source alternatives to Android, Android itself is enhanced for its use with a computer, keyboard and mouse, using an app like the Whatsapp Digital Optical Code scanner, to have the display and button- and touchscreen- controls transferred to our lap- / desk- top computers, like we can in Whatsapp via web.whatsapp.com?
In Linux there already are ways to remotely control a desktop via appropriate permissions with a GUI interface.
This way, Google remains happy, while we too remain free from restrictive policies.
There are many emulators already available on the Open Source Linux systems, like QEMU, VirtualBox, and so on, not to mention the proprietary VMWare.
The app needs to have two parts:
(1) A rudimentary functionality of a Transceiver/Emulator, to slip right between the Hardware and the Android OS, creating a "What You Ask Is What You Get" one to one virtual communicator, and side by side, relaying the signals to the main app.
(2) A virtualisation of the user input signals and transceiving the same with the Android OS.
The main application having all the remaining functionalities to connect the Android OS with the Lap- / Desk- top via Wi-Fi, internet and its in-built optical scanner.
Of course, the App needs to have a cloud application to store all the data of the users on the cloud securely via SSL security like Whatsapp.
The App could earn its profits from the revenue structure Google has erected to have the app paid via advertisements. Interested users like us would also be more than willing to pay for the app, I believe.
In the end, again, a device could as well be developed to combine an Android SmartPhone Black-Box (without screen) Hot-plugged with a standard lap- / desk- top and forming a seamless combination of the two into one super-unit via Free and Open Source Software.
To conclude, I seek this opportunity to inform that I am a very empowering closet-entrepreneur, but I have my own limitations because of my inability to accept certain existing structures. So rather than forming an entrepreneurship venture, I like freely to share information. FOSI instead of FOSS, I for Ideas.