Remote Desktop security?

[GLO]

Hi,

Im looking to utilise XP remote desktop to access most PCs inside of my lan. I am curious to know how secure this is, as my lan is currently working behind a D-Link firewall router.

Are there any special settings to enable to ensure that any remote access it strictly within this LAN?

[prathapml]

You can abandon "Remote Desktop", and use VNC instead for remote administration. It is more secure, since it allows encrypted transfering of data between the machines.

VNC is free, and also 2 people can be concurrently logged-in.

[GLO]

I am yet to try both VNC and Remote desktop, but i was hoping to keep it simple from behind the firewall.

Is Remote desktop that bad? I am liking the idea of not having to buy a KVM switch!

[CoffeeFiend]

I use RealVNC as well. Works on 2000/xp/2003 and it's free. (there are other variants of it too like TightVNC and others) VNC has Access Control like you want based on Host IP Adress (and subnet) patterns, you can change the ports and everything else easily too.

However, it sure won't replace my KVM by any means. I only use it to remote control *distant* PCs.

[GLO]

at the moment, im physically moving my HTPC from the lounge to the office to do some editing, but its a tedious task, (hence KVM isnt a true solution either) but since XPpro sp2 are installed on all my machines, i shouldnt have any problems using the remote desktop should i?

[Tel]

I use Ultr@VNC at my work.

EDIT: I forgot to add that VNC would be better to use as it is more secure and more than one person can connect simultaneously. Which is a big + in my books.

[Spyder2k]

As long as port 3389 isn't forwarded (is that a word ) on your router you should be ok.

See http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/n...up_03may16.mspx

EDIT:

I believe the "Remote Assistance" feature allows simultaneous RDC sessions. I'm not to familiar with the specifics, it's still on my to-do list.

[Marsden]

VNC is NOT encrypted, Remote Desktop is...

RDP is encapsulated and encrypted within TCP.

VNC uses a random challenge-response system to provide the basic authentication that allows you to connect to a VNC server. This is reasonably secure; the password is not sent over the network. Once you are connected, however, traffic between the viewer and the server is unencrypted, and could be snooped by someone with access to the intervening network. We therefore recommend that if security is important to you, you 'tunnel' the VNC protocol through some more secure channel such as SSH.

You have to add SSH to make it secure...

[CoffeeFiend]

No need for encryption/SSH or anything on his home LAN...

[army20]

I use NETop remote control --> http://www.netop.com/_Remote+Control