Remote Assistance / VNC controlling PC

[DremNeonBlack 0]

Hi all, me and my friend would like to set up some sort of remote connection for me to control his PC. He has an apartment in town, a couple of miles from here, but he is not there very much (lives with his girlfriend right now on another location)

 

So, we would like for me to somehow log in to his PC and control it from here. I would like to be able to start/restart it, browse his system, the internet and also download from the internet (since he has a much faster connection than me). You get the picture right?

 

We both use winXP pro / ADSL connection so we were thinking of trying Remote Assistance, but we're not sure if that'll work. There is another program that we would like to try if RA does not work. The program is VNC ( http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/index.html )

 

So to my question, does anyone know if this is possible and if so, with which program? Maybe there are other and better programs for this type of setup?

 

 

 

Thanks for any tips

/Drem

[Bursar 0]

VNC works like a charm, as I use it control a number of work machines without leaving my desk

 

It doesn't support drag and drop, so there isn't an easy way to transfer files between the two systems.

 

It will take you just as long to transfer files that you download onto your friends PC as it does for you to download them in the first place, so there isn't really going to be much benefit there.

 

There is also minor lag between the two systems, so downloading a demo, installing it onto his machine, and then playing it via VNC is going to be very difficult to do as well

[DremNeonBlack 0]

Thanks for the info. I also heard of a program called "PC Anywhere". Anyone tried it?

[adrianhall 0]

Quote:

It will take you just as long to transfer files that you download onto your friends PC as it does for you to download them in the first place

Even slower, transfer rate will be limited to the upload speed of ADSL, ie half the download rate.

[Admiral LSD 0]

Remote Assistance will do the job but it has to be inititiated through a request/confirmation system origininating from him. A much better idea is to use Remote Desktop. You activate that in the same place as you do Remote Assistance. In addition, you'll have to have an account defined on his machine thats a member of the Remote Users (or whatever it's actually called). AFAIK Windows XP's crappy little Add User wizard can't make that sort of account (it's limited to making either Admin-level or User-level accounts) so you'll have to do it through the Computer Management console (under Administrative Tools in your Control Panel).

 

Also, bear in mind that with many of these "Remote Control" programs, including Remote Desktop and Assistance (although I think with RA the person you're assisting can watch what you're doing otherwise there'd be no point to it), only one person can be using the machine at a time. If your friend wants to use his machine while you're logged into it he'll have to be running Windows Terminal Server and for that he'll need to be running Windows 2000 Server (because .NET Server isn't out yet).

[pikapan 0]

If you have limited bandwidth and are used to using VNC, I'd recommend using TightVNC. It uses a better compression algorithm than VNC and screen refreshes generally take less time. You can take a look at it at www.tightvnc.com

[DosFreak 2]

Use Terminal Services (aka Remote Desktop Connection). It'll be MUCH faster than VNC and most likely work better for ya.

 

I like VNC too but in this case TS would be faster/easier/better.

 

Since you say your friend won't be using the computer then TS will work fine. Oh, while your connected to his computer he'll either see that his workstation is locked or the Logon screen. If he logs in then you will be disconnected. It looks like there's no way to send you a message that he is on so it looks like you'll be abruptly disconnected. If so then you know it's him.

[DremNeonBlack 0]

Thanks for the tips guys. We tried today using Symantec PCAnywhere. Setup and connection is very easily setup, but I think it is somewhat slow. I don't know if the other programs are faster, but right now, there is maybe 1-2 second delay time before something happens. Is that "OK" or should I try another program?

 

[Remote]My setup: winXPpro, 1200Mhz cpu, 512mb sdram, 110gb ata-100, 0,5Mbit ADSL

[Host]His setup: winXPpro, 1600Mhz cpu, 512mb ddram, 40gb ata-100, 2,5Mbit ADSL

 

Also, and most importantly, I want to be able to turn off his computer and start it at a later time. As of now I can only restart/turn off the computer but not start it from zero so to speak. Does it have anything to do with Wake-On-Lan capabilities on his computer? We want to have this option because the past weeks have had a few storms here and he doesn't want his computer online when the thunder is rumbling which is quite understandable

[Dirty Harry 0]

Yes, you need wake on LAN (WOL) for this to work. Also, he must have a fixed IP address, so you have somewhere to send the wake up command to.

 

BTW, for reasons I've never understood, WOL only works for me if the PC is shut down (not hibernated) on my LAN. Also, it needed the NIC manufacturers (3Com) drivers (as opposed to the W2K /XP ones) to work.

 

Another nice proggy you might want to try out for remote connections is Remote Administrator, available at www.famatech.com.

 

H.

[CyberGenX 0]

I use pcAnywhere 10.5 and control 19 machines over 3 networks. I think it is the better of the programs I have used in the past. There are lots of features like remote printing, NAT and background servicing.

[DremNeonBlack 0]

Quote:

I use pcAnywhere 10.5 and control 19 machines over 3 networks. I think it is the better of the programs I have used in the past. There are lots of features like remote printing, NAT and background servicing.

How much delay do you have? Is 1-2 seconds normal?

[Christianb 8]

I have Windows 2000 Pro and so does my father. Don't we both have to install W2K Server to use Terminal Services?

[Admiral LSD 0]

Only if you each want to access the others machine. Only one computer has to have 2k Server to act as a Terminal Server. 2000 Pro can act as a client (as can many other versions of Windows I believe) just fine.

[clutch 1]

There are clients for 9x, NT4, 2K, and Windows CE/PocketPC. Also, there is at least one client for Linux that I have seen to connect to TS/RDP.

[ViperZ2000 0]

Quote:

Another nice proggy you might want to try out for remote connections is Remote Administrator, available at www.famatech.com.

H.

I agree. RADMIN (Remote Admin) is GREAT! It allows you to specify listening ports so for people using port forwarding, you can install it on several PCs and be able to access each one separately by specifying the port number of the PC you want to control. VNC and pcAnywhere do not offer this feature.

It's pretty fast also.

[Four and Twenty 0]

i like dameware nt utilities also their remote desktop can install on other machines and it works great.

[DosFreak 2]

Dameware is ssssssssssslllllllllllooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Compared to TS but it's useful on NT4 machines, the utilities are great and it does what TS cannot do. Use the current desktop.

[Mr.Guvernment 0]

NetOp 7.0 - we use it, works great! and is fast over a lan, even from comp to comp via tcp/ip is fast!