Windows apps, anywhere
OwnRemote brings the apps running on your PC to your tablet and phone. Install once on the PC, pair once with a six-digit code. On the same Wi-Fi your phone connects straight to the PC; anywhere else, through the server.
Direct connections are free. You only pay when a connection has to go through the relay.
Install it on the PC, enter a code, tap an app on your phone. No ports to open, no VPN to set up.
Download and run the Windows installer. A six-digit pairing code appears in the notification area. No admin rights needed.
Enter the code in the console and the PC joins your account. Then pick the apps you want on your phone.
Install the OwnRemote app on your phone and tap an icon: the app on your PC opens, fitted to your screen.
The program for your PC, and the app for your phone. Reading this on your PC? Scan the code with your phone's camera.
Run it on the PC and a six-digit pairing code appears in the notification area. No admin rights needed.
Not a whole remote desktop: only the apps you need, only for the people who need them.
Only the apps you register show up in the list. Icons come straight from the programs on your PC, so they look just as they do there.
Only you use your PC, from your own phone. Other accounts can neither see nor open your PC.
On the same Wi-Fi, the server introduces your phone and PC, and then the picture and your input travel directly between them, peer to peer. It's fast, and it's free.
Away from home, the server sets up the connection. Your phone and PC talk directly when both networks allow it; when they do not, the relay carries it.
Every connection starts with signing in to your account: TLS encryption, lockout after repeated wrong passwords, and an audit log. The picture and your input are encrypted between phone and PC, directly or through the relay.
App windows are fitted to your phone's screen and refitted when you rotate it. Input, clipboard and sound all come along.
Free as long as you connect directly. Only when a connection has to go through our relay is what it uses deducted from your prepaid balance.
Direct connections are tried first and are free, and they usually work away from home too, even on LTE or 5G. Where a direct connection still fails, a port forward on your router is an advanced option, and it carries security risk. How to set it up, and the risks
On the same Wi-Fi, or wherever the server can get through NAT.
Even where direct connections are blocked, like behind a company firewall or on a mobile network.
Run the server in-house and keep accounts and records under your own control.
Your balance is in credits: a credit is $1 of service. The more you top up at once, the less a credit costs.
OwnRemote tries hard to keep it free. Your phone signs in through the server, and then we first try to link the phone and your PC directly, peer to peer (NAT hole punching). On the same Wi-Fi, and elsewhere whenever both networks allow it, the connection is direct and costs nothing. Some networks, though, leave no direct way through. Then, so that you can still connect, our relay (TURN) server carries the picture, and only that relayed traffic is billed.
You top up in advance, and only what the relay actually carries is deducted. Direct (peer-to-peer) connections are free.
No. The PC only connects out to the server, so nothing needs opening on your router or in the firewall. Your phone signs in to the server, and the server links it to your PC.
Advanced and optional: where a direct connection still fails, you can forward one UDP port on your router (see below). That opens a port to the internet and carries security risk, so do it only if you fully understand it. Otherwise, the relay needs no change to your router.
No. Only the windows of the apps you registered in the console.
On LTE and 5G your phone sits behind the carrier's NAT, and your PC sits behind your home router's NAT, so neither can simply reach the other's address. We always try first to open a direct path from both sides at once. But when the carrier gives your phone a different port for each destination and the router drops unknown packets, that sometimes cannot work. Only then does the connection go through our relay, and only that part is billed. On the same Wi-Fi this rarely happens: the connection is usually direct and free.
Usually yes, with nothing to set up. OwnRemote first tries to connect your phone and your PC directly by itself (hole punching), and that usually works away from home too, even on LTE or 5G. Only when it still cannot connect directly does it use the relay. For networks where direct connections keep failing, there is an advanced, optional way: a port forward on your home router.
Before you start: a port forward opens a port on your router to the internet, and that carries security risk (see the next question). Do it only if you fully understand what you are doing and accept that risk yourself. If you are not sure, use the relay: for security, that is what we recommend.
On an ipTIME router: Advanced setup → Network → Internal network settings → Manual IP assignment for the fixed IP, and Advanced setup → NAT/Router → Port forwarding → Add rule for the forward. Direct connections over IPv6 are coming later.
A port forward lets anyone on the internet send to that UDP port on your PC. OwnRemote's port only answers sessions with the right keys, everything on it is end-to-end encrypted, and a connection still needs your account sign-in and the PC PIN. Even so, every open port is one more thing to attack, through a bug nobody knows about yet or a flood of packets, and a mistake on the router can expose the whole PC.
Never use DMZ: it opens every port of the PC. Forward only this one UDP port, only to this PC, and remove the forward when you no longer need it.
So set one up only if you fully understand it and accept the risk. Otherwise, for security, use the relay. It needs no change to your router, so nothing new is opened toward your PC; it is end-to-end encrypted just the same, and you pay only for what it carries. The usual direct connection, made without a port forward, needs no router change either.