Remote Desktop

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Hyuukai

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 29, 2007
Messages
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Ok i am going to uni soon and having never touched remote desktoping before i was wondering what the easiest way to achieve what i am after would be this is,

Accessing files
Torrenting
Being able to control grandad's pc for the " how to move box" problems he gets

I run windows on my home pc's but ubuntu on my laptop. Just for windows would be ok but if it can run on ubuntu that would be great, let me know of any ideas you have also most be secure.
 
Cool ill check that out, any other sugguestions? was thinking that some software would work better than a web based solution?
 
Hello,

If you have XP Pro you can enable Remote Desktop and I think you can also install this on XP Home. You will need to forward port 3389 and know the current IP address for the system in question (public IP address). This is typically a dynamic number (it changes), but some ISPs assign static numbers that don't change.

If you can't do the port forwarding and such you could look into UltraVNC's single click which requires they run a small 200k application to start a connection to you. You must have port 5500 open along with a static IP address.

Another similar option is PC Helpware (see ultravnc site) it's similar to SC, but is different at the same time.

You could also run a standard VNC install (Ultra and Tight are free) which runs VNC as a server on the target computer. You will need standard VNC ports open for this along with the ability to connect via a static IP address or using something like dyndns to get the IP address.

All those options give you the direct usage feel as everything looks/functions as if you are using the physical computer. They are also rather smooth if you have a decent internet connection.

I find logmein.com is a nice solution that works well. I don't use it personally, but I work with some people that do use it. There aren't as many problems with IP address and such, but there is a client program you need to install on the target computer.
 
AMDbuilder said:
If you have XP Pro you can enable Remote Desktop and I think you can also install this on XP Home.

*snip*
Click to expand...

Minor Correction: You can only install the RDP client on XP Home (which should come installed by default). Only XP Pro/Server 2k3/Vista Business/Enterprise/Ultimate/Server 2k8 have the ability to host a Remote Desktop connection. :)

OTOH, a third hand for logmein.com.
 
I strongly advise NOT torrenting during a remote desktop session or vnc. The bandwidth requirements for an acceptable remote session are so high that any amount of uploading from your torrents would make the connection unusable.
 
Windows Remote Desktop is fine for connecting to other PC's on your LAN. For connecting to computers across the Internet, I use UltraVNC.
 
No one ever thinks of TightVNC! It's a few hundred K download, can be set to run on any XP/Server 2003 machine as a system level service (starts when Windows loads, and is available for incoming connections before the login has taken place), it uses less bandwidth than Microsoft's RDP, the port is configurable, as well. Here's my setup, and I have 6 machines at home, all accessible from any VNC capable machine from anywhere in the world:

Untitled-13.jpg


It's actually a lot more complicated than the drawing, as there's 4 switches involved, all devices are connected to the appropriate speed switches for their networking capabilities. The forwarded ports table on my router is quite long. My File server wuns a DynamicDNS client updater from no-ip.com It's a system level service aplication that loads every time my server boots up, and the application checks it's external IP address, and report that IP to no-ip.com DNS servers at the regular interval of 5 minutes. When Qwest (don't get me started) changes my IP address, the client application updates the no-ip.com DNS servers, which notify the rest of the internet (and therefor, me, wherever I am) that my home router's IP address has changed. All I ever have to know if my registered DNS alias domain name (which is free, BTW) and I can connect to anything I have at home. In addition to all of this (VNC remotes) I also have an Orb server and a NAS device that runs FTP. I just have all of the ports forwarded through my router. I hate not being connected!
 
sabregen said:
No one ever thinks of TightVNC!
Click to expand...

TightVNC is nice too, I just prefer the interface of UltraVNC, but what we're both getting at here is that any software based on VNC would be a good solution.
 
damnit all to hell. I didn't know that UltraVNC supported Vista now. I just had a nightmare of a time when I initially installed Vista on my wife's laptop, and tried to get to it via a TightVNC session, and then went hunting for the cause. I don't know if TightVNC will get fixed...maybe I should try UltraVNC
 
So what are the main differences between tight and ultra vnc is tightvnc just a smaller version with a different interface?
 
Hyuukai said:
So what are the main differences between tight and ultra vnc is tightvnc just a smaller version with a different interface?
Click to expand...

Think of VNC as the basic software for connecting remote computers. There are many applications based on VNC that add their own interface and features (TightVNC, RealVNC, UltraVNC...etc..). The basic underlying principle is the same, just different look & feel.
 
Ok i have decided its between ultravnc and tightvnc has anyone used both that can give me a idea of what the key differences are?
 
Hyuukai said:
Ok i have decided its between ultravnc and tightvnc has anyone used both that can give me a idea of what the key differences are?
Click to expand...

I think it really comes down to a matter of personal taste. Try them both and see which you like best.
 
tskiller said:
I strongly advise NOT torrenting during a remote desktop session or vnc. The bandwidth requirements for an acceptable remote session are so high that any amount of uploading from your torrents would make the connection unusable.
Click to expand...
Er...not exactly.

Remote desktop would work if you turned everything now. Most bittorrent apps have an upload cap you can set; do so, leaving 56k worth of bandwidth for your session. Oh, it may not be as pleasant as otherwise, but it'll work.
 
That's questionable at best. I'm shocked any kind of Remote Desktop/VNC could work OK over a standard consumer internet connection because of the upload caps - even RD is rather bandwidth-intense. Torrenting may not be the best idea.
 
Arainach said:
That's questionable at best. I'm shocked any kind of Remote Desktop/VNC could work OK over a standard consumer internet connection because of the upload caps - even RD is rather bandwidth-intense. Torrenting may not be the best idea.
Click to expand...

Have you ever tried it though? My upload is approximately 80KB/s, if I cap the upload of my torrent program to 50KB/s, I can connect to multiple computers in my network from outside using Remote Desktop without problems. You may not receive the experience you would on a 1Gbit LAN connection, but it is certainly decent. I've used the connection to do animation work as well.

Don't shoot it down if you haven't tried it.
 
Ok i installed TightVNC.exe on my windows xp machine and i installed TightVNC on ubuntu via synaptic package manager but being new to ubuntu and sometimes a little stupid i couldnt find where to run TightVNC from as there was no shortcut and i couldnt find it in the applications places or system? i know this is very trivial but could someone help me out please
 
logmein is still the best.

Easy to install, very configurable, lots of great features, free, centralizes your clients into one dashboard, etc.

VNC stuff is nice, but logmein is much easier and achieves better results in many cases. I have found logmein works much better over slow or bogged down connections. Also nice that it is zero config thanks to the handshake server (which things like Ultravnc are getting, but still it is more complex for a same or even worse in some cases result).

I used VNC apps for years, then switched to logmein and have not looked back.
 
marley1 said:
logmein.com should work
Click to expand...

This is the best way todo things, the connection is intiated by the client side and tunneled back to you solving any firewall issues as well as providing encryption.
It is also basically RDP not 'web based crap'.
 
I'd just pause the torrent software while I was doing remote desktop/VNC etc.. if that's a concern, but keep in mind if you're the client, and not the host, there's not that much traffic being sent out, it's coming in from the host.

Personally if your grandfather already has XP Pro, I'd just go for remote desktop since it's there already and there's nothing to install on his side. It works fairly well out of the box.
 
Grentz said:
logmein is still the best.

Easy to install, very configurable, lots of great features, free, centralizes your clients into one dashboard, etc.

VNC stuff is nice, but logmein is much easier and achieves better results in many cases. I have found logmein works much better over slow or bogged down connections. Also nice that it is zero config thanks to the handshake server (which things like Ultravnc are getting, but still it is more complex for a same or even worse in some cases result).

I used VNC apps for years, then switched to logmein and have not looked back.
Click to expand...

I just tried logmein, and I'm sorry, I'm just not that impressed with it. The connection to my home PC was VERY sluggish and stuttered a lot, I don't have any of those problems with VNC. It also completely froze Firefox after I closed the connection. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?
 
You must be, cause logmein is much faster than most of the VNC solutions I have tried and used.

You might try using a different browser, also you can manually change the connection settings, it might have auto connected wrong.

And honestly I dont know how it could be sluggish if you are on broadband, I have used it over Edge cell phone service and it still works well. (slower, yes, but still usable!)
 
If you are going to be helping grandad and teaching him and etc, use Netmeeting for that instead of Remote Desktop.

To invoke it, have him run "conf" at the start menu run.


sabregen said:
My File server wuns a DynamicDNS client updater from no-ip.com It's a system level service aplication that loads every time my server boots up, and the application checks it's external IP address, and report that IP to no-ip.com DNS servers at the regular interval of 5 minutes.
Click to expand...

On a side note about the dynamic DNS with no-ip.com (a very nice free service), many routers now contain the ability to do that for you now with no-ip and the many other services. Also, DLink has their own service, dlinkddns.com which is handled by the router along with no-ip and others.
 
I have olderish netgear wireless routers i doubt they have that and i got no idea what that is.
 
Hyuukai said:
I have olderish netgear wireless routers i doubt they have that and i got no idea what that is.
Click to expand...

Thats ok of your router doesn't have that function. Head over to www.no-ip.com and download the desktop client and sign up for a free account.

What this does is let you use a address such as hyuukai.no-ip.com as your address for at home. The client keeps an eye on your actual IP address and when it changes, it notifies the servers at no-ip.com to update your hyuukai.no-ip.com address to point at your new IP address.
 
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