Remote Access to another computer

[Tatsujin]

I need to basically look over my family's computer who are literally on the other side of the globe. I try to run them through things but .... well, .... they don't know much about computers.

Any good programs we can run so I can get control of what they're doing from my end?

[halfelite]

realvnc, every windows computer has built in remote support, the new google chrome remote extension, logmein,

realvnc - cost money most know ip address or setup mydns
ultravnc - free same as vnv must know ip address or setup mydns
RDP - free every version of windows has it. They can send you a request help that will log you in
google chrome - free need to setup access codes
logmein - free up to 5 machines have to install the program on there machine but keeps track of ip address for you and gets around NAT and firewalls by calling out to make the connection

[GoGeTa006]

i believe windows premium or some of the high-tier versions have it already built in (the lower end versions only have the client to be controlled but not the controller)

other than that I use TightVNC, its free and it works pretty good

[Bob2004]

Do you have an account on their PC? Or, more specifically, does it have more than one account, and do you have access to one of those accounts?

If so, then Start -> Accessories -> Remote Desktop Connection, enter the address of their computer and the username of the account you want to log in to (someone else can't already be logged in with that account, hence needing to have more than one), and click connect. Assuming no firewalls etc get in the way, that should log you straight into their PC remotely, and take you to the desktop.

There's also a Remote Assistance thing in Start -> Maintenance, which does something similar, except they have to send a request for you to help them, which you then accept (and I don't think you then need an account to log in, but I'm not sure). I've never used it, so I don't know how easy it is to do, or how exactly it works.

These features should both be available in XP, Vista, and 7, but they might be in a different place/have different names in XP.

[lapa321]

I use rdp a lot to connect to my computer from outside the house, either from my laptop tablet or phone. However, it requires me to setup port forwarding on the router, something I can't trust a non techie to do right.

Teamviewer
http://www.teamviewer.com/

This is what I recommend. Nothing to setup on the router, or any exotic utilities (no need for hamachi). Registration is free and connection is straightforward. When you run it, it displays the account number and password, you need to ask for that info and input it on your side.

[megido-rev.M]

If the OS is Windows (highly likely it seems), the easiest method is Remote Desktop Connection. They will need to either create the appropriate account for this or give you access to one. If there is a firewall at their end they might need to create the rule for the incoming connection.

[vuzedome]

Teamviewer. It doesn't get any simpler than this.
Since they don't know much about computers then no point trying those exotic methods.

[megido-rev.M]

Interesting. It's basically like VNC plus a file transfer feature.

[kitamesume]

this topic got me interested, i wonder if you could remote-control a PC through lan, so that i could take the monitor off the PC so its only the CPU working, and control it entirely with a single PC.

if it works i might setup every single PC i have into something like this... too good to pass up.

[halfelite]

this topic got me interested, i wonder if you could remote-control a PC through lan, so that i could take the monitor off the PC so its only the CPU working, and control it entirely with a single PC.

if it works i might setup every single PC i have into something like this... too good to pass up.

yes you can do this the question is why do you have so many pc's that you want headless.

[iamcrazybob]

I second the Teamviewer recommendation.  It's very easy to use.

[lapa321]

this topic got me interested, i wonder if you could remote-control a PC through lan, so that i could take the monitor off the PC so its only the CPU working, and control it entirely with a single PC.

if it works i might setup every single PC i have into something like this... too good to pass up.

My file/media server is an Atom D510 in the smallest/cheapest MicroATX case i can find. It's got power cable, a LAN cable and *nothing else*.

(Well, almost nothing, i connect the USB HD Dock when it's time to archive but that's beside the point)

I connect to it via RDP and it's actually pinned to my main computers task bar. I even have a Wake-on-lan and RDP installed on my phone so i can turn it on/shutdown remotely.

If you use RDP and go fulls creen it'll be just like a local desktop. And even supports multiple monitors. So if you have two monitors on your client PC, the RDP server will think it's running on two monitors (even tho there's nothing connected to it).

[kitamesume]

this topic got me interested, i wonder if you could remote-control a PC through lan, so that i could take the monitor off the PC so its only the CPU working, and control it entirely with a single PC.

if it works i might setup every single PC i have into something like this... too good to pass up.

yes you can do this the question is why do you have so many pc's that you want headless.

too many monitors cant fit on my table, i got 3units =( and maybe 4 if i'd need to pilot my brother's

and i only got two monitors usable XD so one is already headless, i just want to move the other monitor to my main and do a dual-monitor while i can still pilot the other two.

[halfelite]

too many monitors cant fit on my table, i got 3units =( and maybe 4 if i'd need to pilot my brother's

and i only got two monitors usable XD so one is already headless, i just want to move the other monitor to my main and do a dual-monitor while i can still pilot the other two.

yes rdp is an option just go into the bios and make sure you can make it boot without a keyboard older mobo's would error other then that you are fine.  Maybe its time to consolidate down to one machine.

[kitamesume]

nah i cant, theres some tasks that occupies both keyboard and mouse cursor while doing them, so leaving another computer to do it while using some other computer to surf or something works better.

but to make it simple, the tasks im making the PC do will hog it and it'll become unusable for other purposes, so making another computer do it would allow me to use my main freely.

whats the definition of RDP? i know its an acronym... or its not?

[halfelite]

RDP stands for remote desktop protocol. Its what you would use if you used built in windows remote. Right click my computer properties remote enable remote desktop add user .... then on another machine, click start programs accessories click remote desktop connection type ip of local machine hit connect.

 if you use something like teamviewer you install a chunk of software on each machine. Just let it be known sound/video do not work over remote sessions very well. And you wont see any video if its hardware accelerated

[lapa321]

nah i cant, theres some tasks that occupies both keyboard and mouse cursor while doing them, so leaving another computer to do it while using some other computer to surf or something works better.

but to make it simple, the tasks im making the PC do will hog it and it'll become unusable for other purposes, so making another computer do it would allow me to use my main freely.

whats the definition of RDP? i know its an acronym... or its not?

RDP = Remote Desktop Protocol

It's a protocol designed specifically for microsoft, so unlike VNC you will not see anything like it on other platforms. You can only find RDP clients, RDP servers are strictly microsoft only. The good thing about it is that it doesn't just rely on mirroring the screen. The interface is rendered on the client side. So it uses less bandwidth, and knows when your cursor is over a textbox.

The cool thing about it is that if WindowsMediaPlayer supports the codec, it will send you the video stream directly and have it decoded on your end. In WinXP, if you were to play a video on another computer and watch it over RDP, you'd get laggy screen as well as audio/video being out of sync. On the Win7 RDP, it knows when you're trying to decode a video stream and sends it directly to you instead. No video/audio sync problems since it's decoded on your end. Of course, WMP isn't very robust compared to MPC, so the video streaming doesn't actually work most of the time.

I found out about it when i RDP'd to an old netbook. The netbook isn't capable of playing HD in software mode but it was playing fine over RDP. That's why i'm guessing that it was my machine doing the decoding.

[billlanam]

RDP = Remote Desktop Protocol

It's a protocol designed specifically for microsoft, so unlike VNC you will not see anything like it on other platforms. You can only find RDP clients, RDP servers are strictly microsoft only. The good thing about it is that it doesn't just rely on mirroring the screen. The interface is rendered on the client side. So it uses less bandwidth, and knows when your cursor is over a textbox.

Linux has a rdp server, but I don't know how well it works.

[lapa321]

It does? Whoa. I didn't know microsoft licensed out the RDP server. The app developers i talked to who made mobile RDP apps said it was difficult getting a license from microsoft to develop RDP clients.



Anyway, here's an example of Video Playback over RDP (If WMP supports the codec)

This one uses MPC, and is probably what would happen if you were using VNC. I know the video in the picture just started, but those values persisted for the entire duration of the video.

(click to show/hide)

MPC-HC.EXE is running at 30% cpu, but still rather choppy.



This one uses WMP.

(click to show/hide)

As you can see, it's at 0%, and it's perfectly smooth because it's being decoded on my end. Also note the difference in bandwidth usage.

Of course, this really isn't very practical since i've got the video shared over LAN anyway. But it shows one of the advantages of RDP over VNC. RDP is better integrated into windows.




On the other hand, if you're going to connect to another PC outside your local network (someone that doesn't know how to configure their router, or 99% of the people out there) get teamviewer.

[kureshii]

It does? Whoa. I didn't know microsoft licensed out the RDP server. The app developers i talked to who made mobile RDP apps said it was difficult getting a license from microsoft to develop RDP clients.

Don't think they did; there're just a whole bunch of other implementations out there. Virtualbox even has an RDP server bundled in, for headless VM setups.