Remote Access

[Echy]

Hello

Wondering if there is a definitive view as to the best software to
connect to another computer at a remote site? Need to take full control
of computer to check for problems and install programs.

The target computer has XP Pro. and mine is Win2K SP4. Both have
broadband connections - not cable or satellite.

The computers are about 100 KM (60 miles) apart in case that is
relevant.

Is the inbuilt XP Pro software best or is there something else -
preferably free or low cost.

Any opinions appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Echy
Australia

 

[John John]

You can try one of the VNC's like UltraVNC or RealVNC.

John

 

[Mark Ritchie]

I would just setup remote desktop on the xp pro machine.
You will have to make sure you open port 3389 on your firewall though.

Sometimes, not often software can't be installed through remote desktop, if
this is the case you would have to install some flavour of VNC. I like
RealVNC myself.


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Regards,

Mark Ritchie


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[Yves Leclerc]

Several things to consider:

1) Does the remote PC's monitor need to show what you are doing to the system?

2) Do you need to print locally from the remote PC?

Remote Desktop (host) is included in XP Pro. Remote print seems to be
complicated to set up.

VNC does not seem to allow any remote printing.

PC Anywhere allow remote access and remote print to local printer. However,
it may be expensive.

 

[Joe Wright]

Hello

Wondering if there is a definitive view as to the best software to
connect to another computer at a remote site? Need to take full control
of computer to check for problems and install programs.

The target computer has XP Pro. and mine is Win2K SP4. Both have
broadband connections - not cable or satellite.

The computers are about 100 KM (60 miles) apart in case that is
relevant.

Is the inbuilt XP Pro software best or is there something else -
preferably free or low cost.

Any opinions appreciated.

Netmeeting is on both machines and can give you complete control. You
can even set up its "Remote Desktop Sharing" and access the machine
without someone there to help with the initial connection. I never use
any of the servers when using NM; I have a sticky ip address and the
clients have it listed in the call pane.

 

[Paul Greeff]

Hi Echy

I've used a few remote control apps in the past. VNC is free, along with a
bunch of others, but VNC doesn't offer encryption on the password you set.
You can specify a different port for VNC to use, instead of the default, to
increase security, but I wouldn't bet my lunch money that it's safe. Next
up would be Remote Administrator, which does encrypt the password. It costs
about $30 per machine and it's performance is better than that of VNC.

The built-in Remote Desktop isn't a bad solution. The only downside is that
(I don't think) you can control the session of a logged on user - when you
connect to the remote machine, you start a new session. This makes the
remote control option more favourable.

Cheers.
PG

 

[Echy]

Hello

Wondering if there is a definitive view as to the best software to
connect to another computer at a remote site? Need to take full control
of computer to check for problems and install programs.

The target computer has XP Pro. and mine is Win2K SP4. Both have
broadband connections - not cable or satellite.

The computers are about 100 KM (60 miles) apart in case that is
relevant.

Is the inbuilt XP Pro software best or is there something else -
preferably free or low cost.

Any opinions appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Echy
Australia

Hello

Thanks to everyone for the replies. I am going to give remote desktop a
go first to see how I go.

Echy