Getting started with NoMachine for Android
Start your journey to the next level of network computing
NoMachine for Android lets you take control of your NoMachine-enabled computer anywhere in the world. If you’re on the go, you can access your remote PC or Mac from an Android device using NoMachine. By installing the NoMachine app on Android and NoMachine for desktop on the computer you want to access, you can open files, watch multimedia, and work with applications on your mobile device as easily as if you were right in front of that computer. Here’s how to use NoMachine’s mobile app for Android to access a remote computer. Follow the steps below to enjoy remote desktop access on the move and have an all-around outstanding user experience.
Install NoMachine on your device
- Go to the Play Store to download the NoMachine app for Android and install it.
- For the next step you need to go to the computer you want to be able to access.
Install NoMachine on your computer
- Now download NoMachine for your operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux, Raspberry, ARM) to the computer that you want to control remotely.
- After completing the download, launch the installer and accept the license agreement. Click Next and wait while Setup completes the installation on your computer.
- Open NoMachine from the programs or applications menu. NoMachine opens with Welcome panels and publishes the local and public IP address of the computer on which you have installed the software, as well as the Machine Id if the computer has been published on NoMachine Network (Fig. 1). Take note of these. If you want to know how to make your computer reachable over NoMachine Network, check the guide here.
- These networking details can also be visualized in the 'Server settings' panel by clicking on the !M icon in the desktop's system tray and selecting 'NoMachine server status' (Fig. 2).
Fig. 1 - Your computer's IP addresses and Machine Id are published in the Welcome panels
Fig. 2 - 'Server status' can be accessed from the NoMachine !M icon in the system tray
- If you want to reach your computer over the Internet, there are two ways to connect, either by using its public-facing IP address or using its Machine Id.
- Over IP, the external IP address (public-facing) looks like this : nx://151.1.192.128:29382. If a port number is not displayed next to the external IP, NoMachine has detected that you don't need it when you create your connection.
- If you use the Machine Id, you are going to connect over the NoMachine Network service. You must login with your NoMachine account in the NoMachine app, and have acquired a NoMachine Network subscription to do that.
- On your Android device, if you have a NoMachine account and want to connect over NoMachine Network, click on the little man and log in now.
- Tap 'Add' or '+' top left and insert the Machine Id or the public IP address if you are connecting over IP.
- Tap 'Connect'.
Fig. 3 - Create a connection by tapping Add or the + button
- If you connect using NoMachine Network, insert the Access Id of the remote computer if requested.
- You will be prompted to login using the credentials for a system account on the remote computer. Use your usual account credentials (Fig. 4).
- Tap and wait a few more seconds while NoMachine connects you to your remote desktop.
- You are connected. Welcome panels will illustrate the touch controls and gestures. Tap OK (Fig. 5).
Fig. 4 - Insert the credentials of your remote account
Fig. 5 - NoMachine for Mobile gestures
- Congratulations! Your remote desktop is now at your fingertips (Fig. 6).
- You can now control your remote Windows, Mac or Linux desktop, open and edit files to work on documents, listen to your playlist, watch your favorite films, all from remote.
Fig. 6 - You are in, enjoy!
- If your Android device and computer are on the same local network, NoMachine detects the machines which are available for access and shows them in the list of NoMachine connections, 'Machines' on your Android device.
- Open the NoMachine app, click through the Welcome panels to the Machines list and identify your computer. NoMachine computers on LAN are identified with the small pipe icon.
Fig. 7 - Select the computer on your LAN you want to connect to
- Tap to start the connection.
- If it's not present in the list, you can start a connection by tapping 'Add' (the + icon) and inserting the local IP address which you wrote down earlier in the host field. Tap 'Connect'.
- When prompted, login to your computer using your system account credentials. That's it!
