I have a home network with 2 PC's.

I'd like to be able to control the other PC (in another room) from my main PC. So that I can see a window of my second PC, on my first, and use my keyboard / mouse to control it.

Using XP Pro SP2 for both PC's.

Easiest way of doing this is to use the built in Windows remote desktop.

I'm not 100% sure on the specifics of XP's remote desktop as I use 2000 mainly but I've used it at clients for accessing servers and it does work quite well.

Have a look in the windows help file and on www.microsoft.com for some detailed info.

Will investigate, thanks Lurch.

I use a switch box by 'Belkin' that is commonly available.

Originally posted by cgksheff
I use a switch box by 'Belkin' that is commonly available.
Not much help in this case as you'd have to run a set of cables between all the PC's in the house for keyboard, mouse, video etc...

With a remote desktop connection you can control any other PC either on your local network or anywhere in the world with your own PCs keyboard and mouse whilst viewing the image on your screen.

For any one without XP you can get other remote desktop programs. RealVNC is free and reasonable, Remote Administrator is a commercial program that requires a purchased licence but is quicker than VNC. If you want to control a XP desktop from another windows machine without XP you can download the client program from Microsofts site. (I might be able to dig the link out if anyone's really interested).

If you don't use Windows, you probably already know all this!

Originally posted by Jamie
I have a home network with 2 PC's.

I'd like to be able to control the other PC (in another room) from my main PC. So that I can see a window of my second PC, on my first, and use my keyboard / mouse to control it.

Using XP Pro SP2 for both PC's. There used to be a PC Program called PC anywhere that would let you remote from anywhere Telephone network or wireless. Don't know if its still around.:clap:

Windows XP remote desktop is only available on XP professional, and not on XP home version. It is very good and works in a different country, with broadband, LAN or even with a modem connection.

But I hear that PC Anywhere is just as good.

There is also one called VNC which again is very good. I'll see if I can find a link anywhere.

And here it is

Real VNC Download Page (http://www.realvnc.com/download.html)

There is a free version on there - can't remember if that was the version we had but if it is it's spot on :)

Just as a quick recap...

Remote Desktop is available for controlling WinXP Pro and Server 2003 systems provided various permissions are set correctly.

You can also get the client software to control such a PC for a normal Win9x/ME/NT/2000/etc... system by downloading it from MS... but you can't control anything except XP Pro and 2003 machines with it.
Ref: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a8255ffc-4b4a-40e7-a706-cde7e9b57e79&displaylang=en


Next up is VNC which is a multi platform remote control system.. However the original VNC project doesn't allow for particularly efficient control due to the lack of compression so you're actually better off using TightVNC which does...

http://www.tightvnc.com/


As for PCAnywhere... in all honesty, I spent ages a few years ago trying to get that to work and it was a royal pain in the backside... it's likely to have improved but overall I'd recommend TightVNC as a good all round and free solution..



Caveat: Whatever you do DON'T leave this system up and running and constantly available through your firewall... Nor use simple passwords.. If you do, you're asking for a heap of trouble... None of it good!

Thanks guys.

I have XP Pro + SP2 on both PC's. I also have Zone Alarm on both PC's (and I've managed to get them talking to each other across the firewall).

I'm having problems setting up Remote Desktop though (shame on me cos I'm a programmer).

I get to "System Properties > Remote Tab > Select Remote Users" ... and then I'm stuck.

I pressed 'Add' ... but don't know what to type, I tried the name of my other PC, but no joy :(

Any suggestions (apart from look it up on google ... ya lazy ass) !?

Originally posted by Jamie
I'm having problems setting up Remote Desktop though (shame on me cos I'm a programmer).

I get to "System Properties > Remote Tab > Select Remote Users" ... and then I'm stuck.

I pressed 'Add' ... but don't know what to type, I tried the name of my other PC, but no joy :(

Any suggestions (apart from look it up on google ... ya lazy ass) !?
You need to have a user setup on each machine with the same password and username.. then add the username and it should work...

Normally it expects to use a domain controller to authenticate the user so you'd normally be popping in something like MYDOMAIN//user but you aren't in this instance so you'll probably see it translate everything to the local machine in a similar way...

no you don't. The client allows you to specify a username and password.

I control my home pc's from work, there's no common username and no common domain controller.

in the select remote users you need to select any local account (the one that you will use when connecting from the other machine). So it should probably be whatever you normally logon as.

Then fire up the client on pc 2, set the details, machine name, user name (as above) password (as normal for that account on pc 1) any other options you feel like playing with and hit connect.

Confirm that it's allowed through zone alarm, and see if it works.

Originally posted by Cyclone
in the select remote users you need to select any local account (the one that you will use when connecting from the other machine). So it should probably be whatever you normally logon as.

OK for this bit ...

What if my account name is the same on both PC's ?

Do I just set it to that ?

Originally posted by Martin_s
Just as a quick recap...

As for PCAnywhere... in all honesty, I spent ages a few years ago trying to get that to work and it was a royal pain in the backside... it's likely to have improved but overall I'd recommend TightVNC as a good all round and free solution..

Caveat: Whatever you do DON'T leave this system up and running and constantly available through your firewall... Nor use simple passwords.. If you do, you're asking for a heap of trouble... None of it good! And you said PC Anywhere was confusing lol :)

Originally posted by Cyclone
no you don't. The client allows you to specify a username and password.

I control my home pc's from work, there's no common username and no common domain controller.
Doh!... you're right... I was thinking of file sharing... That'll teach me to try and think near Xmas...

:loopy:

Thanks for catching that blooper.

Also ... does my user account name have to have a password !?

(please ... no sniggering at the back!).

Originally posted by Jamie
Also ... does my user account name have to have a password !?

(please ... no sniggering at the back!).
If your own account doesn't have a password and you want to be able to connect to your machine remotely then I'd advise you to setup a second account specifically for that purpose with a reasonably sensible password on it... and ONLY allow remote access via that account

Rational being, if for any reason someone managed to bust into your network somehow, they can't use your password-less account to access your machine.