Login on local network

Hey, does anyone know a way to log into one XP machine from another XP machine on a local network (home network, over wireless router). I would like be able to use the one computer as though I were sitting behind it, from my laptop upstairs. I have full admin on both machines.

 

If XP professional you can use remote desktop.

 

Unfortunately, while one machine is XP pro, another is XP home. While I'm at it though, I'm thinking of setting up a linux box (my first time, wish me luck!!!) and it would be great to be able to do the same with that.

Any ideas?

 

So...any ideas?

 

The Linux box you can telnet into...so that shouldn't be a problem. VNC is free www.realvnc.com or Remote Administrator www.famatech.com

 

Thanks jconstan! <3

 

Ok, I have realVNC installed on both of my machines now. I have the server client running on both.

On the server machine, I have this little icon in the system tray:

(please ignore the icon which seems to indicate that I am not connected to the network; this icon appears erroneosly, and I could not be posting this if I were not connected to the net)

I have configured the options on the server pc thusly:


So, I go over to my lappy and open up the viewer. It looks like this:


This is where I loose it. I've read through all the vnc documentation (located here), but this, as well as everything I've been able to google, is written a bit over my head. I just don't understand what it is I'm supposed to be typing here. I tried 192.168.1.3 and then enter instinctively, but that was a bust. I've tried just about every combination of numbers related to my network that I can come up with, and nothing seems to do it. Both computers use the windows firewall (I know, I'll get around to changing it), but I've yet to receive a prompt about VNC being blocked, which leads me to believe that I'm typing the wrong thing.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Never mind! I got it. For anyone encountering the same problem, this site helped:

http://www.organizersdb.org/0.9/odbremote.pdf

It was a silly mistake. I was using realVNC "service mode", rather that "user mode." I'm not really sure what the difference is, but it appears to be that user mode works and service mode does not.

And, for what its worth, the address was 192.168.1.3. Just as I originally believed.

 

just curious...,
compared to XP's remote desktop, how do you like it? (speed, security...)

 

Remote Desktop really isn't remote control....it's more like terminal server.

 

????? and? what's your point?
Please restrain yourself from posting just because your're bored...
Thank you.

 

Dear PARI22.....I do not post because I am bored....

If a user wanted the remote site to view what he was doing then REMOTE DESKTOP would not be what he would want....he would want REMOTE CONTROL software.

Now, if you are tired and need a nap, I suggest that you go and take one.

 

Unfortunately, I've never used remote desktop, so I cannot say. I can, however, give you my review of the product. It works well, but it's not ideal. There are somethings I love. For instance, the viewer client (the program on my machine that allows me to control the remote machine) consumes basically no resources. The same is true of the server client when no one is connected to it (this may change when you connect, I didn't check).

But what I learned pretty quickly is that VNC, even over a 54mbps router in the same room, isn't a replacement for a monitor. The screen image updates some things (i.e. your mouse movements, things you have typed) in real time, and updates others every 5 seconds (I learned this accidentally when I used winamp remotely, and watched as the host computers displayed the time elapsed normally as 0:01, 0:02, 0:03 etc, and the viewer displayed it as 0:00, (pause) 0:05, (pause), 0:10 etc. That's not really a problem for me, because I wont be using it for anything that needs real time viewing (gaming would be the only thing I can think of that this would be problematic for).

Security is a huge concern for me. VNC allows you to set a range of IP address which are allowed access. I allow only those in the 192.168.0.0 range, so remote access isn't really a worry. It also allows you to set a password. Overall, though, the lack of any explicit menu for security leaves me with a feeling of "did I get everything?" and I have choosen to only run the VNC server client when absolutely necessary. If I ever use it for TRUE remote access (ie not over the local network) it will be over an encrypted VPN connection or an SSH connection. I doubt if I will ever have need of that though. So, I give VNC 3.5 out of 5 stars.