iPad phone home?
September 6, 2010 8:00 AM   Subscribe

I have a new iPad, and I'd like to use it to remotely connect to my PC. Can this be done?

I have a 16GB wi-fi iPad. I have a laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium. I would love to be able to remotely access my laptop from elsewhere in the house or elsewhere in the world to work with files/images/videos/etc.

Is there an app for that?
posted by po822000 to Computers & Internet (12 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Sure logmein ignition does it pretty nicely - there are some cheaper remote desktop apps as well.
posted by bitdamaged at 8:10 AM on September 6, 2010


Two main options:

1) A VNC client like iTeleport. You would need to install a VNC server on the PC too.

2) LogMeIn has an iPad client, and their own PC side software as well. Probably better support on this option since they are selling an end-to-end solution.

Both of these are pretty pricey for iPad apps, about $25-30.
posted by smackfu at 8:14 AM on September 6, 2010


You can has VNC. There are a couple of apps for the iPad and the server software to be run on your Windows laptop is free too.
posted by Biru at 8:14 AM on September 6, 2010


AIR Video is a good video streaming solution. Server software is installed on your PC. I've only used on my internal network but am sure you can set it up to stream over the internet.
posted by laukf at 8:22 AM on September 6, 2010


I have not used the iPad client but I can confirm that LogMeIn is pretty cool and generally works really well.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:31 AM on September 6, 2010


I recommend iTap RDP. Unlike VNC, the Remote Desktop Server is built in to Vista, so getting it connected is trivial (maybe it's just me, but I had trouble getting the UltraVNC server configured correctly; go figure...). I forget how much it cost, but i know there was a "lite" version I tried before buying it that was time-constrained, and since I'm so damned cheap about apps, it couldn't have been more than ten bucks.

Also seconding Air Video if you want to watch something. Neither Remote Desktop nor VNC are fast enough for that, so you'll need a dedicated solution. Unlike VNC, the Air Video server component worked with the default settings (and really, really well, I might add).
posted by OneMonkeysUncle at 9:28 AM on September 6, 2010


the Remote Desktop Server is built in to Vista, so getting it connected is trivial

Not the Home versions of Vista or 7 like the poster has. It's considered a "professional" feature. There might be hacks to get it working on the Home versions but it makes it non-trivial.
posted by smackfu at 9:47 AM on September 6, 2010


Response by poster: What are the primary differences between the VNC & LogMeIn?
posted by po822000 at 4:57 PM on September 6, 2010


There is also Teamviewer
posted by TimeDoctor at 5:27 PM on September 6, 2010


So the main difference between VNC and LogMeIn is the amount of configuration needed. With LogMeIn you don't need to really configure anything once the app is running on both the client (iPad) and server (PC). LogMeIn actually provides a webservice that the devices register with which negates some configuration steps.

VNC is a bit more raw - so you need to configure the routers and, perhaps, firewalls which surround the PC - noting that in some corporate environments this may not be possible (also note I haven't tried logging into a PC behind a corporate firewall either... a firewall may block - but at least the routing won't be an issue.
posted by bitdamaged at 10:21 AM on September 7, 2010


seconding airvideo. a *great* app, does encoding/decoding on the fly for videos and never had an issue streaming over my local nenetwork

have not tried to stream over the 'net (have to set up ports, etc and just haven't sat down and done it) but thats my next project...
posted by knockoutking at 5:18 PM on September 7, 2010


Response by poster: LogMeIn works great! Thanks!
posted by po822000 at 12:49 PM on October 11, 2010


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