OT: Remote Access to your PC
 

I don't think you should have to pay (i.e. GoToMyPC Service) to access your home computer remotely from your laptop in the field. That being said /*

"Wait, wait... 'out in the field?' Why is your laptop in a field? Do you live in farm country?"

No, shut up, that's a term we technician-type people use for working at a remote location (not in the office).

*\ ... what are the options for getting it done? Just 'PC-Anywhere' from Norton? Anyone know of a place with Tutorials for such a thing?

Regards,
[img]/threads/images/Graemlins/Dagger.gif[/img][img]/threads/images/Graemlins/icon42.gif[/img]

Re: OT: Remote Access to your PC
 

Doesn't Windows XP have a built-in "Remote Desktop" feature?

Re: OT: Remote Access to your PC
 

Hmmm.... well, I have XP on the laptop, but ME (shhhhh... I know, shut up....) on the office machine. I don't think I could just "go to it" in the middle of the day without a static IP.

~T

Re: OT: Remote Access to your PC
 

Dynamic DNS?
www.dyndns.org
That's how I host my website http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: OT: Remote Access to your PC
 

VNC is the solution to your problems. Most VNC clients are free. I don't remember off-hand what the best one currently is. Tight VNC, I think...

Technically, the Windows Remote Desktop application is freely available for Non-XP users, but I wouldn't recommend it...

Re: OT: Remote Access to your PC
 

Yes, TightVNC would pretty much solve your problems. You can't do file transfers (directly) with it, but you can basically make your remote KVM operate with your home computer (a la dumb terminal). You can get around file transfers by doing something like setting up two AIM accounts, and have one send files to the other.

All you'll need is the VNC server running at home with a static IP. There is an option to accept HTTP requests as well, so you can use a browser to do http://ip.add.re.ss:portnum/ or use a standard VNC viewer.

Re: OT: Remote Access to your PC
 

You do not need a costly static IP. Dynamic DNS is all you need. Does dyndns.org provide a program to automatically keep the IP associated with the domain current? I went with no-ip.com a while ago because they provided such a program and dyndns.org did not... But either service, or a host of others, will solve any dynamic IP woes.

Re: OT: Remote Access to your PC
 

Hmm, I guess I should have clarified a bit. By static, I meant "IP does not change in the time you're away from your computer". As far as I've seen, even if you have a "dynamic IP address", it stays the same as long as the computer is up and running. When it's time to renew the lease, you just get the same one again.

So, static, as in it's the same one that the computer had when you left the house five hours ago.

Re: OT: Remote Access to your PC
 

Ah, yes. But what if there is a connection glitch and your IP changes in the down time? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: OT: Remote Access to your PC
 

Then you're down for a day, and you fix it when you get home?