Is there a client that connects to remote bitcoind?

[ksteve96]

I have bitcoind -daemon running on a webserver, everything is working fine and I can control it from the server but I can't wrap my head around json-rpc, I read some about it and it seems like some command line arguments, I guess I can learn it but in pursuit of laziness I'd just like to connect via a client.  Basically, I just want to check the balance, not even send anything.

Maybe 2 years ago I used spesmilo to do what I wanted, but it doesn't work after .8x something.  It was so nice and easy.
Tried bitcoin-js-remote, followed to the letter but my w8 PC doesn't like it, I think it's a java thing since nothing is clickable, doesn't work in my browser at all. 

So is there any clients around that allow this or do I have to just learn about json-rpc?

[grue]

in bitcoind, you can use -rpcconnect=<ip> to control another bitcoin-qt/bitcoind node with rpc enabled.

[flatfly]

Depending on what you want to do exactly, installing the server script for electrum on your server (and electrum client on your desktop) might help.

[ksteve96]

Thanks guys.  I think I'll try the bitcoind locally.  Didn't even know you could do that, everything google showed me was a bunch of people asking if bitcoinqt supported this, and that answer is no.

Spesmilo was great for this, I can't believe no client since has this capability.