Site to access pc via mobile

[Guest Killian]

I used to have an account on a website where you installed software to your pc, and providing you had it switched on and running you could access the pcs content (files, folders, etc) from anywhere by logging into their site.

I'll be getting the Vario III soon and wanted to get it back up and running but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. Any ideas?

[Guest mandt]

LogMeIn? I use it all the time, it's great!

https://secure.logmein.com/home.asp?lang=en

[Guest Menneisyys]

There are several solutions to this. In order to avoid having to link in external sites, I cross-post my related article. Note that it's a thre-part, very long one but you'll find an answer to ALL of your questions in there. It starts here:

UPDATE (06/02/2007): for quite a while, it was impossible to access the LogMeIn service from WM6 devices (from under IEM) because of the new (and, with the traditional hacks, not modifiable) User-Agent headers WM6 sends to the Web server. Fortunately, this problem has been fixed in the meantime as can be seen for example HERE. That is, now, LogMeIn DOES work under IEM in WM6.

I’ve frequently been asked whether there are Java midlet RDP clients runnable even on low-end mobile phones. Yes, there are; for example, TSMobiles by SHAPE Services. Incidentally, it also works on the MS Smartphone (WM Standard) platform. Note that, for the WM5+ Smartphone, you will want to prefer the WM6 RDP client with SPHelper, the mouse emulator; see THIS for more info. Also note that, should you need a VNC client for the Smartphone, you'll want to check out for example THIS client.

(end of update)

I’ve long been promising a generic roundup on accessing desktop Windows PC computers from Pocket PC’s, mostly because there aren’t really usable and/or up-to-date all-in-one articles on the subject, let alone comparative ones.

Getting this roundup ready took me a lot of time (over six weeks): much more than I’ve originally expected. The reason for this was that I’ve made some really serious bandwidth usage and networking model tests so that I can provide you as much objective, comparative information as possible. I have also very thoroughly tested the protocols used by these applications to find out internal weaknesses or lack of optimization. I’ve also been in really busy correspondence (asking about every single problem / question I’ve run into in their applications) with most of the authors of these titles; I’d like to thank Carsten Alsted Christiansen and Csaba Tutsek from Danware, Ditta Khan from NetSupport Ltd, Jan Frydendal from MochaSoft and Julie Geer & Heidi Wieland from Citrix Systems for their answering my questions. (The Symantec folks don’t have a working E-mail address and their online chat support (yes, it's outsourced to India), to put it mildly, leaves a lot to be desired. As far as Laplink is concerned, I haven’t received any answer to my mail sent to [email protected] on 12/11/2006.) Also, special thanks goes to Minakshi Pai of 01 Communique and “Dave” from Parys Technografx for not only answering my questions, but also listening to my recommendations and ideas, some of them having already been incorporated into the most recent versions of these applications.

I’d also like to send special thanks to AximSite god akheron (he was of tremendous help in, for example, hunting for the trial version of pcAnywhere), H/PC Factor moderator (and also well-known contributor on many Handheld PC-related boards / forums) cmonex and forum member TFGBD for their help in their forums.

One of my main objectives with the thorough measurements was to provide an up-to-date bandwidth consumption report. Up to now, to my knowledge, it's only Jason Nieh that has published really usable bandwidth usage reports (I really recommend the articles on his just-linked homepage if you're into the subject). His, so far, most important PDA-related article, "Improving web browsing performance on wireless PDA’s using thin-client computing" (direct link to the article), which was published in 2004, contains pretty outdated and no-longer-topical information. With my measurements, I think I could produce a decent and, what is more, up-to-date overview of the bandwidth usage of current, real Pocket PC applications. By the way, still as far as Jason Nieh's PDA-related work is concerned, I especially recommend his article "pTHINC: A Thin-Client Architecture for Mobile Wireless Web" on a promising initiative. I really hope it will be released some day as a real Pocket PC product.

First, let me point out that I’ve “only” reviewed and compared “full” remote control solutions in here. This means I have not included multimedia- or scripting-only controllers. They will be reviewed in my forthcoming roundup. That is, if you “only” want to remote control, say, your desktop Windows Media Player or run your scripts when initiated from your Pocket PC, you may want to wait for the next article. (It’s, generally, much easier and much less resource-, including bandwidth, intensive to remote control a multimedia app or server-side scripts with a dedicated application than via a generic remote access application. That is, you won’t really want to remote control for example your WMP via, say, VNC.)

Also note that it’s not here that I have elaborated on the opposite direction; that is, controlling the Pocket PC from a desktop PC (or another Pocket PC). Please read this article for more information on this subject, making sure you also follow the links to my older articles.

Last but not least: most of the tangible information is in the 120 kbyte-long comparison and benchmark chart. In the non-chart-based part of this review, I only give a terse, broad, but in no way thorough overview of what the reviewed applications are all about and how they compare to each other. It’s also in here that I elaborate on the underlying protocols (RFB (in VNC), RDP (in Terminal Server/ Services aka (Microsoft) Remote Desktop)), the way you can decrease bandwidth usage (which is of paramount importance when you use, say, a non-unlimited mobile phone-based connection) etc. Most of the comparative, real, quantitive information and hundreds of screenshots (many of them functioning as a mini-tutorial showing how the mentioned/ discussed functionality can be enabled in a given application), however, are in the chart. Therefore, make sure you, for example, open the chart in a maximized browser window. If you have an UXGA (1600*1200) or an even wider screen (WUXGA, for example), then, you’ll be able to see all the 18 columns at once while still being able to read the text. With lower-resolution screens, you’ll end up having to scroll horizontally to be able to read all the information (and many state (W)UXGA screens are useless and should be avoided... :( ). Sorry for that: comparison / feature charts like this are still the best, the most compact and reliable way to compare products and list all their capabilities, unlike plain text-approaches many other reviews use. Note that I also thoroughly explain how the chart should be read in a later section.

1. Introduction

The aim of remote access applications is the same: to provide you access to your desktop computer(s) (in here, I'll refer to them as "remote desktops") when you’re away from them. You can control them from your client PC (or, in this case, Pocket PC) directly. That is, you can see the remote desktop on your (local) client PC (Pocket PC) as if it were running locally, right on your client and not somewhere else on the Internet far away. With some really advanced clients, you can also do direct file transfers, clipboard synchronization (for example, if you have a loooooong e-mail address in a local file / database on your local client (Pocket) PC, you only copy it to the local clipboard and, then, just synchronize the clipboard so that it also becomes available on the remote clipboard; this way, you can avoid having to re-enter it on the remote desktop by hand), remote administration and Personal Information Management (PIM) data (calendar, contacts and even mails) access in addition to “plain” remote controlling.

There are, basically, two kinds of remote access / control applications: 1. Web-based ones and 2. non-Web based ones.

In general, the former

1. are much easier to set up on both the server and the client (except for, maybe, RDP-based, already built-in solutions like the RDP-based "Remote Desktop" in Windows XP Pro and Terminal Services Client (TSC) in most client-side Pocket PC’s). In most cases, when you plan to install the server on your desktop computer you want to access remotely, you just navigate to the homepage of the developer and let it download a server to your desktop PC, which, then, you just install (the latter is, in most cases, just clicking the “next” button and entering the username and/or password you’ll want to use). Furthermore, as far as client installs are concerned on any desktop PC or Pocket PC you come by, you just navigate to the above page and try to log into your remote PC. This will trigger a fully automated client download and install.
   
2. give complete freedom to the subscribers in that they connect to their remote desktops really easily, independent of the networking model of their desktop (that is, these services even work over firewalled and/or severely restricted connections). All you need to do is making sure your computer you want to remotely access has Internet access. No need to configure any firewalls or to even know the actual Internet address of your computer, the central Web server takes care of all this. All you need to do is logging into your central account in the central Web server: it will connect you to your remote desktop.
   

That is, for a non-IT-professional, these kinds of remote access solutions are preferable to the other group, which, in general, requires manual server download, installation, configuration and, in cases, tuning. This is why, first, I discuss the first group.

1.1 Web-based end-user applications

1.1.1 LogMeIn

Probably the most important and most recommended Web-based application, unless you need advanced PIM / mail access functionality, is LogMeIn. It, basically, has two versions: the free LogMeIn Free, which only offers remote control (with all the advantages of web-based access: firewall support, on-the-fly, easy client install requiring almost no user intervention or setup etc.) and LogMeIn Pro, which, in addition to remote controlling your desktop, also supports file transfer (with desktop clients, bidirectional, with Pocket PC clients, download only) and, for non-Pocket PC clients,

1. Remote Printing to print remote files locally, on the printer attached to client
   
   
2. File Sharing to easily share large files, without uploads (similar to, say, MegaUpload)
   
   
3. Guest Invite to share the desktop for remote collaboration
   
   
4. File Synchronization to synchronize files & folders of the client and the remote desktop
   
   
5. Security (256-bit SSL encryption)
   

As can be seen, the Pocket PC version, unfortunately, is decidedly worse than the desktop PC one – as is the case with, unfortunately, most of the reviewed applications.

If you opt for going for the Pro version, you can bring down the price by just declining the LogMeIn Pro update after the Pro trial period is over (note that if you go right for the Free version, you get a Pro trial too). Then, you’ll be sent a mail that offers another 30% rebate, bringing down the annual price to $44.95. It’s a pretty friendly and highly recommended price if you take the price of the other solutions into account (and don’t need their unique features; for example, the PIM access features of the two times more expensive I’m InTouch or the excellent bandwidth usage of the four times more expensive GoToMyPC).

Note that earlier versions had problems with WM5 AKU2 devices. This has been fixed in later versions and isn’t an issue any more.

More info: The free version of the LogMeIn service has also been mentioned in the “What Is The Best Free Service?” thread at PPCT.

Some screenshots (note that you'll find a LOT more in the comparison / feature chart!): Local client install to add computers; after it’s installed, it’ll prompt you. The server-side settings dialog is browser-based as can be seen in here.

Verdict

A well-behaving, stable, useful application. The free version is probably the most recommended, really-easy-to-set-up-and-access application working in any networking environment, for casual, not necessarily power users not wanting to have external PIM access.

1.1.2 GotoMyPC by Citrix

This Web-based remote access solution has by far the best bandwidth usage of all the solutions. This means about third or even fourth the bandwidth usage of comparable solutions. This is, unfortunately, a bit worsened by the idle bandwidth usage (see the chart for numeric results), of which I'll speak later more. The other, major disadvantage of this solution is the price (the monthly rate is $19.95, the annual plan $14.95 a month) – it’s way more expensive than other Web-based solutions. For example, it’s about four times more expensive than LogMeIn Pro and two times more expensive than I’m InTouch and RemotelyAnywhere. With the Pocket PC client, it doesn’t offer file transfer or other advanced functionalities either, unlike most of the alternatives.

A quick tip: Upon registering for a trial version, by default, you need to supply your card number for the trial. If you don’t want to use the card (because, for example, you are worried about forgetting to decline the subscription before the trial period is over), you’ll be offered a 30day/180 minutes, cardless plan. Alternatively, you may also want to go here for a version that doesn’t require inputting a card number. Finally, if you just stop the registration process on the credit card setup screen, after about three weeks you’ll receive a mail offering you the card-less registration page URL.

After letting the app install the client, a GoToMyPC icon will be put in the Start Menu / Programs. By just clicking it, PIE will be fired up and you’ll be taken to the online GoToMyPC login screen.

As far as the astonishingly good bandwidth usage is concerned, I’ve directly asked the Citrix folks whether they use the famous ICA protocol (also see this and this discussion). It is NOT using ICA, despite what I would have thought.

Note that the client no longer needs Java support to run, as opposed to older versions (see for example this for more info on the past versions).

More info: Reviews of the service are here and here; an ad is here.

Verdict

Go for this title if you want to have absolutely the best bandwidth usage and responsiveness and the high subscription price isn’t a problem. If you, on the other hand, don’t need to use a really bandwidth-saving method and/or would prefer a cheaper solution, look elsewhere – alternative solutions are not only much cheaper (if not free as is the case with LogMeIn Free), but also offer far more (file transfer with all alternative Web-based solutions – except for LogMeIn Free -, PIM / e-mail access with I’m InTouch etc).

1.1.3 RemotelyAnywhere 7.10.552

This Web-based service uses exactly the same Pocket PC GUI as LogMeIn and, therefore, is pretty similar to that of GoToMyPC. For example, the file transfer screen and waiting dialogs are the same as with LogMeIn. As with LogMeIn, it has chatting and it has very similar menus and can, for example, dynamically change the remote desktop resolution. The control interface is exactly the same as with LogMeIn; so is the file manager. Unfortunately, there’s no file upload here either.

The most unique feature of RemotelyAnywhere is the remote administration interface, which is accessible even on a Pocket PC. No other Pocket PC-based remote controller offers the same functionality. This means you will want to consider using RemotelyAnywhere if you want to access your desktop(s) through a local admin interface to, for example, remotely access the registry, the service list and other properties of a given desktop computer.

Connection model-wise, unlike on the GUI level, it’s really different than any of the other applications in the Web-based section. While it must be installed from the Web (the $99 – note that there’s a 25% rebate if you sign up for two years at once - Workstation Edition is available here and the Pocket PC client (as with all the other Web-based services, it uses auto-installation) here), you don’t need to visit the Web site of the developer to log into your remote desktop. Instead, you will need to connect to your remote desktop directly, by entering its (current) Internet address into your Web browser running on your client. This means, for example, you don’t need to have an active Internet connection to access your remote desktop and that your connections will be always direct, meaning no additional slow-downs caused by routing your traffic (or parts of it) through third-party centralized servers. This, on the other hand, also means you won’t be able to access your remote desktop unless you know its address (which may be problematic if it’s using dynamic IP’s) and it isn’t behind a non-port forwarding firewall.

All in all, the main differences between RemotelyAnywhere and LogMeIn / GoToMyPC / I’m InTouch are as follows:

1. RemotelyAnywhere can be directly connected – no need to log in to the online LogInMe / GoToMyPC / I’m InTouch service. This means it can be used over strictly non-internet-connected LAN’s (for example, Wi-Fi P2P or BT PAN connections) too
   
2. as can be seen in the left frame of the browser on desktop PC screenshots, it allows for using a lot of other technologies for accessing; for example, Java or even HTML (the latter is pretty useless though as it’s only static images that this returns, not dynamic, editable windows). On the Pocket PC, these won’t work; however, the (there, by default HTML + javascript-based) remote monitoring features do and are wonderful.
   

This means there are definite cases when you will want to prefer RemotelyAnywhere to LogMeIn and the other alternates: if you need LAN-based login and/or better access to direct system monitoring. This, of course, comes with a price, which is about twice of that of LogMeIn Pro. The complete lack of HTTP(S) tunneling can also be a stumbling block for many.

Screenshots: Login on desktop; the main desktop interface with a lot of additional info. On the Pocket PC, the login screen and the main menu (second page). As can be seen, it has a LOT of goodies, for example, a registry editor (second screenshot showing it can even create new entries, values (second screenshot) and, of course, modify existing ones). An example of the Services dialog. The system info window on the PDA (second page).

Note that it’s, protocol-wise, is compatible with LogMeIn Reach (also see the pricing info here).

1.1.4 I’m InTouch by 01 Communique

This, compared to other Web-based solutions, moderately expensive (annually, $99.95) solution is, as far as strictly the remote controlling functionality is concerned, doesn’t really have much to write home about. Not so with remotely accessing and searching (!) PIM data (Outlook and Outlook Express contacts, calendar, mails). This means you should pay special attention to this product particularly if you need remote access to your PIM stuff and e-mails.

(The remote viewer running on Pocket PC)

Note that they have two products: the $99.95 “Deluxe” version with remote control, file transfer, Web camera & PIM access capabilities. They also have a “Standard” version for half the price, which “only” offers mail/PIM access and wireless notification capabilities. (See this for the pricing information.)

Example screenshots: Remote mail; SMTP server setup; it uses its own login / password; the client loading on the Pocket PC. The Viewer also must be supplied a password; this may be different from the server password. It also supports stealth mode and contains an update module.

More info: A review of an earlier version is here. Note that the (moderately) high memory consumption (about 35 Mbytes) also mentioned in the linked review is, unfortunately, still true.

Verdict

Go give it a try if you want to have as easy remote PIM access as possible. Otherwise, for example LogMeIn Free may prove to be a bit faster, more responsive (and free).

1.1.5 Laplink Everywhere (LLE)

This is also a Web-based access service. I don't recommend it, not even for desktop PC client users, let alone Pocket PC users: its only advantage over the other reviewed remote controller solutions is the ability to access the remote desktop via Google Desktop Search directly on your Pocket PC, without your having to log into your desktop and without using third-party Google desktop proxy solutions like Project Computing’s Google Desktop Proxy or DNKA.

I haven’t included this title in the main chart because it entirely lacks remote control capabilities on the Pocket PC – it’s only on the desktop PC that it has remote control-capable clients. Furthermore, the Laplink Companion Client (the native Palm and Pocket PC client to remotely access E-mails on your remote desktop), as of version 1.1.412.812, doesn’t even start under WM5 and, under previous operating systems, while it does start, it can’t connect to desktops – it always displays the “Security negotiation failed” error message. (Also note that the Pocket PC client stores the username under [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ Software\ Sproqit Technologies\ Client\ Settings\ {EE585C94-E44D- 4537-A003-B1B9E747A875}] and, it seems, it’s not possible to manually add new entries / modify existing ones. It’s set by ActiveSync; this means you must install the PPC client directly from the desktop you’ll later want to access.) Unfortunately, the Laplink folks still haven’t answered my mail so I don’t know whether this problem will be fixed or not.

1.1.5.1 The LLE Web client

The only functionality that works on the Pocket PC are as follows: the above-mentioned Google Desktop-based Desktop search, Internet Favorites and Files links; all accessible via a Pocket Internet Explorer-compliant Web interface (Web Login screen; main menu). Of these, I elaborate on the first and the third; the second only lists the Internet Explorer favorites stored on the remote desktop.

1. Desktop searching: it’s one of the best things as it utilizes Google Desktop Search. If you haven’t already installed it, the client will display an error message (2 3). If you have installed it, you will also have access to this functionality – without your having to use the remote desktop to enter the expression to search for and see the results as can be seen in here and here (the search results on my remote desktop for “iPaq”). After clicking an e-mail link, the results are presented locally as can be seen in here and here. Of course, the “View in Outlook” link won’t work on the Pocket PC version (see the error message here)
   
2. Files: file transfer. As it’s based on HTML (again, this is the only way for a Pocket PC user to access remote files on a desktop), the engine isn’t as flexible as native apps. It doesn’t have file upload capabilities – not even on WM5 devices (the PIE in WM5 already has file upload capabilities), as is, unfortunately, the case with all the other Web-based remote controller solutions too (except for I'm InTouch, which is promised to receive upload capabilities in the future). When you click a file link, the “Send File” button after the refresh will only let for e-mailing the given file, not uploading. Other screenshots of the file transfer module: WM5 download 1 2; WM2003SE filelist
   

1.1.5.2 Problems with LLE

As far as the remote control modules of the desktop client are concerned, they aren’t very fast. They’re constantly using a HTTPS gateway connection, don’t even try to utilize direct connections to speed up the transfer and is definitely slower than any of the four other, strictly Web-based applications. (In this netstat screen, you can also see there’s no direct connection at the client – everything has go through the LapLink server. This may be great for corporate users but not for users that have no or configurable / flexible firewalls where you could also utilize much faster and more capable direct connections.) The user remarks here also back this up.

Unfortunately, LLE is the worst remote access software product in server CPU usage too (as with all HTTPS tunnel-based/enabled solutions, it’s in constant connection with the LapLink server): it’s been constantly between 2 and 11% on all the test Windows desktop PC’s I’ve tested it on. No other HTTPS tunnel-based/enabled solutions (or, for that matter, ANY server-side app listening to incoming requests) behaved this bad in my tests - ALL of them remained under 1% CPU usage.

In addition, it’s a REAL memory hog! The cumulative memory usage of all EXE files in \Program Files\Laplink Everywhere\ and another, in cases, as large as 95M (!) memory hog in the Desktop Agent subdirectory take about 120Mbytes in all – it’s an order of magnitude more than most of the alternatives!

Also, unlike ANY of the always-connected, HTTPS-capable alternatives, it’s the only app to generate a LOT of idle bandwidth; about 39kbytes uplink / 50kbytes downlink in five minutes; that is, about 18 kbytes combined traffic a minute. This is plain unacceptable if your remote desktop has an expensive connection (for example, a non-unlimited GPRS / mobile phone-based Internet access).

Furthermore, it doesn’t let for fine-tuning server-side settings either; this means you can’t, for example, fine-tune the color depth it uses.

Finally, a very important warning: the Web login screen is at https://www.ll2go.com . There’s a Web page at http://www.l2go.com/ (with one ‘l’), which displays a HTTP authorization dialog upon connection. DO NOT EVER enter your Laplink password into this box! This may be a username / password stealing service, which makes advantage of many users’ forgetting to enter two ‘l’’s.

1.1.5.3 Additional information on LLE

Pricing:

One computer, one hour/month access, annual license fee: $44.95

Unlimited access vs one hour / month: +$50

License for +2 PC: +$30

Monthly fee (as opposed to annual): 1.38 times more

Example screens of the setup: 1, 2, 3, 4; the desktop client: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; the (VNC) login screen (it’s rendered improperly if you use bigger system fonts as can be seen in here – attention users with for example UXGA(+) screens!)

It, internally, uses three protocols: its proprietary Laplink protocol, the standard RDP and, finally, VNC.

There are differences between the RDP and the Laplink mode (all in, of course, only available in the desktop client version); for example, Remote Control 4 doesn't support clipboard synchronization, while RDP does; the latter doesn't support sound redirection and file copying (not even drive mapping is possible, unlike with most other Windows/Linux-based RDP clients). Remote Control 4 only supports the default 256-color mode; the RDP-based module supports 16 and 24 bits too (high / true color).

1.2 Non-Web-based applications

There are several applications that, unlike the previously reviewed ones, don’t use a central Web server for keeping track of a computer and client log-ins.

Some of them are based on the RDP (Remote Desktop) protocol (used by Terminal Server / Services in the Terminal Services / Server line of Microsoft Windows and Remote Desktop by Windows XP Pro / Vista); some of them (VNC clients) on Remote FrameBuffer (RFB ) and some use a proprietary one. In the following, I devote three subsections to these three cases. There are major differences between these three cases, which is worth elaborating on because they have a direct, at times, unwanted effect. This also has an effect on the behavior of all the applications based on these protocols. For example, RDP-based remote controlling locks the current user out of the desktop and sets the desktop size to, as far as Pocket PC clients are concerned either VGA (640*480) or SVGA (800*600) resolution.

First, how these protocols compare? I’ve constantly been asked on these; therefore, I elaborate on this question a bit more.

First, the RDP protocol differs a LOT from all the other protocols and has a lot of restrictions. While it’s already installed and available on Windows XP Pro (and enabling it is just some clicks as is explained here), it has some restrictions none of the other solutions have:

1. When a remote session is active, the remote terminal can’t be used by anyone – they will be locked out
   
   
2. As far as Pocket PC clients are concerned, the desktops will be resized to either VGA (640*480) or SVGA (800*600) size. This (particularly the former) may be just too small for some kind of applications you’d like to run. Furthermore, you can’t extend your desktop to your external monitors (which is supported by many other remote controller solutions) either. This may also be a problem in some cases.
   
   
3. With Pocket PC clients prior to WM6 (Crossbow), it doesn’t even let for starting applications that require any kind of sound output. This, in cases, may also result in problems (for example, when you want to start a remote playback of a sound clip or recording some kind of sound input.) It's only with WM6 that this problem has been fixed.
   

Note that while the Start menu doesn’t contain Restart / Shutdown, you can always right-click an empty part of the Windows task bar at the bottom (make sure you don’t do this over any task icon!), and select “Task Manager” from the pop-up context menu. Alternatively, you can even create shortcuts to \Windows\ system32\ shutdown.exe as is explained in the Comments section here (thanks jds580s for the excellent tip!).

While RDP has its drawbacks, it has advantages too; in addition to the above-mentioned availability in many Windows operating systems (without your having to install any server component – you only need to enable them with a single checkbox tick), the really good bandwidth usage (the current, version 5 of RDP is very well though-out, which is not necessarily the case with alternative protocols). Therefore, you may really want to compare its disadvantages and advantages to those of the alternatives - in a lot of cases, RDP may be the best solution.

Second, the second most important protocol is RFB, which forms the foundation for VNC (Virtual Network Computing) clients. When properly configured, with the proper clients, VNC (from now on, I use “VNC” to refer to remote controller products using the RFB protocol) can be even more bandwidth-friendly than the above-introduced Microsoft RDP protocol. VNC clients don’t suffer from the above-listed problems of RDP either and, therefore, may be a much better choice than the built-in RDP under some circumstances (for example, when you don't want to lock out the current user while you remote control the desktop). They, on the other hand, require a separate one-time server install and also require some knowledge of the available encoding methods and server-side scaling (so that you know which menu item to select) to minimize bandwidth usage.

1.2.1 RDP-based applications

Unfortunately, in pre-WM6 operating systems, on the Pocket PC, all RDP clients are pretty restricted, compared to the desktop Windows (or, for that matter, Linux) counterparts – or, even those on the WindowsCE.NET 4.1+-based Handheld PC version discussed here. The latter is far superior to that of any pre-WM6 Windows Mobile-based implementation. Unfortunately, so far, the excellent folks at the just-linked HPC:Factor haven’t managed to “hack” the Handheld PC version onto the Pocket PC. You, however, may want to subscribe to the thread to see whether there is new information.

With WM6, this changes. The RDP client in WM6, Remote Desktop Mobile (note that the old name, "Terminal Services Client", has been dropped) implements most of the functionality of the Handheld PC version except for drive mapping / file transfer, which worked on some (but not all) CE.NET H/PC's.

Note that SmartCell’s RemotePlus still (?) hasn’t been ported to the Pocket PC. Hope SmartCell does it some day: Pocket PC-based Terminal Server / Services clients are all pretty bad and a decent alternative would be more than welcome.

1.2.1.1 Terminal Services Client (TSC) in pre-WM6 operating systems

TSC is built-in in most Pocket PC’s starting with the Pocket PC 2002 operating system. (If you can’t find it on your device (may be the case with devices with restricted ROM size, as was the case with the iPAQ 36xx series updated to PPC2k2), just download it here and just install it on your Pocket PC). It’s a really-really bare-bone application, really inferior to the above-mentioned WinCE .NET version linked above and not even capable of full screen. If you do need the latter, read the following subsection.

1.2.1.1.1 vijay555's full screen TSC hack

Well-known Pocket PC developer & XDA-Developers moderator Vijay555 has fixed the above-mentioned problem of TSC’s not supporting full screen mode (also see this XDA-Dev thread and for example some cache size hacks at post number #14 there.)

Get version 0.46b. It’s, fortunately, much easier to use than most would at first think. You need to do the following:

1. copy vjfullscreentsc.exe to your \Windows\Start Menu\Programs on your Pocket PC and start it
   
   
2. execute it again (or, just click the very small, newly displayed two gray circles in the screen, just under the Start menu; in this screenshot, the mouse cursor is just over them), a menu will come up; in there, select Fullscreen TSC
   
   
3. it will load the TSC client (click OK)
   
   
4. from inside, just log in to the machine you’d like to
   
   
5. from the menu, you can hide the SIP (in the previous screenshot, it’s visible in the bottom right corner and can be pretty annoying if you don’t need to enter anything; then, now that the scrollbars aren’t visible either, you’ll make use of the full screen estate as can be seen for example here); if you get rid of the scrollbars then, you can scroll from here, from a submenu.
   

Note that, on QVGA devices,

1. the horizontal scrollbar is invisible (because of VJFullscreenTSC’s assuming to be running on a VGA device)
   
2. you can’t scroll down entirely with the vertical one either (the bottom 320 pixels aren’t displayed because of the above-mentioned functionality). You can, however, do the latter from the menu (and, then, of course, you can disable the scrollbars entirely).
   

Otherwise, I haven't encountered problems on QVGA devices either.

1.2.1.1.2 The Handheld PC version of TSC

Back in 2001, before Microsoft has released the official Pocket PC client, many used the Handheld PC version of TSC on their Pocket PC’s. The way it was used is explained here and here. Note that it (H/PC Pro version) should be downloaded from here and not at the no-longer-existing URL listed in the article.

Logging into the client is pretty much the same as with any RDP-based solutions.

Its only advantage (unless you use the Vijay555 hack explained above) over the “official” TSC client for the Pocket PC is that it hides the upper task bar. Also, it has a “Low Speed Connection” checkbox (missing from the PPC version), which can toggle between 16- and 256-color modes. (No high-color modes are present.) Some of its problems (there are a LOT more!) are as follows:

1. It can’t be installed on WM5. It only works on operating systems prior to WM5 (I’ve done the tests on my VGA WM2003SE Pocket Loox 720)
   
   
2. The lower Windows taskbar won’t be visible. Note that this isn’t a hacked VGA issue (Program Files\Terminal Server Client\mstsc40.exe must be manually hacked to VGA); not even real VGA mode will help in this case as can be seen in here
   
   
3. You can’t issue right-clicks, unlike with other clients.
   

1.2.1.2 Remote Desktop Mobile in WM6+

As has already been pointed out, Windows Mobile 6 (Crossbow) has a really improved TS client: Remote Desktop Mobile (RDM). It's far better than its predecessor in almost every respect: it supports full screen, high-color (16 bit) mode, (selectable) remote desktop-to-client sound transfer, excellent two-way (textual) clipboard synchronization and local username / password input, which will, then, be remembered (that is, you don't need to input your login credentials to the Windows log-in box but can do the same locally.)

1.2.1.3 Mocha Remote Client 1.2 by MochaSoft

This is a commercial RDC client. While, GUI-wise, it’s certainly better than TSC (but not RDM), I can’t really recommend it because it’s based on the FAR worse version 4 of the RDP protocol, unlike the built-in TSC, which is RDP 5-based. Unfortunately, the older RDP version was far inferior to RDP 5, particularly communication bandwidth-wise.

If you, however, really need to stick to RDP, don't / can't have / get a WM6-based Pocket PC or CE.NET-based Handheld PC and really need the advantages (compared to TSC) of this client (for example, excellent scaling and scrolling capabilities) and can guarantee you manually disable any kind of animations on the remote desktop, you may want to give it a try.

[Guest Menneisyys]

1.2.2 RFB-based (VNC) applications

Note that, after quickly listing the four different solutions, I also explain what needs to be known about different servers, encodings and server-side scaling. This knowledge will be essential in sometimes drastically decreasing the bandwidth needs of the applications. At first, I introduce the applications themselves.

1.2.2.1 VNC clients by Parys Technografx Ltd

Without doubt, Parys Technografx (PT) Ltd produces by far the best VNC clients for the Pocket PC. There are several of them; WM5 users will want to go straight for their latest product, Pocket Office (PO) – it offers the most for the money: it supports Tight (JPG), the most bandwidth-saving encoding protocol; it supports bidirectional (!) file transfers etc.

As far as strictly VNC clients are concerned, as has already been pointed out, PT PO has the best support for bandwidth saving (it supports the Tight encoding, along with JPG), has file transfer and is very snappy. Its usage can be a bit complicated for a newbie, but don’t be afraid: you’ll soon learn it. Just keep playing with the menus.

Note that the author of PT PO has told me may eliminate the need for manually setting whether the VNC server supports server-side scaling – automatic discovery already works in the free .NET VNC Viewer. He may also introduce automatic encoding handshake (as is the case with, say, the Mocha VNC client). He’s also working on making PT PO RealVNC-compliant (currently, it isn’t, unlike with the other Pocket PC-based VNC clients) and, finally, may also introduce clipboard synchronization (which is also supported by the RFB protocol itself).

Some example screenshots: Enter the IP; Password input; Download.

Verdict: if you want to go the VNC way (and aren’t forced to use the RealVNC server – remember, the current version of PT PO isn’t compatible with RealVNC), get this application – you’ll love it.

1.2.2.2 .NET VNC Viewer by Rocky Lo; 1.0.1.16

The free .NET VNC Viewer is better in some respects than PT PO. First, it has a more traditional interface, which is much easier for a newbie to comprehend. Second, it has automatic server-side scaling support (more on this later), unlike with (the current pre-release version of) PT PO. Third, it’s free.

However, it’s VERY-VERY SLOW as it’s based on Compact Framework. Therefore, I only recommend it if you only want VNC (not, say, a Web- or RDP-based client) and only want a free solution (where, for example, LogMeIn Free can’t be used because you prefer VNC as the remote protocol).

Also see this and this PPCT threads.

1.2.2.3 Mocha VNC 1.1 by MochaSoft

This title is definitely superior to the heavily outdated (RDP 4 only) RDP client of the same developer and, therefore, may be worth considering if, for some reason, you don’t want to go the PT PO route, but want to stick strictly with VNC clients. While it doesn’t support the most bandwidth-saving encoding methods (Tight (JPG)), the most compact compression method it’s capable of (ZRLE / Zlib) is still definitely better than that (Hextile) of the free, very slow .NET Viewer.

It’s very similar to the RDP client; in addition to the capabilities of that client, it has an encoding log, which is very useful when you would like to track down protocol-level errors.

It’s compatible with all major VNC servers; it’s only with PTeSVNC (the VNC server that’s bundled with the PT VNC client downloads – see SetUpPTeSVNC.exe) that it’s incompatible with.

1.2.2.4 VNC 3.3-only, not recommended VNC clients (Allware /Mark Midgley (alternate source) / Conduits )

The (unfortunately, still) most widely known and referred-to, very old and outdated, free VNC clients (that of Mark Midgley, Allware and Conduits) should all be avoided. They have really bad (non-existing) error handling, are only compatible with VNC servers in explicit 3.3 mode (and just silently die when they encounter a server that tries to communicate with something more up-to-date), are very slow and only know the not very bandwidth-friendly Hextile encoding. In a word: avoid them all.

Also see this BrightHand thread.

1.2.2.5 VNC servers

Now that I've quickly elaborated on the different VNC clients, let's take a look at the server side. Unlike with the Web- and RDP-based solutions, you must manually install a server on your desktop PC you’d like to access.

There are several VNC servers out there with slightly different capabilities. As a rule of thumb, I'd go for UltraVNC - it is probably the most important, capable and recommended server, unless you use PT PO, in which case you should choose the included PTeSVNC instead (if you need seamless file transfers). Nevertheless, if you don't need for example support for server-side scaling, file transfer with PT PO, extended desktops or international characters, you may also want to go for RealVNC or TightVNC. Finally, the fourth, really nice alternative is the already-mentioned PTeSVNC, which is also free and is bundled with all PT VNC clients (also trial ones). It's really capable (except for the lack of extended desktops).

Fortunately, these four servers don't differ much as far as server-side configuration is concerned. That is, if you learn to use and configure one of them, you'll be able to do the same with the others too (except for some additional or missing options / tabs / checkboxes).

Note that if you plan to use PT PO, you may encounter screen refresh problems with Ultra (unlike with PTeSVNC) in all modes; for example, the upper rows in this screenshot. In this respect, PTeSVNC is a better choice. The developers are aware of the problem and may fix it in future versions.

In general, installing VNC servers are pretty straightforward. You install the product and just start the server in Start Menu / Programs on the Windows desktop PC. When it's running, it'll display an icon in the system tray (systray), through which you'll have access to the configuration dialog, user list and can even shut down the service.

1.2.2.6 VNC Bandwidth usage fine tuning

With a capable VNC client / server combo, you can fine-tune the bandwidth usage and force it to be really small – almost as small as with GoToMyPC in high/true color modes. This, however, requires you to know what options there are.

First, there are so-called "encodings" used with VNC. Some of them really love wasting bandwidth; for example, RAW, which, as you may already have guessed, just sends over uncompressed raw screen data and, consequently, takes orders of magnitude more bandwidth than protocols utilizing compression methods. Well-known, high-bandwidth and, therefore, to-be-avoided encodings also include RRE and CoRRE.

The widely used Hextile (the best available with the above-introduced, free, not recommended three "legacy" clients) is already a bit better but still consumes a lot of bandwidth and should, therefore, be avoided. With some additional compression (Zlib hextile, for example) it becomes pretty usable, bandwidth-wise: it will "only" consume about three times more bandwidth than RDP or more advanced (for example, JPEG-based) VNC encodings. Of the Pocket PC clients, only Mocha (and, of course, PT PO) supports Zlib / ZRLE compression.

Finally, Tight with or without JPG (the best, most space/bandwidth-efficient way to encode images) is by far the most effective VNC encoding. Of the Pocket PC-based clients, only PT PO supports Tight / JPG.

While CopyRect isn't strictly an encoding form but a way to tell the client "just scroll some of the old screen contents instead of downloading it again", it should be pointed out that it must always be enabled to (in cases - see for example the smooth scrolling examples below -, greatly) reduce bandwidth usage.

Other tips for PT PO: you may freely decrease the, by default, 1.0s update delay to say, 0.3 s - it will have almost no adverse effect on the bandwidth usage.

1.2.2.6.1 Server-side scaling issues

In addition to choosing the right encoding (at least Zlib / ZRLE and, preferably, Tight (JPG)), you should also know what server-side scaling is and how you can fine-tune it to further reduce bandwidth usage.

First, remote desktops are, generally, bigger than the resolution of your Pocket PC screen. For example, my notebook has an UXGA (1600*1200) screen, which is far larger than even the VGA screens of some of my Pocket PC's. If (and only if!) you don't zoom into this image fully and scroll around the page so that a pixel on the remote desktop equals to a pixel on the Pocket PC, you can make use of clever remote desktop-side (!) rescaling of screen images before (!) returning them to the client. Just imagine: if you would like to just navigate on a 1600*1200 desktop with your VGA screen, by instructing the server to resize the screen images returned to the client itself, you can save a LOT of bandwidth. For example, if the server uses the rescaling factor 2, then, it'll send over 1600/2 * 1200/2, that is, 800*600 images, which are still bigger than the VGA screen and, therefore, only result in very small image quality degradation - while delivering considerable bandwidth usage decrease. Using the scaling factor 3 with the above-mentioned UXGA desktops, the full screen images sent over will become 1600/3 * 1200/3; that is, 533*400 in size. Of course, this will introduce some kind of blurriness - but the bandwidth advantage will be considerable.

Note that, currently, VNC servers are only capable of using integer scaling factors - that is, you can't make them return for example strictly 640*480 (VGA) images of a 1600*1200 (UXGA) desktop (1600 divided by 640, that is, 2.5, isn’t an integer). This is why you can't just tell them "with a UXGA remote desktop and a VGA client, use the rescaling factor 2.5 so that you get the most optimal result with the best possible image quality".

Some real-world benchmark results to show all this (PTeSVNC server, 1600*1200 desktop, VGA portrait client, Tight NO JPG, server scale 1:2; all data are in Mbytes; the smaller, the better):

As with NetOp Remote Control, the desktop PC client supports for example direct client/server voice chat (like Microsoft Netmeeting!) for, say, remote Customer Service purposes; the Pocket PC version is much dumber. To see the differences between the desktop and the Pocket PC clients, check out and compare the docs (just start the EXE file and pass it a dot (.) as the decompression directory target); it’ll extract some (2 with the Windows and 4 with the non-Windows case) PDF files to the current directory): desktop Windows; Pocket PC, Mac and Linux.

Some screenshots: installing (2); server-side configuration: TCP/IP HTTP (for gateways!); mobile client install (2); desktop client; file transfer.

It has two transfer modes: GDI (which can only be used in high-color mode; otherwise, it'll mess up bitmap resources as can be seen for example in here; the CrossTec folks are avare of the problem and will, hopefully, fix it) and the traditional, simple screen scraping. Unfortunately, there really isn't much bandwidth usage difference between the two modes (one would expect the GDI version to be much more bandwidth-friendly).

1.2.3.4 NetOp Remote Control 9.0 by Danware

(mobile); (PPC guest version 8.00)

This product, as with the above-introduced CrossTec RemoteControl, is also a typical enterprise-only remote controller application, offering far more functionalities a non-enterprise user would ever need (and not offered for individual users: the minimum number of deploy hosts you can order it for is 100). Check out the description of the desktop and mobile versions for what it's capable of. In here, therefore, as with the CrossTec product, I only scrutinize it to see whether it's worth sticking to as a remote controller product - an enterprise system administrator in charge of deciding for a complete remote management / help / controller application deployed for the entire enterprise should use a much more broader approach in comparing not strictly Pocket PC-based controlling facilities.

First and foremost, let's get some facts straight: there are two related product lines in the NetOp line. The former, NetOp Remote Control (NRC) for WindowsCE (including Pocket PC / Windows Mobile clients), has been discontinued and is the only to contain a Pocket PC remote client; the latter, NetOp Mobile & Embedded (NME), only has a Pocket PC-side server component (like that of Pocket Controller, dotPocket, MS PowerToys etc. - see this already-linked article for more information). While the two products do work with each other (that is, you can use the old Pocket PC client with the new remote desktop-side component), the NRC 8 (the latest Windows Mobile client available) Pocket PC client is entirely incompatible with WM5.

Danware promises a WM5-compliant, real Pocket PC NME client in Q2 of this year. Up until then, it's only with Pocket PC's using previous operating systems will be able to access remote NetOp desktops.

As far as the general behaviour of the strictly Pocket PC-based remote controlling is concerned, it doesn't have much to write home about; for example, the bandwidth usage results are pretty bad. However, as has been pointed out, this product suite (as with that of CrossTec) should not only be evaluated as a mere remote controller tool: it's capable of much more when deployed in an enterprise. It's just that an individual user with a Pocket PC (and not a, say, notebook or UMPC running desktop Windows and, therefore, using the fully-fledged, great and capable NetOp NME client) won't necessarily want to prefer NetOp to the alternative, on the Pocket PC, much more capable and much less bandwidth-wasting solutions.

Some screenshots: Connect to host (2); desktop client setup 1 2 3 and configuration 1 2 (notice the plethora of usable protocols and the excellent server-side capabilities!); desktop guest in action. The WinCE host looks like this. It, however, also has a desktop configuration component. The setup of the latter (it’s only this that you can, for example, set your password) is as follows: 1 2.

1.2.3.5 Soft Agency Remote Desktop 2.0

The official homepage of this very old and outdated, commercial proprietary remote controller application isn’t accessible any more. Not that it'd be a problem: I don’t recommend this controller at all.

It has very few advantages and the list of its disadvantages is very long. Some screenshots: entering IP; add a user manually into the server (this must be done before the first connection)

1.2.3.6 BitWeen S.R.L. Remote Control 1.1

(alternate source)

This is another highly outdated and in no way recommended remote control application. It's highly overpriced ($49.95) for what it's capable of.

1.2.3.7 PPC Tablet Remote Control Suite 4.0

PPC Tablet is a well-known data input / media remote controller. It has recently received remote desktop accessor features.

They are pretty weak (particularly bandwidth usage-wise) but are still better than nothing. Please check the comparison chart for a more thorough elaboration and screenshot.

1.3 Haven’t tested

1.3.1 ICA client ny Citrix

(also see this page)

Unfortunately, it’s really a MetaFrame Presentation Server client and isn’t able to speak RDP, “just” ICA, the native protocol of MetaFrame. Therefore, a casual Pocket PC user not having access to the enterprise-level MetaFrame Presentation Servers will not be able to use it to access his own desktop computer - only server farms.

1.3.2 Vector PC-Duo Remote Control 9.60 by Vector Networks Inc.

The Vector PC-Duo Remote Control product line is pretty similar to the above-introduced CrossTec products because both are based on the core technology from NetSupport.

Upon trying to install the PPC client trial (version 9.0), it has complained about an old license. The nsm.lic file in the home directory of the application states the trial should expire in September 2005; still, not even setting the date back not to cause problems helps, the app will always complain of the license file being missing or invalid.

When compared to the Crosstec product, the readme.txt of Vector PC-Duo Remote Control states the Pocket PC version supported even File Transfer and Registry Editing. I couldn’t test this because of the client’s not installing.

Some screenshots: On installation, you can choose between the different deploying options; for example, it’s here that you can opt for installing a gateway. (Note that it refers to hosts as “Client” and clients as controls, as with the Crosstec product.) GUI-wise, as has already been pointed out, it is pretty similar to CrossTec 10; see for example the icons, the setting capabilities etc here and here. The menus are also the same.

1.3.3 SecuRemote by Check Point

I couldn’t check this enterprise-grade (!) product because it requires a dedicated VPN connection.

2. Feature / benchmark chart

It's available here. Due to sheer size, I couldn't include it in here - sorry. You'll need to click the link.

2.1 Explanation for the chart

Generic compatibility issues group: everything about operating system: which Pocket PC and desktop operating systems it's compatible with; does it support high-resolution VGA screens etc. Note that all products support Landscape orientation screens; this is why I haven't listed it in here.

As far as Pocket PC operating system compliance (see the OS compatibility: PPC row) is concerned, I've tested all these products on at least one (MIPS) Pocket PC 2000 (when the given application did have a MIPS version), PPC 2002 (I've tested for PPC2k2 compliance even with applications that are, officially, not PPC2k2-compliant and found out that some, only as WM2003+-advertised applications are also PPC2k2-compliant; see for example the Mochasoft products), Windows Mobile 2003, 2003 SE and Windows Mobile 5 devices - that is, all the major Pocket PC operating systems. Note that, in the chart, PPC2k2+ means all operating systems starting with PPC 2002 and WM2003+ means all operating systems starting with Windows Mobile 2003.

Other OS’es : you will want to consult this row if you plan to access your desktop from non-Windows / non-Pocket PC clients too. Several applications / protocols have clients for non-Windows desktops too; the two most important examples being VNC (with clients for all flavors of Unix operating systems) and RDP (there are RDP clients for all alternative operating systems, not only Windows - for example, rdesktop under Unix / Linux). Some of the other products also have Linux / Solaris / Mac OS clients; for example, pcAnywhere, CrossTec Corporation's RemoteControl and Danware's NetOp Remote Control. This is really worth knowing if you plan to access your desktop computer from a wide variety of platforms. As can be seen, as far as strictly Web-based technologies are concerned, RemotelyAnywhere is hands down the best and most compatible.

VGA support?: as can be seen, there are no products that wouldn't support high-resolution VGA screens. Some of them, however, must be "hacked" into this.

Bandwidth usage group: I've made some really extensive tests to find out how each and every remote control solution uses bandwidth. These tests are, therefore, of paramount importance if you

1. Have a very expensive (for example, mobile phone-based) connection, where every byte counts
   
2. Have a slow connection and would, therefore, welcome the fastest possible solution
   

To reliably and comparably (!) benchmark the different remote controller solutions, I've done the following:

1. I've created a Wi-Fi connection (through an external access point to avoid not being able to connect to the freshly booted-in desktop / being disconnected because of locked-out users, as is the case with RDP) between my freshly hard reset (no background tasks requesting information off the Internet) WM5-based Dell Axim x51v and my notebook (an IBM ThinkPad a31p with a 1600*1200 UXGA screen). I've used the x51v for this task because its Wi-Fi applet also lists the sent/received bytes as can be seen in this (received bytes) and this (transmitted bytes) screenshots. For some other measurements (most importantly, ones that did require a pre-WM5 device; for example, the NetOp tests), I've used a direct Bluetooth Personal Area Network connection between my Pocket Loox 720 and my notebook. The Widcomm Bluetooth stack also reliably displays the number of bytes sent (that is, the so-called uplink bytes) / received (downlink bytes). Finally, with one application (PT PO), after finding out the multiplication factor (1.33) between the internal data counter it displays and the real bandwidth usage (the latter is higher because of the additional protocol / communication overhead), I've used the built-in counter available in the main menu, under Connection Statistics (screenshot here).
   
2. I've switched the desktop resolution to 800*600 (SVGA) on the notebook (note that a, I've also made tests in UXGA (1600*1200) and, with I'm InTouch to find out the speed issues, all possible, settable resolutions between; b, remote controllers that did override this setting - for example, TSC - have overridden this to VGA (640*480) or, when I've chosen no scroll-mode with the “Limit size of server desktop to fit on this screen?” checkbox, even less.)
   
3. I've automatically scrolled through a looooooong test HTML document (my well-known Pocket PC Gaming Bible Part I without the PPCMag header/footer), with disabled smooth scrolling and ClearType by default (in two another tests, I've enabled them both to see how he protocol handles smooth scrolling events and whether it disables ClearType to increase the data transfer efficiency). To automatize scrolling (and also to reliably find out the rendering time of each and every page), I've used My Macros V2.0 by GoldSolution Software. With this application, it's very easy to simulate user input (in this case, pressing the Page Down key) and waiting for a pre-determined time (please also see this screenshot). The latter also helped me to find out the minimal delay between subsequent page down events for the current page to be completely rendered by the client; in the chart, I've sometimes also noted these results as, for example, "600ms delay" or "scrolling delay". By default, I've used a 2-second delay in SVGA mode; in general, all clients were able to keep it with this (except for the very slow .NET Viewer, where I had to increase this to some 8 seconds).
   
4. by subtracting the bandwidth usage figures after and before starting the full scroll-through, I got the full bandwidth usage of page scrolling.
   

Note that, during the scrolling, I've paid special attention to not letting the notebook do any additional animation (for example, animated icons in the system tray or MSN contacts / Outlook mail notifications - I've disabled all these applications) and also made sure the mouse cursor was also hovering over the title bar of Internet Explorer, not displaying any additional tip bubbles and not moving at all.

Also note that these results are, generally, an average of several tests. I've often re-run the tests in order to be absolutely sure I'm right, particularly when discussing the results with the developer.

In subsequent tests, I've repeated the test above, in a slightly modified environment; for example, I've switched on ClearType, smooth scrolling, changed the desktop resolution and/or modified the color depth (in the client); all this to see how modifying these parameters affects the bandwidth usage of a given remote control solution. These additional tests delivered a lot of important results, which I've also elaborated on in the tests.

Generally: 8 bit (with Tight VNC, 16 bit), 640*480 (with RDP) / 800*600 (with everything else), no smooth scroll: the bandwidth usage of fully scrolling down the test page in a highly controlled environment, using the a desktop resolution of SVGA (800*600) (with TSC, VGA (640*480)) and the color depth of 8 bits.

It's really worth checking out the results. In addition to the numeric results (the bandwidth usage in kilo / Megabytes), I've also compared these results to the bandwidth usage of the alternative solutions.

File transfer benchmark: with remote control solutions also supporting file transferring, I've also run benchmarks to see whether it uses binary transfer or, similar to, say, how binary content is transcoded to ASCII text to be transferred via E-mails, does it introduce any kind of overhead. I've also benchmarked the file transfer speed to see whether there are major problems with a given application. Note that, with HTTPS tunneling-capable applications, I've made these tests in HTTPS tunneled mode - that is, without direct connections - to see whether the online service is able to transfer even big files without severe slowdowns or crashes.

For this test, I've used a 24.6 Mbyte file. As can be seen, none of the file transfer-capable applications added considerable overhead to the file transfer - even the biggest overhead (that of z2) is much smaller than the overhead of, say, E-mails. I haven't encountered slow file transfers either. This means you can safely go for any of the file transfer-capable solutions, all work great, file transfer-wise.

Based on which protocol?: in here, I've elaborated on what underlying protocol the given remote control application uses. As can clearly be seen, there are three groups: RDP-based ones (with the Mocha client using, unfortunately, the outdated RDP4), RFB (VNC)-based ones and proprietary ones.

Sensitive to smooth scrolling and other animations? (Doesn’t support CopyRect and the like?): in these tests, I've enabled smooth scrolling (in IE7, Tools / Internet Options / Advanced / Browsing / Use smooth scrolling) to see whether the server component of the remote controller is able to catch "simple" scrolling events (that is, where you only communicate to the client the rectangle that was scrolled and the amount it was scrolled by, in addition to the newly-introduced content). In VNC / RFB terminology, the support for this is referred to as CopyRect.

Note that this test not only applies to Internet Explorer's smoothly scrolling Web page contents, but also any kind of similar animations. Testing the behavior of the remote controller application is of paramount importance - if you don't disable all kind of scrolling like this (and the remote controller application doesn't do this for you - several do, as will be seen later), you may end up having seriously degraded remote controlling performance.

As can be clearly seen, remote controller applications behave wildly differently in cases like this. RDP 5-based applications (for example, the Terminal Services client built into the Pocket PC 2002, WM2003, WM2003SE and WM5 operating systems) and LogMeIn don't have any problems with such contents. However, the situation isn't this good with other protocols and even the older (4) version of the RDP protocol: with the latter, the bandwidth usage dramatically (with orders of magnitude!) increases and the responsiveness of the remote control equally dramatically degrades. While, for example, GotoMyPC suffers from a 20-30% and the RFB protocol (used by VNC) exhibits a 50% bandwidth increase, other applications have decidedly worse results. I’m InTouch and CrossTec's RemoteControl exhibit a 100% bandwidth increase and, finally, NetOp Remote Control 9.0's bandwidth usage increases by about an order of magnitude.

… that is, does it send over all the changed screen contents or combines them? (The latter approach is much better): it's an easy-to-understand fact that remote control applications can't keep up with the remote desktop when the latter changes really frequently (for example, while playing a video or quickly scrolling through a document), content rendering-wise. In these cases, there can be two approaches. One approach tries to send over all the changed screen contents, using a very big frame buffer; the other approach, when seeing that the client can't keep up with the content changes, simply drops the interim frames and, in cases, only sends the frames to the client that it can safely render.

Naturally, the latter approach is much better. We've already seen the problems (at least an order of magnitude more bandwidth used and greatly slowed-down client-side rendering) caused by the former approach with both RDP 4 (see Mocha Remote Client 1.2) and NetOp Remote Control 9.0. However, the contents of this row shouldn't be a showstopper if you, in general, don't generally watch animations like this (for example, a splash screen gradually fading in/out or the above-mentioned smooth scrolling in a Web browser) over remote controlling sessions.

Bandwidth increase along with true/high color modes?: while the first test in this group used 8-bit color depth (the default color depth for most remote controller applications, except for the JPEG-based Tight VNC modes, which are 16-bit by default), I've also examined what effects high (16-bit) and, in cases (with desktop clients - the Pocket PC, having "only" a 16-bit color subsystem, can't operate in 24-bit true color mode) true color modes have on the bandwidth usage. As can be seen, the bandwidth usage only increases by between 20% and 66% in high color (and slightly more in true color), the better protocols, in this respect, being RDP 5, GotoMyPC and LogMeIn.

Under-8 bit modes, if any?: I've also benchmarked under-8-bit color depth modes to see whether you can gain significant advantage (and reduced bandwidth usage) by employing modes with fewer and more coarse colors. As can be seen, the results are pretty mixed: with remote controller applications that do support for example 2, 4- or 16-color modes (1 / 2 / 4 bit color depth, respectively), in general, (really) reducing color depth won't help much. Using LogMeIn in 4-bit mode will not help the overall bandwidth consumption (and also resizes the remote desktop to VGA size (640*480), which you may not want); z2 Remote only marginally (7%) benefits from a 16-color mode. That is, you shouldn't suffer with low-color modes with these two remote controllers because it won't deliver lower bandwidth usage. It's only CrossTec's RemoteControl that does benefit from switching to a low (in this case, 2-color) mode; then, its bandwidth needs will then be greatly reduced.

Bandwidth usage when nothing happens (absolutely no changes on the desktop and no client-side input)?: so far, I've tested the bandwidth usage when scrolling through a document. However, this is only one test case of the many possible test cases modeling a remote user's behavior.

Another test case, particularly to test whether a given protocol is well-constructed and not (unnecessarily) bandwidth-wasting is an "idle" test: to test how much traffic is generated by just rendering a non-changing desktop. Ideally, a remote controller application shouldn't generate any traffic in this case. Unfortunately, while most applications behave OK in this respect, there are some that do generate some traffic even in these cases; most importantly, the, otherwise, excellent GotoMyPC. The not-that-recommended pcAnywhere 12 has produced some very bad results.

Finally, note that it's here that I've also elaborated on the exceptionally bad bandwidth usage of I’m InTouch with the cursor blinking in the Internet Explorer address bar. In general, bandwidth usage of other protocols with similar "a cursor is blinking" case was pretty low (at least, that of RDP 5, in which case it was close to negligible); with I’m InTouch, I've measured some 340 kbyte / minute additional traffic in this case. This is much higher than just transferring plain screen contents; hope the excellent and really responsive folks at 01 Communique will fix this problem.

Support for server-side scaling (as opposed to client-side scaling down of full-resolution images)?: in the VNC / RFB chapter above, I've already elaborated on the advantages (and disadvantages) of server-side scaling (that is, server-side resizing of the image returned to the client) to save bandwidth. In here, I've elaborated on whether the tested applications use server-side scaling or not. Note that, as most of them use proprietary, closed protocols, I needed to base this row on my measurements (UXGA vs SVGA scrolling results) and, with the I’m InTouch entry, the developer's statement.

Image fetch model in panned (scrollable) mode: full image download, including currently not visible regions? : if you don't use the full-screen mode to see everything on your remote desktop, which is pretty likely on particularly QVGA clients (as opposed to VGA ones), you can save up bandwidth with clients using a protocol that only communicate the currently visible part of the desktop (the viewport). As can clearly be seen, very few applications / protocols support this advanced functionality. Note that, however, if you usually use full screen modes (on a VGA Pocket PC with not much larger remote desktops, this is pretty usual), the lack of non-progressive download won't have any consequences as you will always download the entire screen, no matter what kind of application you use.

Also note that, if you decide for VNC as the backend of your remote control infrastructure, you can configure all the VNC servers to return only, say, the current window, not the entire desktop (the latter is the default setting). You can also make use of this advanced feature of VNC to further reduce bandwidth usage.

Caching of overlapping windows?: advanced remote controller apps / protocols also integrate in the server desktop in a way that they allow for caching not only content to communicate, say, scrolling events in a bandwidth-friendly way, but also overlapping windows.

RDP 5 is a perfect example of such a well-designed protocol. When you expose a window, the client will render its contents from a local cache if its content hasn't changed in the meantime. This dramatically reduces bandwidth usage if you often switch between different tasks.

RFB (the protocol of VNC), unfortunately, doesn't support this functionality; neither do any of the enterprise-oriented trio (pcAnywhere, CrossTec RemoteControl and Danware NetOp Remote Control). The Web-based applications (except for I'm InTouch) do support this, GotoMyPC being the best and the RemotelyAnywhere - LogMeIn duo considerably worse (but still much better than any non-caching solution). Finally, RDP-based solutions (even the RDP 4-based Mocha client!) really excel in this area.

Bandwidth usage of maintaining the persistent connection with HTTPS-capable services: in the section on LapLink Everywhere (LLE), I've already pointed out LLE has severe problems with the idle server-side bandwidth usage - that is, when no clients are connected and the LLE processes "only" maintain an active connection with the central LLE server located on the Internet. LLE consumes, for mobile phone-based users, considerable bandwidth (about 18 kbytes a minute) even in this case. This is why I've made some very extensive tests to find out how the HTTPS-capable (that is, in this case, Web-based, except for RemotelyAnywhere, which doesn't have a central server) alternatives behave in this respect. Fortunately, none of the three HTTPS-enabled services exhibits so bad a behavior.

Note that, in here, I've not only listed the idle server bandwidth, but also the bandwidth usage of the initial log-in (after you start the service). Fortunately, this is pretty low too.

Other bandwidth benchmarks of interest?: in here, I've listed for example my UXGA benchmark (document scrolling) results.

Initial bandwidth usage: Loading all non-visible windows upon connection?: while RDP, in general, is very bandwidth-friendly and only GoToMyPC / Tight JPG VNC beat it in this respect (the latter not using smooth scrolling and not taking into account caching of hidden windows), it has an, in cases, very annoying feature: upon connecting to a remote desktop, it will load the contents of all the visible windows (and the desktop too), even hidden ones (ones in the background). This can lead to a lot of unnecessary bandwidth usage and slowdowns upon connection. This all means if you use RDP and you always have a lot of non-minimized windows in the background and you do want to reduce bandwidth, either make sure you minimize them (instead of just letting other windows hide them) and only let the current window to be displayed or use a remote control solution that doesn't load all hidden windows upon logging in.

In these tests, I've scrutinized whether the given remote access solution does the same. Fortunately, none of them does.

[Guest Menneisyys]

Auto-overriding System / Advanced / Performance / Settings / Visual Effects settings for speed: this group scrutinizes whether the given remote controller disables advanced visual effects like font smoothing etc. You can, for all applications, en/disable these effects; a decent remote application should disable them all to, in cases, greatly reduce bandwidth usage upon logging in. It's certainly possible: see for example what happens when the, in this respect, best pcAnywhere 12 client logs into a desktop that has all the effects enabled.

Disables wallpaper?: one of the most important activities a remote controller should do to conserve bandwidth is disabling the desktop wallpaper to, in cases, reduce bandwidth usage with tens or even hundreds of kilobytes.

Disables font smoothing (see an example here) / Cleartype (IE7: Tools / Internet Options / Advanced/ Multimedia / Always use Cleartype for HTML)?: font smoothing, which is a system-level setting, and ClearType, which is "only" used by applications using the HTML renderer component of Internet Explorer (Outlook Express, Outlook etc., in addition to Internet Explorer itself) . Unfortunately, the latter is disabled by only RDP; the former is disabled by more remote applications.

Disables "Show window contents while dragging"?: should you often drag remote application windows from one place to another with the "Show window contents while dragging" checkbox enabled in System / Advanced / Performance / Settings / Visual Effects, your bandwidth usage can dramatically increase with protocols / remote apps that don't automatically disable this. Unfortunately, even the RDP protocol is sensitive to this - and it doesn't automatically disable window dragging, which can cause a lot of problems because of the increased bandwidth usage.

Disables smooth IE scrolling?: if you enable Internet Explorer smooth scrolling in IE7, Tools / Internet Options / Advanced / Browsing / Use smooth scrolling, does the application disable it? Unfortunately, none of them does this, with the consequences visible in the "Sensitive to smooth scrolling and other animations?" test.

Connection model? group: in here, I've elaborated on the connection model the tested remote applications use.

In general, there are two main types, which has already been explained in the first section of this application: apps using direct connection where you must pass the remote client the direct Internet address of your remote desktop and apps that rely on a central dispatcher server hosted by the developer.

In the first test case, I give an overview of the model; with direct connections, I've also listed the port numbers to be forwarded, should you need to access these systems behind a firewall, where you can still ask the firewall to route the given ports to your remote PC.

LAN (internet-less)?: can you access these systems without your local area network (LAN) being connected to the Internet (for example, via BT PAN, Wi-Fi p2p or, with some special applications, even non-TCP/IP-based, that is, infrared / serial / parallel port connections) ? As can clearly be seen, it's only the three "true" Web-based applications (apps where you must use the main dispatcher to log in) that you must have a working Internet connection for, at least, the initial login.

Usable through ActiveSync'ed PDA's to access the same desktop the PDA is connected to? (With direct connections using local IP’s (192.168.55.100 with pre-WM5 and 169.254.2.2 with WM5 - see this for more info on the latter) : many Pocket PC users would like to remote control their desktop computers via USB, via ActiveSync. Fortunately, all remote control solutions support this - after all, an ActiveSync USB connection is a full TCP/IP connection; if you enter the above IP's as the server address, you'll be able to connect to the desktop. Also, if you have Internet access, you'll be able to use Web-based applications to access your desktop too from a USB-connected Pocket PC.

Note that there are specialized (not “generic” remote desktop access-oriented) Pocket PC applications which, unlike with the real “usability” (which isn't much more than just a W?BIC! (Why? Because I Can!) geek toy) of the "remote control via USB" solution, do add a lot of functionality to desktop computers: Innobec SideWindow, PPC Tablet Remote Control Suite by A&A Computer Services etc, and the multimedia and scripting controller applications (for example, Pebbles Remote Commander, Salling Clicker, PuppetMaster). I'll elaborate on these tools in a later roundup.

Able to log in when the user is not / no user is logged in (can you register the server as a Windows service?)?: a decent remote controller application should also (automatically or configurably) register itself as a system service so that it's started even without any Windows user's logging in. This is of tremendous importance with all password/login-protected desktop PC's. You shouldn't rely on not rebooting your desktop either to avoid the need for this: there will inevitably be for example critical XP updates that do reboot the PC. That is, if your desktop Windows you'd like to remotely access doesn't log in automatically, make double sure you configure your remote controller server to be started as a service. Fortunately, all of them can be configured this way - most of them even defaults to being started as a service.

Dynamic IP announcement support?: Should your remote desktop be connected to the Internet via a, say, DSL line, your IP address will most probably change, in general, once a day. With built-in dynamic IP announcement support (in which, z2 is excellent), you can very easily announce your IP every, say, 15 minutes. You will, then, be able to access this IP stored on a central server and accordingly set the address to connect to in the remote client.

Note that you will still be able to use your remote desktop on a dynamic IP with remote control software not supporting dynamic IP announcement because there are a lot of third-party software (not related to remote controlling) that do the trick. However, the easiest is to have support built-in.

Callback support through firewalls (HTTP(S) gateway)? If there is a central one, speed?: Battling the problem of dynamic IP's is a piece of cake with third-party dynamic IP accouncer applications and even more so with built-in support for this.

Firewalls and NAT'ed (Network Address Translate) networks, on the other hand, are much more complicated.

If you're still allowed to define port forwarding (please see the list of ports to be forwarded in the first row of this group), you can still connect to firewalled machines even when you only run a remote controller application not having a central login server on the Internet (and maintaining a constant HTTP(S) connection).

If, on the other hand, you can't use port forwarding (which is very common with, say, public Wi-Fi or mobile phone based networks), the only way to access an, in this way, NAT'ed desktop remotely is using a constant HTTP(S) connection. The Web-based three "true" applications support this; so does, with a callback trick, z2. With apps that lack this functionality, you will want to use third-party applications like Barracuda HTTPS tunnel or the gateway solutions officially offered for some enterprise-targeted applications like NetOp Remote Control 9.0 and pcAnywhere 12.0.

In HTTP(S) gateway mode, if it uses the provider’s central server, does it try to use direct connections when there can be also direct, non-HTTPS connections between the client and the server for speed and to make users confident the server can’t eavesdrop into the conversation?: if you do need to communicate via a central HTTP server (which is the case with the three true Web-based services), do you have the chance of speeding up your connection if your remotely controlled desktop PC isn't NAT'ed.

As can clearly be seen, with the highly recommended LogMeIn, direct connections are automatically used when they're allowed. They also greatly speed up the connection. If you need to access / search PIM stuff and emails remotely, the highly recommended I'm InTouch also supports this - but you will need to manually enable it (see the included screenshots). Finally, GoToMyPC doesn't allow for direct connections at all - not that it'd cause any problem (the central server of GoToMyPC is blazingly fast).

I've tested the support for this with two tests. First, I've run my remotely accessed desktop in a totally NAT'ed environment - that is, in an environment that makes it impossible to make direct connections to the desktop PC. In this setup, I've checked with 'netstat' whether I have any kind of direct (one that isn't routed through the software developer's central server) callback connections to my (non-NAT'ed) client PC. (I haven't had any with the three true Web-based apps.)

Then, I've reconfigured my local network to completely expose the remotely controlled PC; that is, I've relocated it from a NAT'ed network to have a direct Internet connection. I've re-run netstat to see whether I had a direct connection then.

Service group: in here, I've elaborated on the memory usage (see my remarks on the LLE memory usage!) and the easiness of stopping / restarting / enabling / disabling these services. Note that, while LLE not only occupies a LOT of precious RAM memory but also has some 2…10% constant CPU usage, no other remote server applications behave this bad. This is why there is no "CPU usage" row - they were all under 1% (that is, impossible to measure).

Memory usage: as can be seen, none of the server applications are memory hogs. Most of them consume 12 or less Megabytes; VNC servers being the best in this respect (they only consume 3.5 Mbytes at most). The only exception is the otherwise, PIM / e-mail access-wise, excellent I'm InTouch, which has a memory usage of about 36 Mbyte. You may want to keep this in mind if you, for example, only have 256 Mbytes of RAM in your XP box - there, every Megabyte counts.

Easy to stop/ restart?: seeing how hard is it to stop the CrossTec app (and start GoToMyPC once you kill it) I've also included this test in the chart. In here, I explain how the server-side listening services can be en/disabled and/or started / stopped.

Misc group: everything not categorizable under the other categories.

Built-in landscape switching support? (They’re all compatible with OS-level Landscape modes; here, I only list explicit ability to switch to there under pre-WM2003SE OS’es): as has already been pointed out, all the remote controller applications are landscape-ready. Some of them, in addition, also support in-program switching to Landscape mode, which will surely be welcome by pre-WM2003SE users.

Note that while the two Mochasoft applications are capable of doing this, you may still not want to use this feature with them because doing this will really slow down the rendering (and increase the CPU usage, which will also mean faster battery depletion). This also means if you have a device with WM2003SE or a later operating system, use its built-in Landscape support, not that of the Mochasoft apps.

Dedicated chat support, using a simple textual protocol to communicate to greatly simplify chatting between the remote user and the local terminal user?: some applications support the use of dedicated chat windows, which aren't (necessarily) part of the desktop. With these chat windows, you the remote user can communicate with the user sitting in front of the remote desktop using dedicated chat windows. Supporting these is advantageous in two respects:

1. they are far more responsive than simply, say, using a, say, file edit window / Word document to communicate because the characters you enter, as you do it in a local (non-remote) text input component, are echoed right back to you.
   
2. When two users try to chat via, say, an open Word document, surely "race for controlling the cursor" events happen.
   

Server / Client install method: in here, I've elaborated on how the server-side (on the remote desktop) and the client-side (on the Pocket PC) component need to be installed, which will be very important for particularly newbie Pocket PC users not wanting to manually install / configure anything.

With web-based applications (including RemotelyAnywhere in this case), everything is easy: both the server and the client are auto-installed. With RDP-based applications, the server component is already installed on desktop Windows XP Pro PC's and you only need to install the client (if it's not already available - with the built-in TS client, it's already there if you prefer using it). With everything else, you must install both the server and the client by hand.

Where to navigate to to log in?: in here, I've elaborated on where the client must be directed to (what kind of address it must be given) or, if it's a Web-based remote controlling solution, where the Pocket Internet Explorer browser on the client must be directed to.

Overall rendering speed: here, I've elaborated on the overall rendering speed. Note that the results assume you don't use any kind of smooth scrolling or other techniques; otherwise, for example, the RDP4-based Mocha client wouldn't have received a "Good".

Double monitors (extended desktops)?: many desktop Windows users extend their desktops to multiple monitors in Display / Settings / Extend my desktop onto this monitor. In here, I've elaborated on how the remote controllers support extended desktops. If you plan using VNC, checking out the results will be particularly beneficial.

Full screen support?: as you probably have noticed, the taskbar (the bar at the top) and the command bar (the one at the bottom) take up a lot of precious screen estate on the Pocket PC, particularly in Landscape mode. In here, I've elaborated on whether the applications support hiding these bars. In a nutshell, weaker applications don't do this; better ones do. The latter (for example, z2, the four Web-based applications, .NET Viewer and PT PO) let for (almost) completely hiding all GUI components. Please consult the mini-tutorials in this row to find out how you can do this.

Copy-paste between client and remote desktop (clipboard synchronization): Clipboard synchronization is a really important feature all remote desktop controllers should support. Unfortunately, few do.

In-program disconnect (except for manual disconnect from inside Start menu – that is, the session)?: some remote controller apps are very dumb and don't even let for in-application disconnecting / exiting. In cases (when, to reduce bandwidth consumption, it's essential to disconnect as quickly as possible and shutting down the application with, for example, an external task manager application takes a lot of precious time), this may be problem. This is why I've also included this test in the chart.

Server-side configuration capabilities: as a final test in the Misc group, I've elaborated on what you can configure on the server, showing example screenshots of everything. If you do browse them, you'll get a picture of the server's capabilities I haven't otherwise elaborated on in this roundup.

Accessing other resources on the remote desktop group: in here, I've elaborated on accessing files (for file transfer between the remote desktop and the local Pocket PC), e-mails and Personal Information Management (PIM) stuff like calendar / contacts and, finally, monitoring the remote desktop without logging in and starting, for example, the task manager in there. These functionalities are all very important.

Accessing other resources on the remote desktop: File transfer between client and remote desktop: File transfer is of extreme importance between the client and the remote desktop. Unfortunately, few applications support it and those that do and are Web-based (I'm InTouch and LogMeIn; unfortunately, GoToMyPC doesn't support file transfer on the Pocket PC) currently only support downloading from the desktop to the client. The I'm InTouch folks announced they will also implement uploading, though.

Of the non-Web-based applications, only PT PO and z2 support file transfer. With all the other solutions, you'll need to choose third-party solutions:

1. Installing an FTP server on your desktop computer and accessing it via an FTP client (including most Web browsers, if you only plan to fetch files from your desktop but not upload anything in there) on your Pocket PC. Please read this article for more information on the currently available FTP clients and this article on the downloading capabilities and speed of current Pocket PC Web browsers.
   
2. If the above way isn't the one to go on (because you either don't want to struggle with another server application on your desktop PC, find it unsafe or it's so badly firewalled / NAT'ed that you couldn’t directly connect to it), mail the file from your remote desktop (after logging in there) to yourself if you also have direct (for example POP3 / IMAP / Exchange) mail access on your Pocket PC. Then, just fetch the file from your mailbox. This is, of course, much more complicated a task than using a built-in file transfer utility in a remote controller application - or, for that matter, a local FTP client on the Pocket PC. Also, it'll result in a really increased bandwidth usage, not only because of the need to manually log in to the server and mail the file to yourself, but also because of the ASCII conversion, effectively adding some 30-40% to the original size of the attached file. This means in these cases look for a solution with built-in file transfer right from the beginning.
   

Client-side remote / monitoring tools?: ever wanted to avoid having to, say, use the Task Manager in a full remote session? Ever wanted to avoid remote registry editing in a remote session because of the amount of, say, registry tree navigation involved, which results in greatly slowed down operation when done remotely? With RemotelyAnywhere, it's possible. The local HTML interface offered this application, which is compatible with even the dumbest Pocket Internet Explorer, offers you the chance of doing all this stuff locally, without having to log in to a real remote session and accessing these monitoring / registry editing tools in there.

Access to other PIM resources?: should you want to access and, what is more, search your mail or other personal calendar / contacts / tasks data stored in your Outlook or Outlook Express, you'll want to take a look at I'm InTouch. It has really excellent PIM access capabilities.

Note that you can do the same with actually logging in to your remote desktop and doing the same PIM stuff in there via Outlook (Express), but it's, of course, a much more awkward solution with orders of magnitude more bandwidth usage - remotely accessing / using for example Outlook will always be much harder than through a Pocket PC-optimized, locally running interface.

User interaction group: in here, I've elaborated on how more than one user can elaborate on the same remote desktop. In the first case, I've listed whether the user sitting in front of the desktop computer can interact with the remotely connecting one and, in the second case, I've elaborated on whether more than one remote user can use the same desktop using the same remote control application. (With different servers, it's possible to do this, even if the given server wouldn't allow multiple logins. Then, however, you're faced with the need of setting up more than one server, which isn't necessarily what you want to do.)

Anyone knowing RDP-based solutions knows both these painfully lack this functionality. Therefore, you'll need to go for an alternative solution if you do need these. All non-RDP-based solutions support co-accessing the same desktop with the physically in front of it sitting user; more than one remote user, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated question.

Login group: in this group, I've elaborated on whether the particular remote controller solution remembers login names and even passwords. When you remote control more than one desktop with the same program, I also scrutinized whether the given application supports storing the IP and, preferably, the login / password of more than one controlled desktop computer.

I highly recommend the mini-tutorials in here on creating favorites for Web-based applications (they are of really GREAT help if you don't want to enter your login / password all the time) and saving the remote desktop address / password pair in PT PO.

Windows accounts? That is, can you log in using any existing Windows user login / password pair (you don't need to come up with a new username and/or password but can use your familiar Windows one)?: this shows whether you need to come up with a password (and, probably, a new username) for logging in, or, you can use your Windows username / password.

Multimedia: in here, I've listed specially multimedia-related issues.

Sound redirection from the desktop to the client (and, possibly, vice versa): you may also want to listen to what the remote desktop is playing. This has happened at least to me several times while (not directly - that is, not via applications like WMRecorder) recording some MP3 streams or the input from the line input (a local FM radio) into a local file. In special cases, you may want to listen to the remote desktop user himself, speaking into the microphone of the desktop computer (and making sure microphone input is enabled even in playback mode).

Unfortunately, while, for example, the desktop (including Linux with all its mobile incarnations running on, for example, the Sharp Zaurus) and the WindowsCE.NET Handheld PC RDP clients both support sound redirection, the one included in PPC2k2…WM5 doesn't. Unfortunately, while using this client, you can't even start applications using the sound output. That is, for example in one of the above-mentioned cases (recording a stream with transcoding) can in no way be done via TSC. You must use some other remote control application if you still want to do this.

Note that two enterprise-targeted applications (CrossTec and Danware) support bidirectional voice chat (especially for remote maintenance & help) in the desktop version. Their Pocket PC version, unfortunately, doesn't support this.

Possible to start sound apps on desktop?: see the explanation of the previous test.

Video playback?: some users have reported inability to play back videos (to at least see some frames - of course, using 8-bit color depth and possibly slow lines, videos can easily become ugly slideshows) with some remote controllers. This is why I've also introduced this test. Fortunately, I've encountered no problems in any of my tests - all clients are capable of transferring videos to the client. This is in strong contrast with, say, Pocket PC remote controllers unable to show for example the HTC Camera screen (see this for more info on the latter).

Special client-side input group: in this group, I've examined how the tested applications handle more elaborate input scenarios: double and right clicks, tap-and-hold events, what special keys (not available on the local, default, Pocket PC Software Input Panels (SIP's)) they are able to send over to the desktop etc.

Right clicks: most applications are capable of communicating right clicks. The only notable exception is the H/PC client running on the Pocket PC.

Double left clicks: they have no problems with quickly clicking the screen in rapid succession to emulate double left clicks (to, for example, quickly highlight words, sentences and/or paragraphs of text). Some of them even support sending them from a menu.

Tap-and-hold (like text moving in Word): With several of the remote controller apps (most importantly, RDP-based clients), a simple, quick tap on the screen equals with a left click and tap-and-holding a right click; with some others (most importantly, the Web-based applications belong to this category) you click a left/right state toggler icon to quickly switch between issuing left and right clicks when you tap the screen.

When you use an application (for example, the built-in TSC) belonging to the first category, you can't use tap-and-hold events, unlike with a real mouse. In this test, I've tested (with the help of Microsoft Word - I've checked whether the Move text - where to? message appears in the left bottom corner) whether this is possible with the given client. (Sorry for the language of the example screenshots (I have a Finnish-language MS Office on my notebook): “Mihin siirrytään?” is Where to move? in Finnish.))

Special keys: as has been already mentioned in the group introduction, SIP's lack many special keys available on real desktop PC keyboards: Alt, function keys, Windows; Insert; Escape and some special, well-known combinations of these; for example Alt-F4, Alt-Tab and Ctrl-Alt-Del. In here, I've listed what special keys can be sent to the remote desktop. As can be seen, the built-in TSC in Windows Mobile doesn't support sending any special keys. Again, note that you can still access the remote desktop Task Manager by tap-and-holding, that is, right-clicking the taskbar; therefore, the lack of the Ctrl-Alt-Del support isn’t that disastrous. It's only the otherwise, because of RDP4, not recommended Mocha RDP client that is considerably better in this respect. Web-based applications weren't particularly good in this respect either; some of them only supports Ctrl-Alt-Del but not, say, function keys. The absolute killer is PT PO. Note that with PT PO, it's a bit complicated to bring up these special keys - see the mini-tutorial in the next, national character test row on how this must be accomplished.

National characters entered on SIP: if you only enter English characters on your keyboard, you will hardly notice the lack of national character support. If you do need to enter these characters, you should base your choice also on the given product's being able to send over accented / national chars. Unfortunately, not all of them do - for example, one of the most recommended apps, LogMeIn, doesn't.

In these cases, you will want to cast a glance at XDA-Developer forum member Mokus‘ remote desktop-side macro app. It will require you to enter a, say, dot before all your accented chars. See this for more info.

Is it possible to “hover” the cursor from the client without USB / external mouse / hx4700 touchpad? (The latter works with everything): you may also want to position the mouse cursor without actually sending a click. Unfortunately, none of the controllers support this - except for PT PO when you use hardware buttons for the two mouse buttons.

A quick remark about the alternative technologies: if you happen to have an HP iPAQ hx4700 (the only one Pocket PC with a touchpad) and you enable the touchpad mode in the Nav Point Mode applet, you will be able to position the cursor anywhere (to, for example, see the cursor position-based tooltips, animations etc), in most remote controller apps. Note that, with LogMeIn (this may also mean RemotelyAnywhere because of the same GUI engine), any kind of viewport scrolling (which is especially easy and fast with the hx4700 in cursor mode) will stop this functionality of the cursor to work (because of the changed coordinates). The best way to make it work again is sending a mouse click anywhere (that is, you don't need to log in again).

I've also made some tests with an external USB mouse on the Pocket Loox 720. As opposed to the hx4700 touchpad, I've had severe problems with this setup: the local cursor coordinates didn't match the remote ones and, therefore, the mouse was useless. This, however, doesn't necessarily mean no USB or external (for example Bluetooth) mouse will ever work as intended: I may just have been unlucky with my PL720.

Server-side tooltips displayed? : you may well know tooltip windows - they are widely used in desktop Windows. In this case, I've explicitly tested whether the given remote controller application is able to display these on the client side. As can be seen, not all of them do. Also note my extensive remarks on z2 RemotePC.

Hardware button shortcuts: in here, I've elaborated on what you can use the hardware buttons of the Pocket PC for. Unfortunately, as can be seen, it's only with PT PO and z2 RemotePC that you can make use of them; with the other clients, their functionality remains the same as in the operating system itself.

Cursor tracking?: finally, I've tested whether remote controllers are dynamically able to follow the cursor and the text input caret. Doing this is highly useful particularly with QVGA clients. Unfortunately, only pcAnywhere and z2 is capable of this; the former tracks the mouse (useful when the remote user wants to see what the desktop user does) and the second finds the text caret (useful when you enter text and it scrolls out of the window but you don't want to waste too much time on finding it manually with the scrollbars).

Resolution, zoom, color group: in this group, I've elaborated on issues like whether the remote desktop is switched to a given resolution upon connection, whether the client is able to do any zooming and the like.

Remote desktop resolution?: is the remote desktop resized when the remote client connects to it or does it stay at the original size? In most cases, the latter is preferable, particularly with clients that also allow for sharing the screen with the local user of the remote desktop.

It's only RDP that resizes the remote desktop: the built-in TSC to VGA and the Mocha client to SVGA size. All other solutions keep it at its original size.

Forcing the remote desktop size to the available view – on the server? ("Limit size of server desktop to fit on this screen?") (1:1 pixels and no client-size rescaling): in here, I've listed whether the given controller can be made to force the remote desktop side to fit into the available client screen estate without the need for any kind of zooming or scrolling. As can clearly be seen, it'ss only the built-in TSC and GotoMyPC that are able to do this. Remember, however, not to enable this feature on QVGA devices - only on VGA ones!

Rescaling on the client side so that the desktop image is visible (and editable) on the client w/o scrolling?: TSC has always lacked "scale (zoom out) to the available screen estate" functionality; the other RDP-based client, the Mocha client, already knows this; as with most the non-RDP-based alternatives. This functionality is especially useful, particularly on VGA devices, to be instantly able to navigate on the full desktop screen without the need for any scrolling.

Client-side zooming?: in here, I've listed whether the client is able to zoom and if it is, what zoom steps are available. (Note that z2 is able to zoom in/out with not only icons but also hardware buttons, as has already been stated in the "Hardware button shortcuts" row.)

Remote desktop resolution settable?: some applications (LogMeIn and RemotelyAnywhere) are able to dynamically set the remote desktop resolution (even using Portrait resolutions if you prefer staying in that mode to avoid for example eyestrain because of lower-quality screens being not very eye-friendly in Landscape mode - see for example this for more info) from inside the applications. Note that the standard resolution (re)setting (Settings / Control Panel / Display / Settings) works with most other applications too, except for, of course, RDP-based ones; the worst that can happen is that the client (automatically) reconnects (as with the case with, say, PT PO). This also means the local remote desktop user may change the desktop resolution any time, even with hardware keyboard-based shortcuts (for example, the one on UXGA notebooks to quickly switch to SVGA mode - and back); the clients, in general, will automatically notice and apply the changes.

Scrolling on page: if you don't stick to scaled full-desktop modes (and, especially on low-resolution QVGA devices, this will be the case most of the time), you will end up having to scroll a lot.

Traditionally, scrollbars have always been used by Windows Mobile applications to scroll (pan) around. They, however, do take a lot of precious screen estate, even with the well-known "thin scrollbar" registry hacks. This is why some (most importantly, three of the four web-based applications and PT PO) offers an alternative method of scrolling: tap-and-holding the screen on one of the four edges. Some other solutions (for example PT PO) offer "minimaps" and some others (the two Mochasoft apps) stylus-based quick (this solution is considerably faster than the tap-and-hold method) dragging. TSC, in addition to scrollbars, also offers five "quick positioning" icons on the command bar to quickly move to one of the corners or the center of the desktop.

Color depth: finally, the color depth. As can be seen, as far as RDP is concerned, TSC in PPC2k2…WM5 only supports 8-bit color depth; so does Mocha. Better VNC-based solutions and three of the four Web-based solutions also support better (with more colors) color depth modes; so does one of the most recommended titles, z2 RemotePC.

3. Verdict

As a very short, "executive" summary (not taking niceties like international character input into account - if you do need to input characters like them, do consult the chart very thoroughly to be able to find the best applications capable of this),

1. if you need the cheapest and easiest possible solution with a very flexible networking interface, go for LogMeIn Free. It behaved very nicely in almost every respect and, again, you can't beat the price.
   
2. If you're forced to use RDP (that is, the built-in Remote Desktop in Windows), try to get a WM6 (Crossbow)-based Windows Mobile device because of the vastly enhanced RDP client shipped with the new operating system. (If you only have a Pocket PC with a previous operating system, make sure you install vijay's full screen hack and/or consider switching to the MochaSoft client. However, you should seriously consider switching to an alternate solution because both solutions are still inferior to the better protocols / clients in many respects.)
   
3. If you're forced to use VNC (because, say, you've already installed a VNC server your desktop computer and don't want to install another one), go for PT PO (preferably with either UltraVNC or, even better, PTeSVNC as the server); it is a very solid and capable product
   
4. If you don't need through-firewalls functionality (or, alternatively, you're ready to configure the client to call back your client) and the higher bandwidth usage isn't a problem, z2 Remote PC will be one of your best friends: it has a LOT of additional, important niceties and is comparatively cheap
   
5. If you (also) need to access PIM stuff in your Outlook (Express), go for I'm InTouch. If you don't need the remote controller capabilities of the latter (because they're still a bit weaker than those of, say, LogMeIn), then, you will only need to pay $50 for the version that "only" supports accessing PIM stuff. Pair it with the LogMeIn Free (if you don't need file transfer) or LogMeIn Pro (if you do need file downloads from your desktop) and you have a killer combination for a still pretty low price.
   
6. If bandwidth usage is of paramount importance and not even PT PO's Tight mode is bandwidth-friendly enough and the high annual subscription price (and the lack of built-in file transfer on the Pocket PC) isn't a problem, give a try to Citrix's GoToMyPC.
   

Again and again, this short verdict should NOT be blindly obeyed. You should consult the comparison chart and, based on your requirements and the information there, decide for the remote controller application that best fits your needs. There are no all-in-one "best" applications; albeit, some of them are pretty close. Therefore, you must spend some time with the chart to make an optimal decision.

4. Final words

I know the article is pretty overwhelming for a novice. No matter how hard I've tried, I just haven't had the time to make it more beginner-friendly. What's more, the article is some 91 kbytes (without whitespaces) - including sections on the basics of networking would have resulted in its growing even more.

If you do not understand something, let me know - don't be afraid of posting your question (in public - please do NOT mail me in private because I'm already overloaded with private mails!), I will do my best to answer them. Please also make sure you also try to digest my networking-related articles (there are numerous of them; follow for example the links in my Multiplayer Gaming Bible and in the Web Browsers category of my Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Expert Blog.)

UPDATE (01/05/2007): Readers’ feedback:

XDA-Developers 1 2, AximSite, BrightHand, FirstLoox, HowardForums.

AximSite frontpage; Clinton Fitch's recommendation in microsoft.public.pocketpc.

UPDATE (02/10/2007): Updated the article with WM6- and PPC Tablet 4-related info. I also recommend this remote desktop access-related post in the microsoft.public.pocketpc newsgroup; it may turn out to be useful for many. Finally, should you want to change the port number in the TSC client, you'll need this utility; also see this post.

UPDATE (12/02/2007): PPCT frontpage, WM6-wise

UPDATE (02/03/2007): At last, a REALLY decent RDP (Terminal Server) client for WM5!

[Guest Killian]

Thanks for that information! It certainly makes for an interesting read! :(

I read through and the site I was trying to recall was not on there. I did some more googling though and managed to find it. The program is something called 'Orb' and allows you to access your files from whereever you are (providing you're connected to the net - and I think your pc has to be on....) by logging into the website and streaming them directly to your device.

I used this on my old Imate SP5 and it seemed to work fine, not the best connection at the time though will see how it goes when my Vario 3 comes through.

Thanks once again though, atleast I now know what other options are out there.

[Guest Menneisyys]

Thanks for that information! It certainly makes for an interesting read! :(

I read through and the site I was trying to recall was not on there. I did some more googling though and managed to find it. The program is something called 'Orb' and allows you to access your files from whereever you are (providing you're connected to the net - and I think your pc has to be on....) by logging into the website and streaming them directly to your device.

I used this on my old Imate SP5 and it seemed to work fine, not the best connection at the time though will see how it goes when my Vario 3 comes through.

Thanks once again though, atleast I now know what other options are out there.

Yup, Orb is pretty nice - see my latets, multimedia-related articles for more info.

[Guest The Copp]

Yup, Orb is pretty nice - see my latets, multimedia-related articles for more info.

Aside from Orb (Which does Camera's very nicely), how about RDM+? I've been usiing it for awhie and it suits all my needs.