I think these networks were always an inevitable development, and not because of the current obvious attempts to intercept and control communication, but because of its inevitability.

It has also occurred to me that some technological countermeasures to a lot of the dirty tricks at any conceivable point upstream would best be accomplished using a true peer to peer network of private individuals, and participating in a sort of cooperative networking framework. It would be a borderline tinfoil hat approach to the problem. However, if the question is, indeed, not whether you're paranoid, but whether you're paranoid enough, I can safely say, "Yes I am!"

@SJ & Vurbal: YMMV naturally, I'd tried other forms of remote access apps but I'll stick with the Microsoft one until something else comes along that's better for my use.

Instead of having you immediately trying to move the mouse pointer or click a button by trying to get your finger in exactly the right spot, (how many of us can see where the pointer is through our finger), it defaults to moving the mouse pointer by moving your finger anywhere on screen - you don't need to stick your finger on the pointer.  You can position the mouse precisely and then tap anywhere on screen for an LMB click or two-finger tap for RMB.

You can zoom in/out as usual to expand a portion of the screen but I find I don't need to do that for pointer positioning, sometimes for reading something.

You can also switch to the normal method of the mouse being positioned under your finger if you have a bigger screen.

Microsoft RDP is also the only thing that's ever shown me exactly the same thing as I see on the computers monitor unlike various forms of VNC I've tried.

And I don't need any third party software/servers to use it.

-4wd (February 19, 2015, 03:30 PM)

I'm not a huge fan of VNC either, and it's more than just that issue. The VNC servers I've used also seem prone to suddenly develop fatal connection problems with no error messages or clear indication of what suddenly changed. IIRC I only used it on that Android phone because there was no reasonably priced RDP client available at the time. I want to say I only found one, and it was something like $25. I'd have paid that if it was a work thing, but not for my minimal home use at the time.

Not quite sure what you mean Vurbal, gesture support?  Not AFAIK.  There's four or five versions of keyboard interface and what looks like handwriting input, (I think).

I'm not exactly clear on what I mean either. ;D  Mostly I was trying to ask an open ended question, without over explaining what I meant. I know, who would ever accuse me of that?

So here's the verbose version. The Windows RDP client has variations on the standard Windows keyboard shortcuts like Alt-Tab for switching Windows. They're not the same ones you use for your local Windows session, for obvious reasons. Those are great for a standard keyboard/mouse oriented interface, but using a keyboard is doing things the long way on a touchscreen.

The equivalent to hotkeys in a touch interface, when there is one, is typically some sort of multitouch gesture, like when you pinch to zoom. On Android there's also the menu button, but, for various reasons, I can't imagine that being used (or useful) as an alternative to the keyboard shortcuts. I figured if there was something equivalent, it would involve a capability also available in Windows Phone, which brings me back to gestures.

It would surprise me to see, but I didn't want to dismiss the possibility out of hand. Microsoft developers tend to be very good when the suits get out of their way.

Microsoft Remote Desktop - Remote PC access (works better than any other Android remote app I've tried).

-4wd (February 19, 2015, 05:39 AM)

Really?! I've always been a bit to skeptical (to try it) about the screen size making it impossible to do effectively ...(yes I am playing the tiny text/old guy card here)... But you're saying it is actually a viable option?

-Stoic Joker (February 19, 2015, 06:38 AM)

I'm curious about this as well. Back when I had my first Android phone, and app options were significantly more limited, I used a VNC client to remote into my HTPC. It was more convenient than using a keyboard and mouse, but extremely clumsy, and something I used as little as possible. Ironically, I'd expect to have more problems with the Galaxy Note 2 I have now. The screen real estate is more than twice my ancient HTC POS, but the dot pitch is less than half.

Besides readability, I'd be concerned about touch UI precision, or, perhaps more accurately, inaccuracy of the hammers I have in place of normal fingertips. VNC would have been practically unusable without the optical trackpad button on my old POS HTC, and I imagine I would be fine using the active stylus on my Galaxy Note, but I'm hesitant to rely on an app where it's practically a requirement.

I haven't used RDP for several years and multiple generations. Does it (or even just the Android app) still limit you to a preset resolution, or is there a more advanced zoom feature? Perhaps even more importantly for me, since I could probably do practically everything I'd use it for blindfolded, does it provide a touch oriented alternative to the standard RDP hotkeys?