Remote Control

[furious trout]

Just in the middle of a discussion with my boss about possibilty of installing pcAnywhere on our servers so i can work form home and not have to live in a hotel in Birmingham for the next 6 months ( B)yay! - working away from home sucks on so many levels)

Anybody got experiance of this kit - never used it personally but i'm not convinced about it purely because i suspect they've just picked it cos it's sold by Symantec(;)), so if anybody's got any good alternatives/experiance with this stuff let me know so i can check them out.

TIA

[scopEDog]

I've been using RemotelyAnywhere for years now and its the easiest and most flexible software i've used. I just SSL to my box at home and i'm as happy as a clam :)

[fivecheebs]

I havent used PCanywhere for years, not since we ran Win 95 machines here ar work... I never liked it back then but i was much less experianced back then, and we were on 56K between 10 PCs lol

These days i use Real VNC and Remote desktop (windows nt utility) and occasionally daneware...

What exactly will you need to do with this access?

ill expand on this later, ive just had a prob i need to sort then its home time....

[Risky]

I used PCAnywhere here for a bit but it was rather flakey compared to Remote Desktop. Of course that requires and XP client and XP or Server2000 host

[furious trout]

These days i use Real VNC and Remote desktop (windows nt utility) and occasionally daneware...

What exactly will you need to do with this access?


Well What i need to do is log into a small domain across the internet (I'll be in Edinburgh the servers and in Birmingham to remotely manage 2 server 2003 boxes probably over ADSL if that makes any difference. I need to report on a SQL 2k db on them as well. ;)

[Starbuck3733T]

Nothing, IMHO, is faster than RDP. TightVNC comes close, but since you're using Server 2003, use RDP. End of story.

I access my machine (goliath) at home over RDP, adn even when I was on a measly 15KB/s RDP blew the living shit out of tightvnc. Now with a 300KB/s upload, its almost like being there.

[fivecheebs]

Right, i have a little more time now.

For what you want i would use Remote desktop....

Are you using a win2k or XP client? because you need to, it wont work in 9x. The remote desktop utlility can be used from a 2k box but it has to be taken from an XP disk ... i dont remember the filename at the mo but ill find out for you tomorrow if no one else knows it.

Basically it does exactly what it says on the tin. You run the program, it asks for a hostname / ip then a username and passworrd, just like you were logging on to the domain from a local client. then youll see all the normal stuff your used to if you use the normal admin username and passy, and away you go.

You may need to sort out the port forwarding for it, and if you dont have particularly secure usernames or passwords you may want to change the default port with a simple registry key change. [the key should be hkey_local_machine\system\currentcontrolset\conrto l\terminalserver\winstations\RDP-Tcp\portnumber but that may be XP specific, i dont rememebr, i have a link to an idiots guide at work if you want it. The default port is 3389 i believe].

Real VNC is nice if you want to show people how to do stuff without being there, and daneware is nice because it can also be installed remotely to a client without any user interection. Remote desktop is good for admin stuff because it locks the computer and if there is anyone at the other end they cant see what you are doing.

[Starbuck3733T]

Are you using a win2k or XP client? because you need to, it wont work in 9x. The remote desktop utlility can be used from a 2k box but it has to be taken from an XP disk ... i dont remember the filename at the mo but ill find out for you tomorrow if no one else knows it.

Don't need the XP disk.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/tools/rdclientdl.mspx

You may need to sort out the port forwarding for it, and if you dont have particularly secure usernames or passwords you may want to change the default port with a simple registry key change. [the key should be hkey_local_machine\system\currentcontrolset\conrto l\terminalserver\winstations\RDP-Tcp\portnumber but that may be XP specific, i dont rememebr, i have a link to an idiots guide at work if you want it. The default port is 3389 i believe].

its 389. That's a good hack, I'm looking for the reg key now. My student assistants will be very pleased if it works.

Real VNC is nice if you want to show people how to do stuff without being there, and daneware is nice because it can also be installed remotely to a client without any user interection. Remote desktop is good for admin stuff because it locks the computer and if there is anyone at the other end they cant see what you are doing.

true, true. Tight VNC >>>> Real VNC in terms of speed.

[fivecheebs]

Well tbh i havent tried the hack yet myself, I was researching for administrating my CEOs home pcs (multiple so needed different ports for each) through his router and found it. There was a thread on a different forum about it and someone agreed with me so i guess it should work.

I didnt realise it was available to d/l ... thats good to know. :)

Yea Real VNC sucks when it comes to speed, which is why i prefer remote desktop. Ill have to give tightVNC a go.

[furious trout]

Thanks for the info guys

One question:

I'm using XP, so no worries on the RDP - thing i'm using that on site at the moment. However both my client and the domain i need to work on are gonna connect to the net over ADSL and i'm a little confused as to how i'm gonna configure the connection when there's no static IP addresses involved......

apologies for lack of brain power at the moment.....;)

[Starbuck3733T]

Thanks for the info guys

One question:

I'm using XP, so no worries on the RDP - thing i'm using that on site at the moment. However both my client and the domain i need to work on are gonna connect to the net over ADSL and i'm a little confused as to how i'm gonna configure the connection when there's no static IP addresses involved......

apologies for lack of brain power at the moment.....;)

Use a dynamic DNS service on the machine(s) you'll be hitting. You'll notice that starbuck.dyndns.org resolves to an IP. That IP is my home machine.

go to www.dyndns.org for more. You really don't need a client for it, as it'll send you an email as its about to expire... I don't have one simply because my IP has changed twice in the last 2 years. However, with ADSL it'll change more often, so get one of the clients. Then you can just go to trout.dyndns.org (or trout. whateverelse they have in terms of domains) and be done with it.

[fivecheebs]

Thats a good solution Star. I had forgotten about those services. I havent had to use one since i installed ADSL at home as, although my ip is dynamic its sticky. Its only changed a handful of times and i was using a USB modem that obviously doesnt stay connected when the PC is off so reconnecting most days.

I have a range of 10 static IPs i can use here, at work, as part of our connection agreement, but i only use one, so its not an isue for me.

[furious trout]

Good call Star that's a great solution - the irony being i'd reading about these services yesterday morning - DOH!:lol:

Been wrestling with Crystal Reports all day and my brain is starting to fade....:h34r::h34r: