I'm in Touch Software Review

With the need for remote connectivity as large as ever, there are a number of different solutions on the market that will help you stay connected when away from home. One of the lesser know ones is called I’m in Touch by 01 Communique. They are a Canadian company out of Mississauga, Ontario, offering remote access software for both consumers as well as larger corporations.

So is this an option you should be looking at when you need to stay connected away from home? Read on to find out.

There are a number of different ways with which you can use the I’m in Touch software. Since you are connecting through a web page, you can use it from any device that is connected to the internet, be it another desktop computer, a cell phone, a pocket pc, or any other type of PDA device. All you need is to ensure that you have the I’m in Touch software loaded on the computer you wish to connect to, and that that computer is on and connected to the internet.

Ok, so now we are ready to try it out. I loaded the I’m in touch software on my home desktop without problem. You need to sign up for an account so that the I’m in Touch server will be able to identify your desktop when you sign on from a remote location, and you are all set to go. One of the larger problems when dealing with this type of software is the need for it to work through large corporate firewalls. I have tried similar software in the past and have had problems connecting from work due to this issue. In my first attempt to connect through my network at work I was greeted by an unexpected login screen which I had never seen before on my work network. As I was unsure what to do I entered my network credentials and it let me through no problem. We were now through the firewall and connected to my home desktop.

Now that we have dealt with the corporate firewall issue, I will switch the focus over to connecting from your Pocket PC device, as that is likely what anyone reading this review is most interested in. Although the screenshots used are from a Pocket PC, the available options are actually quite similar to the desktop and you really do not have to forsake much whether you are connecting from a desktop or a mobile device.

Once connected you are greeted with a number of options as listed below;

Now I mentioned that the “control my desktop” operation was a little different. What this option will do is actually give you a window into your desktop computer, and you can control your desktop remotely, using the keyboard and mouse of your connecting computer. The downside of this option is that even with the best connection, you are forced to deal with some minor lag when controlling the computer. That being said, I found myself using this option when connecting from a laptop or desktop as it basically gives you access to all items anyway, and instead of using the web interface you get to interact with your home computer in a way that you are used to. On top of that there are also some options within the ‘control my computer” interface that will allow you to do things such as transfer file between computers anyways.  This option is available for your Pocket PC device as well, and although it will work, the aforementioned lag combined with the limited screen size makes this option basically unusable. If you are connecting from a Pocket PC device, one of the web based interfaces is definitely the way to go.

The only problem I did encounter when using I’m in Touch from my Pocket PC device was that it will not work with multiple email accounts. I use different email addresses for different things, and it is important that I am responding to messages from the email addresses from which they are received. You can get around this from a desktop or laptop by using the “control my desktop” option, but from a Pocket PC it will automatically send the email from the default email address, regardless of what email account the message came into.

Other than this one minor issue the program works as advertised. The program will set you back $99.95 USD for one year, which seems fairly reasonable for the service it provides. A 30 day free trial download is available, and I would suggest taking advantage of that to ensure that it would be the right fit for your particular situation.

I’m in Touch Software- Overall Rating - (4.5) out of 5