Mac remote access without a VPN or port forwarding
Your Mac sits behind a home or office router. Your phone sits behind a mobile network. Neither has a public address the other can dial. Traditional fixes are a VPN or opening a port on your router. Helm uses a different approach, the one video calls use.
An introduction, not a middleman
When you sign in, your Mac registers with the Helm server as online. When your phone asks to connect, the server passes a short handshake between the two devices. After that, your terminal, screen, files and audio travel directly between them over WebRTC, which encrypts the connection. The server does not carry your session.
What if the direct path is blocked?
Some networks block direct connections. In that case a relay server forwards the traffic. The traffic is still encrypted between your devices, so the relay forwards data it cannot read.
Approval on your Mac
Finding each other is not the same as being allowed to connect. Every new device must be approved on your Mac before it can open a session.