Can you remotely access your home computer from your phone when they are on different network? YES, you can. This post primarily introduces 3 ways to access home computer from phone.
I’m taking a business trip but have left my laptop at home. Can I remotely access my home computer from my phone to get the information I need?”
- Question from Quora
Although phones can do much computer work nowadays, some serious work still favors the desktop. It is easy to control computers from phones via Bluetooth or WiFi. However, we may want to access computers from phones to carry out some urgent tasks when we are far away from our desktops. For example, we need to access the home computer on a business trip. But is this possible?
Luckily, it is possible. Remote desktop software has embraced a great revolution that would allow you to access a computer from your phone even if they are on a different network. Here we’ll introduce 3 free ways to access home computer from phone.
AnyViewer is a Windows, iOS, and Android remote control app. It supports PC-to-PC, iOS-to-PC, and Android-to-PC unattended remote control. Besides, it allows direct remote connections across the internet.
Part 1. Configuration on the host:
Step 1. Download, install, and launch AnyViewer on the computer.
Step 2. Go to Log in, and then click Sign up. (If you already have signed up on its official website, you can log in directly.)
Step 3. Fill in the signup information.
Step 4. Then you can see you successfully logged in to AnyViewer. Your device will automatically be assigned to the account you’ve logged in to.
Part 2. Configuration on your phone:
Step 1. Download AnyViewer for Android on your phone (both iOS and Android are supported).
Step 2. Log into the account you’ve signed up for above.
Step 3. The devices that have been logged into the same account will be displayed on the My devices list.
Step 4. Tap your target PC and tap Remote Control to quickly connect to the PC.
Step 5. Then you’re able to remotely access a PC from iPhone or Android phone.
Chrome Remote Desktop also has a mobile version that allows remote connections between laptops and iPhone/Android phones. Make sure you have a Chrome browser and a Google account on both of your devices before beginning any operations.
Part 1. Configuration on the host:
Step 1. Navigate to the Chrome Remote Desktop website using the Chrome browser. Click Remote Access and then click the download button.
Step 2. Click Add to Chrome to add the Chrome Remote Desktop extension to your Chrome browser.
Step 3. Click Accept & Install to install this program.
Step 4. Choose a name for your computer and click Next.
Step 5. Enter and re-enter a PIN with at least 6 numbers.
Part 2. Configuration on your phone:
Step 1. Download and install Chrome Remote Desktop from Google Play and open it on your phone.
Step 2. Log in to the same Google account as on your computer, then you can see the list of devices. Tap the target computer you want to access.
Step 3. Enter the PIN for the remote computer.
Step 4. Now you can control your computer with your phone.
Remote Desktop (called RD Client on your phone) is the built-in Microsoft remote desktop software. Technically, it can only be used when the two devices are on LAN or WiFi. But you are able to use it when the two devices are on the different network after setting up port forwarding. The process is a little bit complicated compared to the other two tools. Please read it carefully.
Part 1. Configuration on the host:
Step 1. On your PC, enable the Windows Remote Desktop. Press Win + R, input “sysdm.cpl” and press Enter.
Step 2. Go to the Remote tab, and ensure that "Allow remote connections to this computer" is checked. And then click OK.
Step 3. Press Win + R gain, input “cmd” and press Enter to open Command Prompt. Then type in “ipconfig” and press Enter to get the IP for Remote Desktop. Now you can see a group of IP addresses.
We can use IPv4 Address to set up the RD client later. But this IP is set by the router and is not the Public IP Address. It changes every time when PC connects to the network. As a result, Remote Desktop Connection won’t be successful always. So we’re going to set a Static IP Address for this PC. Note down Default Gateway address below, we’ll need it later.
Step 4. Click Start and then click Settings. Find Network & Internet and then click it.
Step 5. On the Network & Internet interface, find Advanced network settings, and click Change adapter options below.
Step 6. Right-click your network and then click Properties.
Step 7. Tick Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and click Properties.
Step 8. Turn on Use the following IP address in the General tab, and change the IP address to a Static IP address. For example, if your router IP is 192.168.0.1, your usable IP is from 192.168.0.2 to 192.168.0.254. You can use 192.168.0.45 as your Static IP.
Set the Subnet mask to the default values, 225.225.225.0.
Set the Default gateway to the Default Gateway address noted down above.
Then turn on Use the following DNS server addresses, set the Preferred DNS server to the same Default Gateway address, and set the Alternate DNS server to Google DNS, 8.8.8.8.
Click OK to apply changes.
Step 9. Enter the device gateway address in the browser address bar, enter the correct user name and password to log in to the router, confirm that port forwarding is enabled, and find and click Add profile.
Step 10. Fill in the corresponding information to create a new port, you can refer to the following:
Service name: fill in whatever you want
Protocol: TCP
External port: 3389
Internal port: 3389
Internal IP address: Static IP address, mine is 192.168.0.45.
Step 11. Go back to the Command Prompt. Then type in “query user” to get the PC name. Now, everything is ready.
Part 2. Configuration on your phone:
Step 1. Download Microsoft Remote Desktop from the Android app store. First, install it, and then run it. Tap the "+" icon to select desktop, and then wait for the app to search your local network for connected PCs. You must manually add the one you want to connect to if it does not appear automatically.
Step 2. A security dialog will appear when you first connect to a remote server. Make sure to check the Never ask for connections to this PC checkbox before tapping Connect. Enter your Windows login information to access the remote PC.
Step 3. There you go. You’re now connected remotely to the Windows laptop you wanted.
This post primarily introduces 3 ways to access home computer from phone free. All of the supports iOS and Android. However, the connecting processes differ. If you would like an easy way to access your home computer from your phone remotely, we highly recommend you choose AnyViewer.
