Anyone using jaadu VNC to remote-control your DAW?

[L-ROX]

I've got an iTouch and have been considering this to control a PC station that I use for sending files to clients. Often times, I am not home when I have to do so and would love the ability to be somewhere where I have wi-fi access to remotely access this station and transfer a file or two to/from my FTP.

If this jaadu VNC thing works as advertised, I should be able to say, be able to download a file from my FTP to this station so that it's already there by the time I get home.

Looking for any experiences/thoughts, thank you.

[firby]

VNC is a pretty slick technology, it has been around for awhile. I don't understand exactly what you are doing but here is the rub.

It's good for doing simple stuff with not a lot of mousing. It's often laggy and there are several kinds of VNC. Some address that issue of lag via graphical compression. Others are more secure with encryption. You'll need to run a vnc server on the PC and the client on your phone. VNC has been on fancy phones for half a decade anyway.

It is a thing of beauty for the right applications.

Also, know this, VNC has been hacked at least once before so you will be putting the server side at some risk.

[L-ROX]

Here's the application for the iPhone/iTouch I'm referring to:

http://www.jaaduvnc.com/

They have videos on there showing someone controlling a mac/pc remotely. You can see your desktop on the iPhone/iTouch, one of the videos shows the user opening windows, closing windows, launching programs and a few other things, basically completely taking control of the PC.

With regards to how I would like to use this:

I. I sometimes have large files from clients who upload them to an FTP I've assigned them. Let's say I would like to download a 1gb PT session to this station remotely, so that when I eventually get home, it will be sitting there ready for me to grab it (I transfer files from this station to my DAW using a thumb drive) and not have to wait until I return to my place to initiate a download from my server.

II. This particular station is hooked up to my flatscreen at home, and if I need to do anything on the PC, I have to switch the input on my flatscreen to it so I can see it on the screen and grab my sometimes inconsistent wireless keyboard and mouse (I can't use them from my couch, have to get pretty close to my screen for them to make a good connection to the transmitter). With this Jaadu thing, I wouldn't have to do any of that, I could just reach for my iTouch and use that to "see" my PC and navigate around it from my couch (or anywhere in the house, or anywhere outside where I have wi-fi).

Here's an independent review of it:

http://www.iphonenewsblog.com/2009/06/j ... review.php

Sounds "too good to be true" to me, lol. I was hoping others knew about this and had comments about it here. It's not a lot of bread, so I may just get it, try to set it up and come back here and give a review.

[RodC]

I use to use VNC, but remote desktop seems much slicker with XP. Both work awesome.


Here is an old thread from 05 when we discussed it. I cant remember the issues with VNC I had, but it was still useable.

http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopi ... te+control

[L-ROX]

Cool, looks like you set this up yourself using remote desktop and TightVNC.

With this Jaadu thing, they recommend you use UltraVNC but also give you TightVNC as an option (they state this one is the simpler way of setting it up). It supposedly does the setup automatically once you install the software. Once I get some spare time to play around with it, I'll come back and give a review, but it's good to know that the VNC server you used back in '05 is still around (and free).

[Chris Graham Mastering]

I've got an iTouch and have been considering this to control a PC station that I use for sending files to clients. Often times, I am not home when I have to do so and would love the ability to be somewhere where I have wi-fi access to remotely access this station and transfer a file or two to/from my FTP.

If this jaadu VNC thing works as advertised, I should be able to say, be able to download a file from my FTP to this station so that it's already there by the time I get home.

Looking for any experiences/thoughts, thank you.

Hey I use the mocha VNC and like it more, the "remote tap" is decent too.

[L-ROX]

Didn't know about Mocha! I have been using Jaadu VNC for a couple of weeks now, and so far, it's great. It was a bit of a pain to set it up, but that's because I'm on AT&T using a 2wire router, which doesn't do automatic Port Forwarding. Am even using it as a controller for plugins, pretty sweet.

[lysander]

I am not globally remote controlling my MacBook with any VNC programs, but I have been able to remote control Logic with a little iPhone app called Air Mouse, which can be configured per program. I use it to control transport functions, and enable/disable recording on certain tracks. I am finding it much better, and easier to use, than that Transport program, which is a pain to set up, and wants to compete with my regular hardware control surface (FW-1884). Instead of sending midi messages, it basically just sends key commands, which I find suits me well enough until someone comes along with a more elegant and affordable dedicated control surface app.

[ashcat_lt]

I just got my iPhone, partly so I could use it as a remote control for my living room computer on which we watch TV, ripped DVDs, and listen to music. I've only played with it a little, but the free version of Mocha and TightVNC do exactly what I need on that front.

Another large reason I got it was that my recording PC is not a laptop, but is rackmountable. By using a Remote Desktop client on the iPhone, I can bring this thing to remote sessions without having to drag a monitor. Haven't messed with that much yet, either, but initial tests with free apps look promising.

[L-ROX]

I looked into Mocha and one thing I really like about it that Jaadu doesn't have is the function keys for both Mac and PC keyboards; Jaddu only lets you use the iPhone/iTouch keyboard, so that could be an issue for anyone who needs those function keys. On the other hand, Mocha only supports one monitor while Jaadu supports multiple monitors (I can see both my DAW's screens).

I've also read reviews from a few users on different review sites which say that only a portion of the screen is visible with Mocha; it's only $6 versus the $25 Jaadu. One thing I do have to say about Jaadu is that so far, their support is excellent. I was having problems setting up two more computers in my network (the problem is really my 2wire router). They sent me an application that's still in Beta and everything is working fine.

EDIT: Jaadu does have all the function keys, they're a little hidden (you have to flip past the remote control to view all the function keys, so I'm set!)