If you need to access your home or office desktop while you’re out and about, take a look at Jugaari’s Jaadu Remote Desktop, Carter Harrison’s WinAdmin or LogMeIn’s LogMeIn Ignition (we reviewed the latter not long ago).
All three are RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) clients for your iPhone and in most ways they’re similar. The big idea is that you can use your iPhone to control your Windows PC desktop when you’re on an internal network or on the Internet.
Whatever you can do on your desktop, you can control using your iPhone or iPod touch, using the same actions you would if you were sitting in front of the machine: click to trigger actions, drag and drop, open files and folders, edit files and so on. You have the option of viewing your mini-desktop in portrait or landscape modes. Tapping or pinching zooms the screen.
You have two ways of triggering actions: move the mouse to click or drag the window under a stationary mouse and click.
Windows XP/Vista editions include RDP by default. To configure your desktop to accept RDP connections isn’t difficult but involves a number of steps. You can find out how to do that at Microsoft’s Web site.
Jaadu and LogMeIn require you to install their clients on your desktop; WinAdmin does not. LogMeIn also requires you to set up a free account at its Web site.
Jaadu requires you to alter your firewall settings on your router and you can find instructions on how to do that on its Web site. I initially had some difficulty getting Jaadu to work but Jaadu’s support tech responded quickly to walk me through the setup. Ultimately, the only way I could get it to work was to turn off my ZoneAlarm firewall. If I had more time, I’m sure I could have gotten around having to do that, but it’s something to think about.
Once you have the iPhone client configured and talking to your desktop, you’ll get a list that’s been populated with the names of the computers you can access. Tap the name of the desktop machine you want and you’re good to go, although a bit slowly because of the iPhone and iPod touch’s limitations.
WinAdmin, the most streamlined of the three, ran out of the box with little work. LogMeIn and Jaadu took a bit more doing, because you must also install a desktop app and configure them.
Space doesn’t permit me to go into each in greater detail, so read the app descriptions carefully. Some differences you should be aware of include: Jaadu and LogMeIn are capable of streaming audio to your iPhone. Where these two greatly differ from WinAdmin is in the higher level of security. LogMeIn will run on the desktop from a flash drive and also offers different tiers of connectivity and flexibility through its Web site.
All three of these apps support Windows XP and Vista (not Vista Home). If you want to connect to a Mac, you need Jaadu VNC.
WinAdmin is $11.99; Jaadu is $24.99; and LogMeIn is $29.99. I’m going to wimp out and not specifically recommend one over the other because it really depends on what you aim to do. If security matters, go with either Jaadu or LogMeIn.
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January 29th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Clarification: Installing the Jaadu Remote Desktop is optional. Because Jaadu uses Microsoft’s RDP protocol you can manually enter the machine’s IP address in Jaadu RDP. The optional client software is designed to help users automatically configure their routers for full Internet access.
January 30th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Hi, I’m Andy Stefano, the Community Relationship Manager at LogMeIn. Thanks for including LogMeIn Ignition in your review. I’d like to make a few corrections to your description of our services. First, creating an account with LogMeIn is part of the process for downloading the remote access client on the computer you want to access, so it’s really one simple step. Second, you can access a Mac through LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone/iPod touch by installing LogMeIn Free for Mac on that computer. Third, while LogMeIn Pro and LogMeIn IT Reach can stream audio to another Mac or PC during a remote session, they currently do not stream audio to the iPhone or iPod touch. Lastly, the version of LogMeIn Ignition that runs on a flash drive is a different “flavor” of LogMeIn Ignition than the iPhone/iPod touch version and must be purchased separately. However, its purpose is the same: you carry it around with you and use it to gain access to your desktop on the go.
You can find out more about LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone at https://secure.logmein.com/welcome/iphone
Thanks again.
January 30th, 2009 at 9:02 am
As Mike Alexander said, you don’t have to use the Jaadu desktop software. I actually wasn’t able to get it to work with their software at all; I just adjusted some settings to windows/router firewall and it worked.
I haven’t tried winadmin, but I can confirm that Jaadu was a little better in terms of connectivity and response time (even on Edge Jaadu is quite usable). Also I find Jaadu’s setup of the keys and buttons more intuitive, but I guess this could be different for every person.
January 30th, 2009 at 9:11 am
I forgot to mention; before Logmein Ignition came out, I was using my logmein account through the safari browser. You can change your logmein account settings to work through html as opposed to flash. It’s not as smooth as using hte Ignition app, but a good option for casual users of logmein.
January 30th, 2009 at 9:52 am
I guess I was overly ambitious in trying to cover these three relatively complex apps in a brief overview. That’s one reason I suggested readers to go to the developer’s Web site and read the product descriptions carefully.
To clarify:
LogMeIn requires you to register before you can download the desktop client. That’s a step Jaadu and WinAdmin do not require.
If you have a Mac, use LogMeIn Free for Mac.
Only Jaadu streams audio to the iPhone and iPod touch.
LogMeIn Ignition–not LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone–is the desktop client that also runs off a thumb drive. The annual subscription for LogMeIn Ignition is $39.95.
I apologize for the inaccuracies. Thanks for clearing them up.
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:46 am
Additional Clarification on Jaadu. You don’t need the client as Michael states, but it is not as simple as entering an IP address in the Jaadu RDP. You have to take many steps such as create a static IP, set up an account with http://www.no-ip.com, modify your router configuration by forwarding a port. Not exactly for your average person. The client installation works well when it works, but if it does’nt, you have to use a manual process that is very lengthy and requires the support and information from several 3rd party sources. Their latest client is also a beta.
June 23rd, 2009 at 3:53 am
It’s been a while since I used Jaadu RDP, so I had to go back and refresh my memory.
I installed Jaadu Remote Connector and configured it as instructed (clicked the “enable file sharing” button). I followed the directions on the support page at Jaadu’s site and configured my firewall as instructed (clicked the “remote access” box under Exceptions tab).
I ran Jaadu RDP and Jaadu on my iPhone, and they discovered each other almost immediately and I was good to go.
In retrospect, turning on “remote access” is not a smart thing to do from a security standpoint, but at least Jaadu works as they company instructions indicate.
February 24th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
These sound great in practice, but in usage I have had less than great luck on mobile devices. I do use Proxy Networks for PC-PC connections and am very pleased with them, but the offerings from other companies in the mobile sector have left me wanting more, to say the least.