I'm InTouch v3.3

Reviewed by: Jim Huddle, CNE5 CBS MCSE ES-RC, send e-mail
Published by: 01 Communique, go to the web site
Requires: Windows 98SE, NT 4.0, 2K or XP. PII/233, 32M RAM, 30MB free hard drive space, IE5.5+ or Netscape 4.75+, broadband connection
MSRP: $99.95

Do you carry a cell phone and a wireless PDA? Are you mad crazy to be able to access your data from anywhere you can get an Internet connection? If this sounds like you, then you probably should check out I'm InTouch from 01 Communique.

I'm InTouch is a program which allows you to access your files and Outlook e-mail on your PC from almost any Internet capable device. To connect, you enter the URL of the location server and it authenticates your connection to the PC running I'm InTouch. Once you are connected to your PC, you can access it's files, including any network drives the PC has mapped, remote control the PC and work with it directly, manage your Outlook e-mail and even stream video if you have a webcam in use.

Installation of the software is fairly simple and the software will check your communications before finishing. To make real use of I'm InTouch you will need some type of broadband Internet connection like a cable modem or DSL that is always connected.

If you buy the retail boxed product check the version number. If you happen to get v3.2 or earlier then I strongly recommend you use the software's update feature immediately after installing. When I first got the product I had some serious problems on a Win98 box with registry corruption.

01's tech support was very helpful and noted that there had been a very few similar reports from other Win98 users that were being addressed in v3.3. Also, with version 3.2, I was unable to use the remote control feature on a Win 2K box. I could get a connection, but only a black screen appeared in the browser. Version 3.3 corrected these problems.

Just as an FYI, while 01 Communique doesn't appear to either recommend or directly support it, I have I'm InTouch v3.3 running on a Win2K server and it's working very nicely.

We encountered a small problem with PHP. I'm InTouch installs an Apache web server and PHP on your PC. This is the basic mechanism that allows you to access your PC remotely. This is fine, but if you already have PHP on your PC, and happen to use it for writing web scripts, be advised that I'm InTouch will hammer your php.ini file and your 'other' PHP will cease to function. The program doesn't seem to actually affect your existing PHP installation, just redirects all PHP use to itself, effectively killing your other PHP activities. You can get around this by making a copy of your php.ini file before and after installing I'm InTouch. You might copy your non- I'm InTouch php.ini to php.ini.org and your I'm InTouch php.ini file to php.ini.touch. You then just replace the php.ini with the appropriate copy depending on which PHP based service you need. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then you probably don't need to worry about it.

You should also know that I'm InTouch is a subscription service. The price of $99.95 is for 1 year of unrestricted use. There is no limit on number of connections or time spent connected. If you'd like to try it out you can download the app from 01 Communique's web site. It will work for 30 days. If you like it you can subscribe online and have your demo convert to a regular version.

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