01 Communique I'm InTouch review

Leaving essential files at home or forgetting to send an important email can be very frustrating.

I'm InTouch is a remote access utility that lets you connect to your home computer over the internet. You can access your home computer from another PC, a PDA, smartphone or BlackBerry, although the level of interaction you have varies between devices. The interface is browser based, so the device you use to access your home computer doesn't need any additional software. All you need is an approved browser.

With full control of your desktop, you can run applications and access files on your computer through a familiar interface. The service is responsive and accurate, so you can use your system effectively with little delay. This is very useful if you're accessing your computer from a PC, but you'll struggle to make the most of your full desktop on a PDA's small screen.

As well as providing remote desktop access from your browser, I'm InTouch can access Outlook and Outlook Express email directly. If you're using a different client, you'll have to access it through the remote control. This displays emails in a similar way to common web-based mail services such as Hotmail and Gmail, while PDA access provides a slimmer interface suited to a handheld's small screen. You also have direct access to your Outlook contact manager and Calendar, which in theory means an end to synchronisation.

If you just need a few files from your PC, the file transfer interface is an efficient way of selecting and transferring them to your current location. The simple tickbox technique and navigation aids will be familiar to all computer users.

Unfortunately, the software has some serious problems. First, you access your remote PC through the 01 Communique website. You have to type the name of your PC into the site; this is far less convenient than using LogMeIn or GoToMy PC's account page, which lets you select from a list of all your connected PCs once you've logged in.

The website can also be unresponsive, and at times it even told us our PC wasn't online. The remote control application often suffers from the same problem, and several times the Java application wouldn't connect to the test PC. We tested the service using three PCs on different broadband connections and got the same results each time.

Alternatively, you can choose to connect directly to your system, but you can only specify this when you're back at base rather than on the road. You have to enter additional firewall and IP settings manually for this type of connection, which we would expect to be detected automatically.

I'm InTouch provides an impressive range of services. The quick access to files and Outlook email saves the hassle of a remote control session, and you can access these services on a slow internet connection. The reliability problems we suffered did worry us, though. For basic remote control, LogMeIn's free service is the best we've used, and LogMeIn Pro is a better choice if you also want file transfers.

Author: David McKinnon