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Old 07-31-2009, 03:27 AM   #1
Samuel Sparrow
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Controlling PC from Mobile Device?

Are there any mobile devices with reasonable sized screens, that let you see exactly what is on your PC screen and control it remotely? My dream is to have the mobility of an e-reader, with the power of my PC.

Accessing my PC through the internet would be a nice thing to have, but what I really want is to control my PC through a wireless connection at home. I have seen the prices on these Tablet PCs are extreme, because they fit a PC into a small device. So I was wondering if anyone created a visual controller device, that is nothing more than a remote interface to a PC?

Last edited by Samuel Sparrow; 07-31-2009 at 03:32 AM.
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Old 07-31-2009, 04:49 AM   #2
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Search on VNC and you will find the free apps to control your PC over your netork via you PDA or whatever. You can pickup and old pocket PC or other similar device and find an VNC client app which will run on it then setup the VNC server portion on your PC and you are good.

It does get a tad complicated when you need to ensure your remote device will use the same Wifi security as your network, and we are using WPA2 right? Everything before that has been cracked...I have used my Sony Clie nx73v, my Nokia N800 to control a media server I setup. I no longer use the Clie as it only used WEP and my router supports only one security protocol. My N800 uses WPA2 no problem. There are lots if inexpensive used PDA's out there on eBay that either have Wifi or you can add it with a CF Wifi card or even a SDHC EyeFi card which are pretty cool but kinda pricey yet FUN...btw, the EyeFi card is also a neat way to immediately transfer pictures to your PC from your DSLR or Point & Shoot cameras if they use SDHC...

Of course you can also setup a VPN (Virtual Private Network) and remotely access your C that way as well, plus it's very secure but a VPN is a bit more complicated to setup...more than using VNC...it is also possible to setup both systems to remotely access your PC via web from outside your home network (though that is the way a VPN works anyway)...

That should be enough info to get you started...there are a lot of options. Do some research and have some fun.

I will add one more caveat in that BOTH setups will be somewhat slow (the PDA/PocketPC are just older and us less powerful CPU's) and have limitations so the simplier you keep it the happier you will be. Now if you buy a cheaper netbook, it could be really nice in reality and maybe only $50 more or even less depending.
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Old 07-31-2009, 11:11 PM   #3
Samuel Sparrow
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Thanks for your help brecklundin. This is going to be fun.

EDIT:
I just had a look for tablet PCs on Ebay anfound they are around the $300 range. For some reason the online stores sell them for $2000 and up. Perhaps they are all second hand.

Last edited by Samuel Sparrow; 07-31-2009 at 11:21 PM.
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Old 08-01-2009, 06:28 AM   #4
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Originally Posted by Samuel Sparrow View Post
Thanks for your help brecklundin. This is going to be fun.

EDIT:
I just had a look for tablet PCs on Ebay anfound they are around the $300 range. For some reason the online stores sell them for $2000 and up. Perhaps they are all second hand.
Check out the SmartQ 5 & 7 on http://www.dealextreme.com/
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Old 08-01-2009, 07:00 AM   #5
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Thanks Nation. That looks nice, but I think the screen is a bit too small for what I want to do.

BTW I just got RealVNC and linked an old lap top to my PC and found the screen was a little smaller than I'd like. Also the refresh rate is slow, but acceptable.

What I'm wondering is if I got one of those wireless USB adapters, will it speed up the screen refresh rate significantly? They say the speeds are 54 MBPS. Does anyone know if that is fast enough for real time video?

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Old 08-01-2009, 11:15 AM   #6
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There is a company called Shape Services the make two produces for the iPhone /Blackberry. It's called RDM and VNC. RDM is for window users and VNC is pretty much for anyone else.

You can actually control your computer over your phone.

The SW cost $30.
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Old 08-04-2009, 12:01 AM   #7
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Originally Posted by Samuel Sparrow View Post
Thanks Nation. That looks nice, but I think the screen is a bit too small for what I want to do.

BTW I just got RealVNC and linked an old lap top to my PC and found the screen was a little smaller than I'd like. Also the refresh rate is slow, but acceptable.

What I'm wondering is if I got one of those wireless USB adapters, will it speed up the screen refresh rate significantly? They say the speeds are 54 MBPS. Does anyone know if that is fast enough for real time video?
careful there...wait....first CONGRATS on getting the VNC setup. It can seem hard but it works pretty well.

But back the the "careful" comment...networking speeds are mbps not MBps...as in mega-bits/sec vs. MB/s = mega-bytes/sec...a HUGE difference. so, probably no a wireless network adapter isn't gonna help...btw, 54mbps is fast enough for video. But the problem is video over VNC is usually not very successful. There is too much overhead. Not saying some folks have not made it work, but there are other options if that is what you want.

here is a search for trying to get video to run over VNC:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&r...&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

One simple option is to setup a webserver, like IIS or Apache, on one of the systems on your network and serve content using just MMC:// but there are difficulties...other options include using Orb. A pretty easy media servier that supports streaming video.

Google "media streaming" and maybe "media server" to get into a pretty complex subject with a TON of options.

You can even setup an ICE or Shoutcast server to serve content over just your network (kinda complicated)...Orb is a really nice option if you are wanting to stream video files. Only thing with Orb is I believe it can only work if you reach out to the Orb server which then grabs the content from your home network all via the web...so, bandwidth will be an issue.
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