Remoting to my desktop?

I've read all these posts on here about how people remote to their pc's at home to check on things (Orthos, Folding, etc) from work or wherever. How in the world do I go about setting this up on my system? I usually disable the remote-related services as I never use them, but I"m guessing I'll need to enable them to use this feature of Windows, right?

-Dave

(realvnc) Winvnc is the 'easiest' way, but you'll still need to make sure the needed ports are opened and forwarded to your home PC's internal ip address in your router. This is how I configured mine after some trial and lots of error with other so-called solutions. Dollar for dollar it's got more functionality than other alternatives (which are few for $50).

What sort of router do you have?

www.logmein.com is the best thing ever. Period. And it's free.

nikhsub1 said:

www.logmein.com is the best thing ever. Period. And it's free.

Click to expand...

Pinky said:

(realvnc) Winvnc is the 'easiest' way, but you'll still need to make sure the needed ports are opened and forwarded to your home PC's internal ip address in your router. This is how I configured mine after some trial and lots of error with other so-called solutions. Dollar for dollar it's got more functionality than other alternatives (which are few for $50).

What sort of router do you have?

Click to expand...

Logmein is much simpler and no need to open ports!

You guys are 100% correct, the free version is a steal for basic remote functionality.

This thread reminded me WHY I went with the full vnc - the ability to transfer files. The free version doesn't allow you to transfer files to/from the PCs. It does clipboard only (which is okay until you suddenly need to move files). You have to buy the pro/upgraded version to get the more advanced functionality. It's true with most remote products like these.

So for basic control I'd agree with free logmein, but if you're going to pay I'd still recommend vnc. Logmein pro is $70 for a year. VNC enterprise is $50 for a single lifetime license. I guess the need determines which version to get. Simply controling my desktop remotely was not enough.

Well I won't be needing to transfer any files... just check on things on like Folding, Orthos, etc. Thanks guys for the info!

SuperDave1685 said:

Well I won't be needing to transfer any files... just check on things on like Folding, Orthos, etc. Thanks guys for the info!

Click to expand...

If so, the EASIEST and fastest way to get this done would be to enable remote desktop on Windows XP Pro and higher.

If you are running XP pro, right click on my computer, click properties, click the Remote tab, and there you will find an option to enable remote connections. You can also choose what users can connect, and you must set a password for the user that isallowed. Otherwise you can't login.

Then, on any Desktop OS (Win2k, XP home/pro, even linux and mac), you can run Remote Desktop Connection and choose your options appropriately and connect. To save time, you can also save your preferences for each connection and simply double click on it when you want to check stuff.

Cheator said:

If so, the EASIEST and fastest way to get this done would be to enable remote desktop on Windows XP Pro and higher.

If you are running XP pro, right click on my computer, click properties, click the Remote tab, and there you will find an option to enable remote connections. You can also choose what users can connect, and you must set a password for the user that isallowed. Otherwise you can't login.

Then, on any Desktop OS (Win2k, XP home/pro, even linux and mac), you can run Remote Desktop Connection and choose your options appropriately and connect. To save time, you can also save your preferences for each connection and simply double click on it when you want to check stuff.

Click to expand...

how would you do this over the internet??? with a router..

woul dyou need to forward ports and all that kinda stuff?

port 3389 is default port for windows remote desktop
open your client on the other machine, type in your ip address (public, not the individuals computer ip)
set your options (color, print sharing, etc)
connect...

one thing about remote desktop built into windows, it requires your username to have a password, which isnt a problem for most people..
but i use RealVNC Enterprise to maintain my server from work

Sam__ said:

how would you do this over the internet??? with a router..

woul dyou need to forward ports and all that kinda stuff?

Click to expand...

yes, you do.

i use windows remote desktop only b/c i've NEVER tried anything else... now that logmein was mentioned, i may have to try that.

you have to ENABLE REMOTE ACCESS on windows, then you have to forward the ports on your router.

i have this set up on multiple PCs at my house... i just change the port on each machine and then from my router i forward them to the specific static IP on each machine.

for example.

port 3389 goes to 192.168.0.13
port 3391 goes to 192.168.0.14
port 3390 is my temp port to any machine i wanna add, which i set to static 192.168.0.20

and so on... but 3389 is the default IP, so if you want to add another machine, you'll have to change the REMOTE DESKTOP port in REGEDIT. google for it and there are instructions to do so (only if you plan to use another PC... your first one can just be the default 3389).

you set your PC to a static IP that is within your DHCP on your router, and wallah... you'll never have any problems. i keep my windows firewall off, so i don't have to do any other things... just make sure that there aren't any other 3rd party (software) firewalls on your machine.

oh, and also... you HAVE to set a password on the username you log into windows as. if you don't, you'll never be able to log in remotely.

here's how i login with remote desktop to one of my other machines at home.

MyIpAddress:3391

if you are using port 3389, you don't have to put the port in... if you use a different port, you'll have to put in your ip address, then a colon, then the port number (all without spaces).

Meh, logmein.com is so much easier than RDP or VNC etc etc. No port forwarding, no dyndns none of that. True you can't transfer files but c'mon, there are maybe a billion ways to do that? Setup an FTP on a machine with filezilla? Use www.mediafire.com or any other of the millions of free file hosting sites. mediafire has a 100mb cap PER FILE but unlimited storage. It is one of the best I have found for this use.

I have had multiple jobs in IT over the past few years and used Remote Desktop, RealVNC, UltraVNC, and Logmein. And Logmein is hands down the easiest. Zero configuration, installs as a service, and it is just like you are sitting in front of the PC when you log in.

logmein rocks its the only free citrix based solution i know of


[Drool] citrix [/Drool]

nikhsub1 said:

Meh, logmein.com is so much easier than RDP or VNC etc etc. No port forwarding, no dyndns none of that. True you can't transfer files but c'mon, there are maybe a billion ways to do that? Setup an FTP on a machine with filezilla? Use www.mediafire.com or any other of the millions of free file hosting sites. mediafire has a 100mb cap PER FILE but unlimited storage. It is one of the best I have found for this use.

Click to expand...

i need to learn how to set up an FTP myself... hmmm... thx for the info...

g0dM@n said:

i need to learn how to set up an FTP myself... hmmm... thx for the info...

Click to expand...

It's pretty easy if you are familiar with ddns and port forwarding... I like filezilla myself, it does pretty much everything i need it to. Bulletproof is good too.

nikhsub1 said:

Meh, logmein.com is so much easier than RDP or VNC etc etc. No port forwarding, no dyndns none of that. True you can't transfer files but c'mon, there are maybe a billion ways to do that? Setup an FTP on a machine with filezilla? Use www.mediafire.com or any other of the millions of free file hosting sites. mediafire has a 100mb cap PER FILE but unlimited storage. It is one of the best I have found for this use.

Click to expand...

I have multiple ways of moving files around the world, but I'm also juggling many things so in this case it was easier to have the full vnc pay/enterprise version for the convenience. I wouldn't consider setting up a secure FTP site a simple solution, nor do I trust free storage sites for anything even remotely sensitive. Copying to a website then pulling the data to intended PC also doubles the time of the transfer since you're not sending the data directly to the intended machine.

I'm in 100% agreement about logmein, just isn't used in our managed client environment nor do I use it personally. My lack of experience with it contributes to its absense in my first post. I did install and test it prior to my second post to find its limitations in the free version. I've also used it for a few customers who had proprietary software vendors that required it. All positive experiences thus far.

I've used Filezilla and it's top notch stuff. We had a customer with 50 accounts and it was easy to create and manage them. Logging was easy to set up. Security on the various shared ftp folders actually worked. lol