But every time I wanted to change songs, I had to go to another room and make a few mouse clicks on my computer. Ever since then, I’ve been waiting for someone to come up with a good, affordable remote control that lets me change tunes no matter where I am in the house.

Apple’s Remote program

It turns out, I already owned that device. It’s an iPod touch. A new program released by Apple (AAPL) in July was all it took to convert my MP3 player into a sophisticated remote control for my digital-music collection. That program, called simply Remote, runs on the iPhone as well as on the iPod touch, a version of the Apple MP3 player that has an iPhone-like touch-sensing screen and Internet-access capabilities using Wi-Fi wireless technology. Remote is available free of charge on the online App Store that Apple has used since July to distribute software for those devices.

In essence, Remote is a remote control for all music stored on a Mac or Windows PC that’s loaded into iTunes, Apple’s music jukebox software. It allows you to jump between playlists, browse artists and pump up the volume. For the program to work, you need to buy into using other Apple entertainment products.

In the simplest setup, Remote lets you control the music from stereo speakers connected directly to a PC. But it’s most useful when you use a PC to deliver audio to additional speakers around a home — say, a pair on the patio and in the living room.

Apple sells a couple of products that receive audio signals from a PC running iTunes. Both work wirelessly over a Wi-Fi home network so you don’t need to put holes into your walls to run computer and speaker wires. I tested Remote using both. One is an Apple TV, a $229 set-top box in my living room that plays digital audio and video through a standard home-theater system. The other is an AirPort Express, a $99 Apple wireless networking device on my patio connected to a pair of powered A5 speakers made by Audioengine, of San Jose, Calif. A third set of speakers was connected to an iMac in the kitchen, where I store all of my digital music. (The least expensive iPod touch costs $299.)

It was a breeze to configure the Apple TV and AirPort Express to show up as remote speakers in iTunes on my computer. Setting up Remote to give me mobile control over this array of speakers was trickier. After installing the program on my iPod touch, I couldn’t get it to work with iTunes on my PC. After 20 minutes of fiddling with the security settings for my Wi-Fi base station, iTunes finally recognized Remote. I was in business.

We all know how confusing the remote controls for TV sets and stereo systems can be. Remote, by contrast, cleanly displays all the music on my PC on the color screen of my iPod touch.

The program let me flip through artists, albums and playlists with simple finger swipes. But I was sorry that Remote doesn’t have a feature in the iPod touch called cover flow that lets users browse their music libraries by flipping through album-cover art. Apple says it may offer the feature in the future.

The software also let me easily turn on and off the music from my speakers in my kitchen, living room and patio. I could have all the speakers on at once — good for a party. The sound was terrific. The crisp-sounding $349 Audioengine speakers don’t require a stereo receiver.

Because Remote uses Wi-Fi to communicate with iTunes, I could control music anywhere around my house and backyard, which are small enough to be fully covered with a signal from my Wi-Fi base station. That’s a big plus over conventional remote controls that use infrared, a technology that doesn’t work through walls.

One drawback: The battery in my iPod touch drained overnight when I configured the device to stay connected to iTunes, a feature that increases software responsiveness. Changing the setting let me go days without recharging my iPod touch, but it meant I had to wait a couple of seconds for Remote to connect to iTunes when I started up the software — an acceptable trade-off.

Another multiroom audio product with a good remote control is the ZonePlayer from Sonos, an equipment maker based in Santa Barbara, Calif. That system has some advantages over Apple’s offerings, including the ability to access tunes from online music services, such as Pandora and Rhapsody, and separate volume controls for each set of speakers.

The Sonos system starts at $999 for a remote control and wireless receivers, without speakers, that can deliver music to two rooms.

For people who already own an iPod touch or iPhone, Remote is a good reason to buy an AirPort Express, and fill your home with music.

Walter S. Mossberg is on vacation.

• Email Nick.Wingfield@wsj.com.

Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained questions securing a wireless network, adapters that play the music stored on a PC through a stereo and voice-recognition software.

Last week you advised readers that, in order to stop people from piggybacking on a wireless network using a Linksys router, they should simply set up a password and keep it private. But don’t they need to enable an “encryption key?”

Yes. Most nontechnical folks would consider an encryption key as a kind of password, and that’s the word I used because I always try to write my columns in plain, conversational English. In this case, however, my use of the term may have caused confusion, because there are, in effect, two kinds of passwords on Linksys routers and most other brands of routers. One just prevents strangers from changing the router’s settings. The other — the one to which I was referring — is required to actually access the wireless network. That’s the one that’s technically called a “key.”

To enable the encryption key, use the router’s setup software to turn on security. On newer models, the strongest security system is called WPA, and on older models, it’s called WEP. Once it’s enabled, only people who know the key can get onto your network. There are further steps you can take, like hiding your network’s name (called an SSID) from others, or even restricting access to the network to specific computers with specific identification codes (called MAC addresses, a term that has nothing to do with Apple’s brand of computers.)

For more details, go to Linksys.com, select “Learning Center” at the top of the page, and click on “Network Security” from the menu that appears. And then click on the link called “How to Secure Your Network.”

Is there a stereo that I can buy that can wirelessly connect to my computer and play the same music I play with Apple’s iTunes on that computer?

Yes. If you literally mean a stereo, rather than an adapter for a stereo, the best I know of is called Sonos ZonePlayer 100. It involves a module you connect to your computer that links wirelessly to stereo units with built-in amps in remote rooms of your house. It has a beautiful remote control with a color screen and many other great features.

But it’s expensive — about $1,200 for the starter package, without speakers — and can’t play copy-protected music you buy from iTunes, only music you import from your CDs or other unprotected files. Information is at sonos.com. For much less money, you can also buy adapters that can play the music on a PC, or an iPod, through an existing stereo.

I have been keeping a journal or diary. It is hand written but I would like to make the journal more readable by others. Is there voice-recognition software that you would recommend, so I can dictate the entries?

It has been years since I reviewed voice-recognition software, but Dragon Naturally Speaking, a Windows program, works well. For more information, see nuance.com. And Microsoft’s new Vista operating system has a decent built-in voice recognition system. If you are using a Macintosh, one widely known speech-recognition program is called iListen, but I haven’t tested it. Information is at macspeech.com.

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Because of the volume of e-mail I receive, I can’t routinely answer individual questions by e-mail, or consult on individual problems or purchasing decisions. I read all questions I receive and select three each week to answer in the column.

• Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com