XP remote desktop explanation please.

[igb123]

I am new to using networking terms, so need plain language if possible.

I use Win XP Pro at home and need to connect to the one at our club, which also has the same operating system, but is linked by LAN to six training computers all with Win 98.

Both Win XP machines have ADSL internet connections, the club one sharing this on the LAN.

Both have Agnitum Outpost Firewall and Pandasoft Anti Virus set ups.

Any chance of a full,detailed rundown on how to set up Remote Desktop. I could just not follow other explanations.

 

[bcastner]

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/gomobile/remotedesktop/default.asp

 

[igb123]

I thank bcastner for the link but I got that far before and it does not tell me how to find the IP address of the computer or what to write into the address box. I know this is basic but I do need this level of advice I'm afraid.

Ian

 

[bcastner]

http://www.lawrencegoetz.com/programs/ipinfo/

 

[korobowa]

If you want to connect your home XP Pro to the XP Pro workstation at work, there are a few things need to be done
in your office.

Since there is no server in your office, I assume you have a workgroup setup with a router managing the LAN.

If the router leases IP addresses to the workstations, you need to change your PC at work to have a static IP address.

To check this: START
RUN
CMD (enter)
Type: ipconfig /all (enter)

You will see a lot of IP information regarding you PC and LAN.

Look if your DHCP enable : YES

If YES, it means that the router assigns IP addresses to the desktops in your office.

IF No, it means that you have static (assigned IP address on you PC).

To change the IP address from DHCP to static:

Right click on Network Connection, click on Properties. Right click on LAN connection and click on Properties.
You will see TCP/IP Protocol. Cick on it and then click on Properties.

You should see Obtain an IP adddress automatically. Change it to USE the following IP adddress .

Now you need to enter the static IP address.

Usually the router for small LANs configured to lease from 50 to 100 IP addresses. So you probably have an IP range from xxx.xxx.xxx.100 to xxx.xxx.xxx.150 or 200. The last octets could be different, but you see it when you are in Command Promt.

Since there are only three PCs in your office use static address with a high number in the forth octet. For examle 192.168.0.40

For subnet mask use 255.255.255.0
For Defaul gateway use the IP of the router found on the Command promt
For DNS use the values found in the Command promt

Please copy down all info regarding IP addresses in the command promt.

Default gateway value is the address of your router.

Use it to get sign on onto the router. Usually the internal IP for the router would start with 192.xxx.xxx.xxx

To get to it, open your Internet browser and type the router address. You will be promp to the sign on menu where you would need to enter admin's user id and the password.
(Hopefully you have this info..if not try admin for the user ID and either blank or password for the password parameters)

Once you get into the router, go to Forwarding adddresses tab and specify the IP address of your PC with a port 3389.

While changing the values in the router, note the router's public IP address. This public IP address will be the one used to connect your home PC to your workstation.

Also, on your work PC go to Control Panel, SYSTEM, REMOTE:
Under REMOTE DESKTOP check ALLOW USERS TO CONNECT REMOTELY TO THIS PC. Click on SELECT REMOTE USERS and add your User ID you use for you PC at work.

You also need to address the firewall issues. If you firewall is configured to turn down any outside requests, that need to be changed.

The next thing is to connect from your home to your work PC.
In your home XP Pro go to START, ALL PROGRAMS, COMMUNICATIONS, REMOTE DESKTOP CONNECTIONS.

Once there type the public address of your router.

This should connect you to you PC at work (Remember to keep it on in order to remotely connect to it)

Let me know if this was helpful

 

[scilogic]

I would use radmin

http://www.radmin.com

it's a very powerful tool to connect two PCs together and very easy to setup. You would just have to configure the router at the club to accept port 4899 and forward that port to the local machine ( internal ip ) If your ADSL ip address changes, then you need to use a third party utility that points your dynamic ip to a external dns name.

http://www.noip.com

or

http://www.dyndns.org

it's the most simple way.. if you have any questions on this solution let me know.

 

[igb123]

Thanks Korobowa

I see I should have described the set up more for answers here but your piece gave me a real start and I am able to ping one way from the club to mine but not back, so I am seeking the problem at one end at present.

The Club is a charity and money tight, so we only link the seven comupters by hubs to use the internet and a laser printer.

I am unable to use commercial answers in software so go for freeware normally. I am therefore grateful for the links you both provided.

I will let you know how I get on working this out in my rather limited way.

 

[Rick998]

igb123 (and others),

Perhaps I'm being stupid but... all you want to do is to be able to manage remote desktops (irrespective of whether they're Win 9.x, Win XP Home or Win XP Pro)?

Stop now if I'm wrong otherise...

- You need a freeware 'Remote Desktop' control solution.

- You need your firewall to allow access.

- You have one-way access at present (via 'ping') [OK, so it's not exactly 'access']

Have you considered the freeware VNC (current, stable version available for Win 9.x/XP etc.) from

http://www.realvnc.com/download.html)?

My organisation use it for remote control, if necessary, of 1200+ remote desktops (Win 9.x and Win XP Pro) in preference to other 'Remote Desktop control' solutions, e.g Windows 'NetMeeting' and/or Windows XP's 'Remote Desktop' feature 'cos VNC is faster to connect to a remote Win XP desktop and easier to configure permisssions.

Connections to remote desktops can be made via the PC's 'computername' (e.g. pc1002) or via the PC's IP address.

The firewall would need to be configured to allow access to the VNC server and viewer, either on VNC's default port or any other port you want to change VNC to use.

The organization I work for now use VNC in preference to Win 9.x's NetMeeting and/or Win XP's NetMeeting or Remote Desktop.

Hope this helps...

If I've got the meaning of your post wrong then I apologise for wasting your time...

Rick

 

[scilogic]

Yeah VNC will work... I've been testing it out lately. But radmin has alot more options.

 

[Rick998]

scilogic,

I agree Radmin has way more functionality (I like it too)... but it's not free.

Regards,

Rick

 

[igb123]

Im overwhelmed and thankful for the help, but guess you now realise Im just a beginner with all this.

I now have TightVCN. Do I have to have it on my home XP and the XP at the club? Server and or viewer? If I use noip.com, do I use it on both as well to obtain a static ip?
How do I get the club one to let me connect? or did I miss that bit.

The club has xp just to provide path for ADSL and priter sharing through hubs to six stand alone computer with Win 98 V2

 

[Rick998]

igb123,

Now's the time to read the TightVNC documentation but, basically, you'll need TightVNC on each PC you want to connect both from and to.

The PC you want to connect FROM really only needs the viewer; conversely, the PC's you want to connect TO really only need the server. However, it's usually easier to just install both viewer and server.

There's no need to change from dynamic to static IP addresses 'cos VNC's 'server helper' icon in the tray notification area will show the IP address as a tooltip if the remote user just hovers the mouse of it.

BTW, what version of TightVNC are you using? We use RealVNC v3.3.7 at work but I'm trialling TightVNC v1.3dev4 as this includes file transfer capabilities. Despite being a development version, it appears so far to be quite stable.

Hope this helps...

 

[taneyat]

Does anyone know if I can have more than one person at a time logged onto my remote desktop WEB connection?I am very new at this so please use lame terms if possible. I have an MS Access database for my business and I would like for people to be able to access this database through remote desktop web connection, however. The problem is that only one person can be logged on my computer at a time. If it is not possilble to do this with remote desktop web connection, then what are my other options? Any help would greatly appreciated.

 

[scilogic]

yeah use the utilities that we all described above VNC, Radmin... VNC is free as rick says so go for it... ( not that I paid for radmin anyways. )

 

[Rick998]

taneyat,

If you use VNC (using 'shared connection' from the options of the VNC client) or other remote desktop view solutions then more than one person can VIEW a remote desktop... which may be a view of an Access database.

This is different from igb123's remote access problem and not the same as more than one person accessing a (remote) Access database at the same time.

I'm not experienced with MS Access but I believe MS Access needs to create a locking file (*.ldb) if more than one user accesses the same database.

I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve exactly?

Hope this helps...