Remote Networking

[bwise863]

I have a home in Florida with a computer I leave on all the time. Occasionally I have guests that use the house and computer. Since I live in California I can't be onsite to update the security or virus definitions, etc. I have heard that Microsoft has software built into the OS that allows you to have remote control. My Florida and California computers both run Microsoft XP Media Edition.

Any links or advice on how to do this would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Byron

[rendrag]

it's called Remote Desktop... only available in XP Pro (I don't know if MCE is Pro or not underneath)

It's not very secure, so I wouldn't necessarily run it across the country, you might want to try something like VNC, which is free from

http://www.tightvnc.com

Some antivirus programs auto update its definition file, AVG and symantec corporate immediately come to mind.

You could turn on automatic updates, and maybe have a schedule that automatically reboots the PC once a week or something.

[bwise863]

I checked that out. Very nice. It seems to make it work the server machine has to have a static IP address. I know mine is Dynamic. Any suggestions about this?

Thanks,

Byron

[tain]

It seems to make it work the server machine has to have a static IP address. I know mine is Dynamic. Any suggestions about this?

http://www.dyndns.com/

An alternative to TightVNC is Ultr@VNC. It is really personal preference, but I like Ultr@ better...especially since they fixed a nasty security bug

Like rendrag said, this can be rather unsecure. You may want to try VNC via hamachi.

There is also Terminal Services, but I don't think that is an option for you on an MCE system.

[gamehead200]

It seems to make it work the server machine has to have a static IP address. I know mine is Dynamic. Any suggestions about this?

http://www.dyndns.com/

An alternative to TightVNC is Ultr@VNC. It is really personal preference, but I like Ultr@ better...especially since they fixed a nasty security bug

Like rendrag said, this can be rather unsecure. You may want to try VNC via hamachi.

There is also Terminal Services, but I don't think that is an option for you on an MCE system.

You can also use Remote Desktop through Hamachi. Just as secure. Still not sure if it's available for MCE, though.

[plitvice]

Personally I use a combination of Logmein Free (as the name implies, a freeware program) and some other various programs (TightVNC etc) to access remote systems and create VPNs between them. The programs are free so it's definitely worth checking out. Logmein is based through the web and you log into the target system by using a password so the whole issue of dynamic IPs is circumvented.

Edited August 4, 2006 by plitvice