Relay or direct connections and firewalls

Through your account (relayed)

PCs added to your account connect through RemoteAccessApp's servers. Each PC makes an outgoing, encrypted connection, and the servers pass your session between them. Sessions in the app are end-to-end encrypted, so the servers carry the session without being able to see your screen or what you type.

Because both sides only connect out, this works behind home routers, office networks and mobile data. There's nothing to open, forward or set up on your router.

There are relays in more than one part of the world. The app uses the fastest one by itself; to pick one yourself, see Relay location. If a session connects but feels laggy, see slow or choppy sessions.

Direct, on your local network

A PC can instead be set up for a console on the same local network (in setup, Use a console on this network instead). It then connects straight to that Console over your own network, without RemoteAccessApp's servers and without an account. These PCs show local network under their name on the Devices page.

The PyroWave (LAN) screen codec only works over such a direct local-network connection.

When a firewall or network blocks it

If you see Can't reach the RemoteAccessApp server, or PCs keep showing Couldn't connect, retrying:

1. Open the Server status page on the same PC. It checks whether that device can reach RemoteAccessApp right now.
2. Check that the PC is online and other websites load.
3. If you use a firewall or security software that asks about programs, allow the RemoteAccessApp Agent and the RemoteAccessApp Console to make outgoing connections.
4. On a work network, ask your IT team whether outgoing connections from new programs are blocked or must go through a proxy.
5. Restart the Agent from its icon menu (Quit, then open RemoteAccessApp Agent from Start) to retry at once.

Your PCs reappear by themselves as soon as the server answers again.

Saved SSH, SFTP, FTP, Remote Desktop and VNC hosts on the Connections page normally connect straight from your PC to the server, not through the relay. If one of those fails, see can't connect to a server.

RemoteAccessApp never needs incoming connections on your PCs. If a guide elsewhere tells you to forward a port for remote desktop, you don't need it here.