Remote Access from a Smartphone

Remote Access from a Smartphone

This simple workshop will show you how you can access your PC at home or office from anywhere in the world via an Android phone or tablet, iPhone or iPad.

By Francis D’Sa

There may have been several

occasions when you were at

home, on holiday or travelling and

urgently needed to access your office

PC for some important documents. Or

you may have kept some files to be

downloaded on your home PC and now

you need to shut down the PC from a

remote area (office or outstation). What

do you do? How do you gain access to

your PC? You have the option of asking

a colleague or family member to help

you out, but what if you have some

confidential data on your PC and would

not want to compromise on privacy? Well,

there is a way to gain access to your PC

via the Internet using the Remote Desktop

Protocol or RDP. But this involves setting

up a live IP address, which is visible all

around the world. You can possibly do

this for home, but what about your office

PC, which is behind a firewall or a proxy

server? You would not be able to gain

access as easily. In this workshop, we

shall show you how simple it is to gain

access to your PC at home or office from

your Android smartphone or tablet as

well as the iPhone or the iPad. All you

need is an internet-enabled device with

a free-to-use app called TeamViewer.

Configuring TeamViewer is a child’s play

and you can get working on it in a matter

of minutes. At the same time, the utility

is very safe and secure. Once you have

your setup working, you can also connect

to your desktop PC from any Internet

cybercafé using the Web login.

TeamViewer is an all-in-one solution

for remote access over the Internet. It is

free for personal use and is compatible

with desktop operating systems such

as Windows, Mac, Linux and also with

mobile operating systems such as Android

and iOS. Download TeamViewer for your

desktop PC from www.teamviewer.com.

We recommend the portable version

which can be run from a USB drive or

a CD. The app for the smartphone and

tablets can be downloaded from their

respective online app stores.

Once downloaded, you'll have to

configure it at both ends once, but before

you do this, you might need to register

with TeamViewer for a free user account.

You can do so by signing up at https://

login.teamviewer.com/ and creating a

free account.

The Desktop PC Configuration

Start TeamViewer, agree with terms

and conditions and proceed with the

installation as you would usually do

with any other software. Once the

installation is done, start TeamViewer

and it will sync with its online servers

and allocate a unique ID and password

for your computer. Note down these

details and keep them safe. Every time

you restart the application, you will

receive a new password, while the ID

will remain static for your PC. This ID

and password is a one-time security

pass to give the invitation for a remote

login to your PC. You can use this ID and

password to connect to your desktop PC

from a remote location. But if you restart

your PC very often, it will be difficult to

keep track of the changing passwords.

For this reason, you need to setup an

unattended access to TeamViewer. Click

on ‘Connection’ and then on ‘Setup

unattended access’. This will bring up

a wizard wherein details such as the

PC name and password needs to be

specified. Give the desktop PC a name

and password of your choice. The next

screen will then ask you to enter the

details that you registered online. If you

did not do it earlier, you can create one

now too. After entering the details, your

system will now be available to you

online with the same password every

time. Your desktop PC is now available for

remote access. You can now choose to

lock the desktop or turn off the monitor.

The Client Side

After installing TeamViewer on your

handheld, start the app. You will be

welcomed by an initial introduction

screen, which can be skipped by pressing

the back button. The next screen will be

ready on the ‘Connection’ tab, where you

can type in the details of the ID and the

password of the computer you would like

to connect to. Simply skip this and click

on the ‘Partner list’ tab. Here you can log

in using your username and password

you created on the TeamViewer website.

Once you do this, you will see a button

called ‘My Partners’. Click on this button

and you will now see the desktop PC

available online. Click on the PC name

and you can gain access to your desktop

PC. And you’re done! Simple, isn’t it?

Once in it, you can investigate the number

of features TeamViewer has to offer. You

can change resolutions, switch monitors,

tweak the performance by optimizing for

quality or speed, remove wallpapers for

better speeds, disable remote cursor, use

the keyboard, use the mouse right-clicks,

enable function buttons, and the list goes

on. Wel l, enjoy your remote access.

– francis.dsa@chip.in