A local computing device is connected to a remote computing device over a network. A user provides input to a local input component of the local computing device. The output of the local input component is converted into a form that is capable of being received as input by the remote computing device even if the local input component is not supported by the remote computing device. As one example, the local input component may be a bar code scanner which produces bar code output that is converted into text for input into a text field on the remote computing device, thereby enabling the remote computing device to receive input from a bar code scanner even if the remote computing device does not support the bar code scanner.