Remote Desktop Connection Question

I was told by a friend I could use Remote Desktop on Windows XP so my wife could access her computer in her office at work from home. If that is the case how do I do it and how difficult of a process is it to complete? Thanks!!!

 

In XP PRo, quite simple really:

Go to your XP computer, Right Click on My Computer and go to properties. If that isn't visible, go to the Control Panel and double click System.

Click the remote tab.

Check the box that says "allow remote users to connect to this computer", then click select remote users. Type the name of the user you want to connect to the desktop.

Depending on your network setup, you may need to forward ports to the correct computer - if this is the case we can clarify.

At the remote location, open the Remote Desktop Client (in the case of Windows XP, go to Start, Programs, Accessories, Communications, Remote Desktop Connection) and enter the IP address of the remote computer. If you don't know what this is, while setting up the remote computer you can go to www.whatismyip.com to check the external IP address.

Enter your username and password (which you really, really need to have by the way) and you should be able to connect to the home PC.

 

Thanks I'll try this whenever she gets back into her office on Monday morning. Also I forgot to ask what is the security risk from this?

 

Now *there* is a question.

Providing you've got good passwords set, and the Guest account is definitely disabled - you should be fine. You should have a firewall on the remote computer for sure, preferabley set it only to allow connections to the Remote Desktop from a certain IP address, i.e. the other location.

It increases your area of attack - should an exploit be found in the Remote Desktop software then you may be at risk. However by blocking connections from all IPs but the other location you use will mean that isn't an issue.

 

What type of work environment is her work computer in? A Domain or behind a firewall? There could be quite a few security settings in place (and policies) that could prevent it no matter what you do from home.