Frequently asked questions

ArcCaster makes the computers you already own work like one machine. Drag a file from your laptop to your desktop. Watch another machine's screen live and take over its keyboard and mouse. Open a terminal on the server in the cupboard. It is one app, installed on each machine, and they connect to each other directly.

Most remote access tools are built to reach a machine somewhere else, over the internet, through a company's relay servers. ArcCaster is built for the machines in your own home or office — the ones on your desk, under it, and in the next room.

That changes what it can do. Because the machines talk directly, there is no relay charging by the gigabyte, no account tying your computers to a service, and no ceiling imposed by an intermediary. It also means it is not the tool for supporting your relative's PC in another country.

Anyone with more than one computer who is tired of USB sticks, cloud round-trips, and walking across the room.

• Developers testing on several machines and operating systems at once
• Editors and creators moving very large files between a laptop and a workstation
• Home lab owners running headless boxes with no monitor attached
• Anyone with a laptop and a desktop who wants files and screens to just be there

Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. Machines running different systems link to each other normally — watching a Windows screen from a Mac, or pulling files from Linux to Windows, is the ordinary case rather than a special mode.

Two file panes side by side — your machine and another one. Drag between them, or use copy, cut, and paste. Transfers queue up so you can drop a large batch and walk away, and anything that fails stays visible with the reason rather than disappearing.

ArcCaster checks the destination before it starts, so you find out that a drive is full, read-only, or cannot hold a file that size before the transfer rather than at the end of it.

Both. Open a screen to watch it live, then take control and your keyboard, mouse, and clipboard go to that machine. Copy text on one, paste it on the other.

If the machine has several monitors you see all of them, and you can arrange them on your screen to match how they physically sit — including by real physical size, so a 27-inch monitor next to a laptop looks like what it is. That layout is saved per machine.

Ctrl + Esc always gives you your own machine back, even if the remote one has stopped responding.

Yes — that is what the terminal and admin tools are for. Open a command line on any connected machine, see running processes, start and stop services, check system information, reboot or shut down, or send a single command to every machine at once and see each answer.

Headless machines join the fleet automatically and rejoin on every boot, so you can reboot a server remotely without losing it.

Yes, with sound, to a video file. You can include your own microphone alongside the machine's audio, which makes it straightforward to record a walkthrough of something you are doing on another computer.

Yes, and it is off until you switch it on. An AI agent running on your computer can be allowed to do what you can do — run commands, move files, look at screens across the fleet.

Only agents running as you, on that computer, can connect; nothing is opened to the network, and you can revoke it from the same menu at any time.

That depends entirely on how the two machines are connected, and the range is wide:

• Thunderbolt or USB4 cable — hundreds of megabytes per second. Large files move in the time it takes to read the dialog.
• Wired Ethernet — comfortable for anything most people do.
• Wi-Fi — usable and normal, and the first thing to suspect when something feels slow.

For screens, ArcCaster streams smoothly at high frame rates on a good link, and lowers quality rather than falling behind on a poor one, so what you are looking at stays current.

No. ArcCaster works over your normal network out of the box.

But if two machines sit near each other and you move a lot of data, a single Thunderbolt or USB4 cable between them is the largest speed improvement available, and it is completely private since that traffic never touches your network. Plug it in and ArcCaster starts using it; unplug it and it falls back to the network on its own.

Yes. The screen stream uses hardware video encoding where the machine provides it, which is what makes smooth, high frame rate viewing possible rather than a slideshow.

For anything fast-moving, a wired or cable link makes an enormous difference — Wi-Fi is where stutter comes from far more often than the software is.

Almost always one of two things: a weak signal, or a Wi-Fi adapter in power-saving mode. Prefer your 5 GHz network over 2.4 GHz, get nearer the router, and on a laptop set the power plan to high performance (Windows) or turn off Low Power / battery-saver mode (macOS and Linux) so the adapter stops dozing between packets. If it is still not smooth, drop the resolution before the frame rate. The Wi-Fi help walks through every step.

It can be. Some computers ship with Thunderbolt disabled or locked in firmware, so the cable link never appears. In BIOS/UEFI setup, enable Thunderbolt or USB4 support and set its security level to User / No security (older boards call this Legacy mode), then approve the device if you are prompted. Also check the cable is a data cable rated for Thunderbolt or USB4 — a charge-only USB-C cable fits the port but carries no link. Full steps are in Setting up a Thunderbolt cable.

No. ArcCaster works entirely on your local network, and two machines joined by a cable do not need a network at all. An internet connection is only relevant for buying a licence.

No. Machines connect directly to each other. There is no relay in the path, which means there is nothing for us to see, store, or lose, and no per-gigabyte cost to pass on to you.

No. There is no sign-up, no profile, and no identity linking your machines to a service. Install it and it works.

ArcCaster is designed for machines on the same network. If your machines are already joined by a VPN, they are effectively on one network and ArcCaster treats them that way — but it is not a remote-access service and does not punch through your router for you.

Worth knowing: a VPN is also the most common reason two machines on the same Wi-Fi cannot see each other, because many VPN apps capture local traffic too. Allowing local network traffic fixes it.

Two ways, and they stack:

• A fleet password. Set the same shared secret on your machines and they accept each other and refuse everything else — worth doing on any network you share with people you do not control.
• Per-feature permissions. Screen sharing, remote control, file access, and microphone are separate grants from your operating system. Decline any one and that feature stays off while everything else keeps working.

AI agent access is a third, separate switch, and it is off unless you turn it on.

Yes. ArcCaster runs as a full version during the trial — not a crippled demo — so you can test the thing you are actually buying. The app shows how many days remain.

A licence covers a set number of machines, and since ArcCaster is only useful with at least two, plans start accordingly. Your plan and its seat count are shown in the licensing window inside the app, and you can extend it from there when you add machines.

Current plans and pricing are on the purchase page, which is the authority — anything quoted here would go stale.

What we can say about the design: there is no relay service running up a bill in the background, because there is no relay.

Yes. Go to arccaster.barricadecode.com/buy, choose a plan — Basic, Pro, Max, or Corporate — and pay. Checkout is handled by Stripe and shows prices in your local currency; card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, and Link are all available. Your licence key is emailed the moment the payment clears, and you enter it in the app under Get License.

Check your spam folder first, then use the My Licenses page: enter the email you bought with and it re-sends every key tied to that address. If it still does not arrive, contact support and we will sort it out.

41, including right-to-left languages, switchable at any time from the app's header — you are not asked to pick at install and live with it. On first launch ArcCaster starts in your computer's own language automatically whenever that is one of the 41, and the welcome screen still offers the choice up front, so the app is usable in your language from the very first screen.

The help pages cover the app end to end, including a troubleshooting section written around the problems people actually hit rather than the ones that are easy to document.

Beyond that, get in touch — ArcCaster is made by a small team, and the person answering knows the software.