access to another computer

[Jack Crane]

My friend just bought a laptop with XP Home, and some sort of wireless
card. I believe she will be upgrading to XP Pro. I've been trying to help
her, but I use Win98 and am of limited use to her.

She has just signed up with Comcast broadband for her desktop at home. I am
going to suggest she use Eudora for email on her desktop. Would it possible
for her to access her desktop from her laptop wherever she is, assuming she
can get on the Net, say with a wireless connection at a Starbucks? And so
she would be able to get Eudora on her desktop to download her email? And
she would be able to read this email on her laptop and respond to it as if
she were at home using her desktop? (Her desktop has Win98; would she need
XP?)

I hope my questions are clear.

Thanks,

Jack Crane

 

[Chris Jackson]

If she is using XP Pro, then she can do that using Remote Desktop. The
client doesn't need to be using XP, but it does need to have the remote
desktop client available. Also, she would need to be able to find the ip
address in order to connect (which will change periodically with most
broadband providers unless she pays for a static ip address) and should have
the firewall set to allow port 3389 traffic in.

 

[Jack Crane]

she would need to be able to find the ip
address in order to connect (which will change periodically with most
broadband providers unless she pays for a static ip address)

Thanks for your info. Very encouraging.

I doubt she would want to pay extra for a static IP address.
Is there a way for her to find the IP address when she isn't home? I think
I could show her how to find the IP address before she leaves home for the
day; is the address likely to change while her desktop is online during the
day?

Jack

 

[D.Currie]

Thanks for your info. Very encouraging.

I doubt she would want to pay extra for a static IP address.
Is there a way for her to find the IP address when she isn't home? I think
I could show her how to find the IP address before she leaves home for the
day; is the address likely to change while her desktop is online during the
day?

Jack

If she doesn't want to pay for an IP address, there are services that do IP
forwarding. DNS2go is one, but I think they charge now for the service.

As far as how often the IP address changes, it depends on who she uses. Some
of them change often, others change seldom.

 

[Jack Crane]

If she doesn't want to pay for an IP address, there are services that
do IP forwarding. DNS2go is one, but I think they charge now for the
service.

Great info! Yes, it seems she'd have to pay $19.95/year. Not bad.
http://dns2go.deerfield.com/home/

As far as how often the IP address changes, it depends on who she
uses. Some of them change often, others change seldom.

OK.

Thanks,

Jack

Jack