TeamViewer

What is TeamViewer Remote Control Used For?

This is a remote control app for the TeamViewer system, a way to remotely control and manage computers. It's not just for desktops and laptops; TeamViewer is used for mobile devices as well.

This is specifically the remote control app. That means you'll use this app as a monitor and control board of sorts. The actual TeamViewer main program is a different download, so make sure you're getting the right thing.

Remote in this context means the other computer being controlled, not the one you're physically using at the moment. If you add TeamViewer to your home computer, then go on vacation and use this app, you are remoting into your home computer. Your home computer is the remote computer, your phone is the controller.

Remote access makes it easier to manage your computer from somewhere else, and it also makes tech support a lot easier. It essentially turns your screen into the screen for whatever computer you want to control.

When you move your finger across the control screen, you move the mouse on the remote computer. When you type on the virtual keyboard, you use the remote computer keyboards.

How Can You Add Security to This App?

If anyone gets access to your phone, they can technically use the app to remote control your remote computers.

Just grabbing your phone isn't enough to take remote control of everything, thankfully. The remote viewer defaults to lock when your phone goes inactive, so unless someone snatches the phone from your hand while you're using it, you're safe.

The password requirements are fairly secure, and you can add features such as Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) to enhance security. Passwords can also be very long, meaning you can use pass phrase options instead of just single word strings.

If you suspect that someone has access to your TeamViewer account and they, for whatever reason, haven't changed your login information, you can quickly login to the TeamViewer website and figure out what happened.

Sessions are recorded. This means any remote or full TeamViewer session will show the login time, IP address, and location. Often, that information is far more exact than just getting an IP address from a website and getting the general area.

From there, you can either examine what's going on more closely, or quickly ban/blacklist that device from accessing your systems. Be sure to change your login information as soon as possible, and make sure your backup/recovery options are valid.

The app is pretty straightforward, and does what it's supposed to do. The only time problems happen are when there's a compatibility issue, and unless your mobile device has some extremely out of the ordinary extra features that affect the core of your mobile OS, there isn't usually a problem.

Outside of having a very old phone, most compatibility issues can be brought up by reporting them to TeamViewer. You can submit the report through whichever app store you used, or send an email directly to TeamViewer.

For the sake of keeping track of paperwork, just send an email.