[wcarlson40]

Guys,

As far as the net is concerned, there's no such thing as a free lunch, nevermind a server. Won't last forever.

That's why I like palmVNC. My computer is my server. Just punch a hole in my router for 5900, run the app and I'm in.

Wouldn't it be slower to connect to a heavily used server to connect to your desktop? That's one huge thing VNC will have when winhand gets big. Trust me. Look at webpro.

Anyway. Ever needed to access an old email? Too many times, exactly what these programs exist for.

What??? I think you are confused. WinHand is a server program. It makes your computer a server just like palmVNC. And for the record, Win-Hand is MUCH faster, Trust me instead......

[Wayazo]

Anyone know if a similar program exists for the Mac and OS X?

[asantana]

Is the win-hand program any good?

It works like a charm. I use it to connect to my PC back at home. Whenever I forget a file or need to access something back home, I just use WinHand. Plus, it helps me get access to my Fantasy Football teams, which does not load up okay on Blazer 3.0.

Very cool, I think this is the "killer app" for my Treo 600. This app alone will make me upgrade to the 650!

[karlfranz]

Folks, here's what I do:

Install PalmVnc on your Treo and on each computer on your home network that you wish to control remotely.

Go to www.no-ip.com and create an account for free. You will assign it a unique username that will form part of the url for your home network. For instance you could reach your home network by typing "http://username.myvnc.com".

Next, download no-ip's Dynamic Update Client (DUC) software from their site and install it on one of the PCs on your home network. This app will get your real IP address and report it to the no-ip servers at a given interval. I have mine set up to update every 5 minutes.

Go to your Linksys' Forwarding setup page (in the "Advanced" section) and click on the UPnP Forwarding button. Make a new entry on this page for each computer you wish to remote control as follows:

For "Ext. Port" choose a port number for each PC starting with 5900 for the first PC (5901 for the next PC, etc.).

For "Protocol" choose TCP. For "Int. Port" type in 5900. "For the IP Address" enter the last digits of the IP for that PC. Make sure to click the Enable check box.

Do this for each PC then click the Apply button.

On the Treo VNC application create a profile for each PC in your home network. For the Address enter the URL you created at No-IP along with the proper port number for that PC. For example: username.myvnc.com:5901

It really sounds a lot more complicated than it is. I use this setup and am able to reach any computer in my house from my Treo from anywhere I am as long as I've got a signal.

The only drawback has always been that the screen resolution on the T600 is so low that you can only see a small portion of the screen at once. This means that you must scroll around all the time. You can choose a different scale factor for the Treo display in the VNC app, but the more of your PC you show, the smaller the text gets and with the T600 resolution, it becomes illegible. This is the main reason I will be getting the T650; I will finally be able to see more of the screen at once on my Treo and still be able to read it.

Note: I have noticed that some of the newer Lynksys routers (like the WiFi G-routers) do not have the ability to do UPnP Port Forwarding (just the regular Forwarding) so you may not be able to control more than one home PC.

So I have a little wanna be LAN at home with about 3 computers that I'd be interested in connecting to(NATed through a Linksys router).

From the posts that I have read preceding this one, It sounds like the program creates a unique account/key per computer.

From this information, I am assuming (and viably making an @$$ out of myself) that I could potential install this software on all three computers and be able to control them from my Treo 600 without any headache. Does the client software allow you to switch accounts easily?

If this is correct, I would happily put VNC aside. VNC requires alot of port forwarding work, and if you even want to have access to two machines on the the NATed you're a bit SOL (as it's far from easy).

on the down side, I have not heard anything about server side scaling for this app.

[MikeK2]

Folks, here's what I do:

Install PalmVnc on your Treo and on each computer on your home network that you wish to control remotely.

Go to www.no-ip.com and create an account for free. You will assign it a unique username that will form part of the url for your home network. For instance you could reach your home network by typing "http://username.myvnc.com".

Next, download no-ip's Dynamic Update Client (DUC) software from their site and install it on one of the PCs on your home network. This app will get your real IP address and report it to the no-ip servers at a given interval. I have mine set up to update every 5 minutes.

Go to your Linksys' Forwarding setup page (in the "Advanced" section) and click on the UPnP Forwarding button. Make a new entry on this page for each computer you wish to remote control as follows:

For "Ext. Port" choose a port number for each PC starting with 5900 for the first PC (5901 for the next PC, etc.).

For "Protocol" choose TCP. For "Int. Port" type in 5900. "For the IP Address" enter the last digits of the IP for that PC. Make sure to click the Enable check box.

Do this for each PC then click the Apply button.

On the Treo VNC application create a profile for each PC in your home network. For the Address enter the URL you created at No-IP along with the proper port number for that PC. For example: username.myvnc.com:5901

It really sounds a lot more complicated than it is. I use this setup and am able to reach any computer in my house from my Treo from anywhere I am as long as I've got a signal.

The only drawback has always been that the screen resolution on the T600 is so low that you can only see a small portion of the screen at once. This means that you must scroll around all the time. You can choose a different scale factor for the Treo display in the VNC app, but the more of your PC you show, the smaller the text gets and with the T600 resolution, it becomes illegible. This is the main reason I will be getting the T650; I will finally be able to see more of the screen at once on my Treo and still be able to read it.

Note: I have noticed that some of the newer Lynksys routers (like the WiFi G-routers) do not have the ability to do UPnP Port Forwarding (just the regular Forwarding) so you may not be able to control more than one home PC.

This is hugely more complicated than the Win-Hand way of doing it. I'm not saying one is better than the other, because I haven't used PalmVNC, but the Win-Hand setup requires non of the extra steps that you've outlined. You simply install the Win-Hand server on each machine, and you're done.

[karlfranz]

This is hugely more complicated than the Win-Hand way of doing it. I'm not saying one is better than the other, because I haven't used PalmVNC, but the Win-Hand setup requires non of the extra steps that you've outlined. You simply install the Win-Hand server on each machine, and you're done.

I decided to set up WinHand to see how it compares against PalmVNC. I will admit that it is quite easy to set up. However, one advantage that VNC has is that there are clients for many other OS in addition to Palm which means you can set up a server and control it with everything OSX, to Linux, to Unix, to Windows to Palm, etc.

Another issue I encountered is that my Treo reboots every time I exit the WinHand application. Does anybody else have this problem?

[MikeK2]

I haven't had any problems with Treo resets using Win-Hand. My first thought would be that it's a software conflict somewhere on the your Treo. I wonder if the PalmVNC stuff is conflicting. Maybe Win-Hand uses some of the VNC software in its coding and it's conflicting.

You're right about Win-Hand only supporting Windows. That is a definite plus for PalmVNC. Fortunately, my Mac is simply for play. I use my PC for nearly everything, but others that have Mac depedence would need an alternative like PalmVNC.

Mike

[TrueCrimeNY]

Wow, this must be the most incredible thing I've heard so for, about the capability of the Treo 600\650. This is definately a deal breaker for me. You guys are basically telling me, that I can use my PC through my Treo 600\650 and open all my programs, such as word, excel, and photoshop. Its sounds too good to be true. Are you guys telling me I can open everything that is on my PC on my Treo. Say for instance, I opened up windows media player 10, will I be able to play the music I have stored in library. Your also telling me that I can surf the web using my PC browser, so can I open up browsers such as Firefox and Netscape 7.2. Also, if this is all possible, how can it be with the memory limitations of the Treo 600\650 of 32MB.

Please can someone touch on some of these points to clarify for me. Thank you.

[tuen]

It doesn't run the PC programs on your palm. It merely opens a window to your PC and allows you to control your PC remotely. So yes, you can browse the net, do your excel sheets etc. but you can't listen to your music.

[karlfranz]

Think of it as a fully wireless keyboard, mouse, and display screen for your desktop PC. No processing of the Windows apps actually occurs on the Palm device. You simply remote control it from your Treo. If you are familiar with Windows' Remote Desktop or Terminal Services this is very similar to those. If you are familiar with old mainframe computers, this would be the equivalent of a dumb terminal.

BTW: If you opened up Media Player, the music will play on your desktop computer, not on the Treo.

Wow, this must be the most incredible thing I've heard so for, about the capability of the Treo 600\650. This is definately a deal breaker for me. You guys are basically telling me, that I can use my PC through my Treo 600\650 and open all my programs, such as word, excel, and photoshop. Its sounds too good to be true. Are you guys telling me I can open everything that is on my PC on my Treo. Say for instance, I opened up windows media player 10, will I be able to play the music I have stored in library. Your also telling me that I can surf the web using my PC browser, so can I open up browsers such as Firefox and Netscape 7.2. Also, if this is all possible, how can it be with the memory limitations of the Treo 600\650 of 32MB.

Please can someone touch on some of these points to clarify for me. Thank you.

[Felipe]

i installed this on my 600. a couple of questions.

you only have a certain amount of log ins b4 you need to get a new key?
on my desktop, i hide my taskbar hidden. how do i unhide it?
i have 2 monitors with one large desktop. i cant seem to get to the second monitor. is this possible?

[BlackTop]

I installed it on my XP Pro box. Amazing how quick it is. But, can this be used if someone else is using my XP box and logged in as a different user. I tried to get it to work, but couldn't.

[trjons]

If we can access our desktop through our Treo via Winhand shouldnt someone be writing a patch to allow us to hotsync through Winhand??????

[trjons]

Just noticed that WinHand disables the telephone so that all calls ring straight to Voicemail....Is that by design?

[Felipe]

Just noticed that WinHand disables the telephone so that all calls ring straight to Voicemail....Is that by design?

that isn't win-hand, if u use your data pipe, you wont get phone calls.


winhand isn't a service? that isn't good.

[BeantownTreo]

Win-HandFree was not encrypted, but now he's released Win-HandAnywhere for free while includes MANY levels of encryption (almost to the degree of paranoia). He used to charge for this version (like $60.00, I actually paid for it about a year ago and have had no regrets). It works great. I haven't actually figured out why he's making it free now though (perhaps he's now going to get paid by Palm for including it on their devices?)

This is a VERY Good question (why free). I hope your premise is correct. Can the author of Win-Hand have access to our desktop files through this software? I'm not suggesting malitious intent, just trying to safegaurd against it and understand the risks I'm taking by using an application such as Win-Hand. The language in the agreement has a general privacy statement. Any opinions from a few technically saavy folks on this issue?

[Gaurav]

Oh, I didn't realize it required software to be installed on your PC... I just assumed it allowed you to term-serv into your PC using Window's Remote Desktop....

So would I still need a VPN client on my Treo to get to my work PC, or does the server-sofware eliminate that need?

If you want to use RDS, then you need to use Mobile TS which is also a very nice app!

http://www.ddhsoftware.com/mobile_ts...3980.183.114.7

Another option is MicroVNC:

http://palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseac...1&prodID=72847

MicroVNC isn't free but it's a huge upgrade compared to PalmVNC. It supports compression and server side scaling. Suggest you check this out if you continue to use VNC on the Palm.

[mwilson]

But why would one want to use win hand, when one can use the remote desktop functionality (Mobile TS from DDH software), with no need to install any additional software on the PC's? Is win hand any better?

thanks,
mike

[Gaurav]

But why would one want to use win hand, when one can use the remote desktop functionality (Mobile TS from DDH software), with no need to install any additional software on the PC's? Is win hand any better?

thanks,
mike

Well first of all, you need to have XP Pro if you want to use terminal services and most people only have XP home on their pc's...

[LouisW]

To use mobile TS, you need XP Pro. (Unfortunately I have only xP Home and there is no longer a cheap xp Home to Pro upgrade available)