Remote Desktop

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » June 18th, 2006, 20:58

Does anyone have something setup so they can access their home PCs over the Internet, ie. from work? It would be useful and I've tested one of the VNC systems - TightVNC - but leaving this access open to just password authentication makes me nervous. Has anyone else got a better, more secure system setup?

Post by **ProfHawking** » June 18th, 2006, 21:02

good o'l windows remote desktop client. If you have XP pro.

you will have to open a router port, and enable it in windows. Bingo

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » June 18th, 2006, 21:06

Is that anymore secure than VNC though?

Woo Elephant Yeah · Post by **Woo Elephant Yeah** » June 18th, 2006, 21:40

gotomypc.com

It's not free, but it has the best user interface around for ease of setting up and so on.

Give the trial a go, and see just how good it is.

Other products are out there that let you share your files for free on an internet site, which I have looked into, and would be great if you only require file access, and not access to the operating system or applications.

Woo Elephant Yeah · Post by **Woo Elephant Yeah** » June 18th, 2006, 21:42

P.S. PC Anywhere is also a very good product, which is more heavyweight than VNC resources wise, but has tighter security options. This would still require ports being opened and so on like Prof mentioned.

VNC is a corporate standard method for remote access these days, and even firms with highly important/legal data use it as a means of remote access.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » June 18th, 2006, 21:44

I use remote desktop, with 10char randomly generated passwords and use a non default port

wyrd · Post by **wyrd** » June 19th, 2006, 0:37

i used to use tight VNC over an SSH tunnel

mrbobbins · Post by **mrbobbins** » June 19th, 2006, 8:46

I do http://www.logmein.com for ease of use, freeness and lazyness factor

Woo Elephant Yeah · Post by **Woo Elephant Yeah** » June 19th, 2006, 10:22

mrbobbins wrote:I do http://www.logmein.com for ease of use, freeness and lazyness factor

Just tried this out, and it's very very good, especially for free

Strongly suggest using this, it's ace

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » June 19th, 2006, 10:29

I've just been testing logmein.com too, is quite nice.

Remote Desktop is good but not sure I like the login method.

I considered VNC over a SSH tunnel but setting up a SSH server is agro.

friznit · Post by **friznit** » June 19th, 2006, 10:30

On an almost, but not quite, completely unrelated topic, is there anyway I can easily share an excel file over t'internet? Uploadyness to a server or something where it can be opened and updated by different people - kind of like the shared drive on an intranet. Security is not a major issue, and a simple password on the file itself would be sufficient. Oh, and paying for it is not an option ofc.

EDIT: I forgot to mention. I use VNC a lot. It's slower than RDP but more reliable I find. RDP sometimes refuses to work for no apparent reason. Possibly because it's written by the same people who wrote Windows XP.

mrbobbins · Post by **mrbobbins** » June 19th, 2006, 10:32

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote:
mrbobbins wrote:I do http://www.logmein.com for ease of use, freeness and lazyness factor
Just tried this out, and it's very very good, especially for free
Strongly suggest using this, it's ace

Yeah, the Pro version is quite good, you get a trial for a month or so when you sign up but the free version still has the remote desktop feature which is what I wanted. The pro has file transfer but if you can remote desktop you can do do that via your normal FTP program anyway!

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » June 19th, 2006, 10:35

friznit wrote:On an almost, but not quite, completely unrelated topic, is there anyway I can easily share an excel file over t'internet? Uploadyness to a server or something where it can be opened and updated by different people - kind of like the shared drive on an intranet. Security is not a major issue, and a simple password on the file itself would be sufficient. Oh, and paying for it is not an option ofc.

easiest way would be signing up for www.250free.com or suchlike, and giving everyone who needs to edit the FTP info.

webclam · Post by **webclam** » June 19th, 2006, 11:24

friznit wrote:On an almost, but not quite, completely unrelated topic, is there anyway I can easily share an excel file over t'internet?

I've been playing with this:
http://www.spreadsheets.google.com
and it seems to be the dog's bits. It should do all you ask of it, and is compatable with excel

Woo Elephant Yeah · Post by **Woo Elephant Yeah** » June 19th, 2006, 12:19

webclam wrote:
friznit wrote:On an almost, but not quite, completely unrelated topic, is there anyway I can easily share an excel file over t'internet?
I've been playing with this:
http://www.spreadsheets.google.com
and it seems to be the dog's bits. It should do all you ask of it, and is compatable with excel

These are the droids you are looking for

amblin · Post by **amblin** » June 19th, 2006, 12:32

webclam · Post by **webclam** » June 19th, 2006, 12:34

amblin wrote:That rocks harder than the quo.

Yay, the Quo!
Love them good ol' boys!

Post by **FatherJack** » June 19th, 2006, 13:33

friznit wrote:I use VNC a lot. It's slower than RDP but more reliable I find. RDP sometimes refuses to work for no apparent reason. Possibly because it's written by the same people who wrote Windows XP.

The XP implementation of RDP is based on Terminal Services, written by Citrix.

There are some things you can only do with VNC, such as see video and start game servers using their GUIs.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » June 19th, 2006, 13:40

FatherJack wrote:The XP implementation of RDP is based on Terminal Services, written by Citrix.

There are some things you can only do with VNC, such as see video and start game servers using their GUIs.

If you're starting a gameserver using any method that requires 3d support, you're doing something very, very wrong.

Most allow at least as much function through a dedicated app or the command line

Post by **deject** » June 19th, 2006, 15:26

Woo Elephant Yeah wrote:
webclam wrote:
friznit wrote:On an almost, but not quite, completely unrelated topic, is there anyway I can easily share an excel file over t'internet?
I've been playing with this:
http://www.spreadsheets.google.com
and it seems to be the dog's bits. It should do all you ask of it, and is compatable with excel
These are the droids you are looking for

<strike>help me Obi Webclam Kenobi, you're my only hope!</strike>