Regular readers of this site may recall a review we did several months ago of I'm In Touch, a $99 remote-access application that lets you access files on a remote computer though an Internet-enabled PDA or smartphone. Now there's Avvenu, with a product of the same name that can give you many of the same remote access capabilities at a price that's hard to quibble with—namely, free. If there's a catch, it's that Avvenu limits its focus mainly to file access and sharing rather than full system control, but in these areas it does a pretty good job.

Setup
In order to use Avvenu, you must first install a small application on any system you want remote access to. Avvenu lets you set up a maximum of four systems for remote access, and they must all be running Windows XP. Installation is exceedingly easy; unless your network uses a proxy server, there isn't any configuration required.

Once you have Avvenu installed you can remotely access the system from any Internet-connected desktop or laptop, but we'll mainly focus on how the product works when using handheld devices. Avvenu should be compatible with most any browser-equipped device of recent vintage and there's no special software to install on the mobile device, but since some devices don't fully support Avvenu (or exhibit certain idiosyncrasies with it), the company publishes a compatibility list on its Web site. We used Avvenu with two Palm Treo devices—a Palm OS-based 650 and a 700w running Windows Mobile—for obvious reasons, a device with keyboard and/or stylus input will make for more convenient access.

Accessing & Sharing Files
When you log into your PC via Avvenu's SSL-encrypted Web site, you're presented with links to the My Documents folder (Avvenu displays the My Documents folder of currently logged in users) as well as the music and picture folders within. We were somewhat surprised to also see an icon for the system's C: drive, which potentially meant that the entire hard drive was accessible.

Although this is undoubtedly convenient, we'd be concerned that if an Avvenu password were stolen or otherwise compromised, an unauthorized user would have almost unfettered system access. (Although we could navigate to the personal folders of other users, we weren't able to see or access the files within.)

On a small screen, sifting through page upon page of file listings can get old quickly, so in addition to browsing for files, you can also search for them. Avvenu doesn't have a built-in search feature, but it can hook into Google Desktop Search if you have it installed on your remote system.

Once you've found a file you want you can download it, and if you have a Windows Mobile 5.0 device, and the file in question is MP3 or WMA audio, you can stream it instead. We found there was often a significant delay while enough of the file was buffered for playback to begin, due to limited bandwidth on our cellular connection. When you view images via Avvenu, they're helpfully scaled down to a size appropriate to the display.

Avvenu makes it very easy to share individual files with other people. You can quickly send a file to anyone via e-mail without creating attachments, since your recipient is sent a link to the original file on your system that can be accessed through their browser. Shares can be set to expire after certain predefined intervals, like a day, week, month, etc. (You can also track all the items you're currently sharing, but only if you log into Avvenu from a regular desktop or laptop system.)

Online Storage
Being able to access a system remotely involves a lot of assumptions, including that the system will be on, working properly, and have a functional Internet connection. For those who want to increase the odds of being able to get at files when needed, you have the option to pay for a Guaranteed Access feature which lets you upload your critical files to an Avvenu server so they're accessible even if your system isn't.

To get the Guaranteed Access feature you need the upgraded "Plus" level of service which provides 5 GB of online storage and costs $3.99 a month or $29.99 annually. (In addition to manually uploading files, you can also specify that you want a particular file accessible at all times when you send it as a share.)

Avvenu will also helpfully update the online version of a file whenever it changes on the remote system. There's no way to control the update schedule or manually force it to occur, but our experience indicated that changed files were available online in less than an hour. Avvenue says that the system is polled for changes every 15 minutes, and schedules synchronization so as not to overwhelm your available bandwidth.

Conclusion
Avvenu is by no means a soup-to-nuts remote access product—it doesn't provide the remote desktop control you get in GoToMyPC or MyWebExPC, and unlike the aforementioned I'm In Touch, it won't let you directly interact with a remote system's Outlook e-mail and contacts. It works quite well for file access and sharing, however, and if you don't need the Guaranteed Access feature (or even if you do), and the price is certainty reasonable.