Control PC Remote , Looking For a Way to Control Your PC Remotely From Anywhere?

There are a number of remote control packages around today such as " Computer-adviser.com " control pc remote article "

Timbuktu “ you can control pc to pc but rather unique due to it’s ability to control Apple Macintosh’s from pc’s or vice-versa ( of course you have to have the Apple Mac OS9 or OSX version.

Pc anywhere “ one of the more common remote control packages “

Dameware “ very common enables you to install remotely if you have access to a remote pc “



Reachout  “ little heard of these days “

VNC “ very small and convenient way of control remote computers “

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And finally RDC “ remote desktop control “ “ what can you say about RDC , well it works really well, its free with windows XP and that’s what were going to chat about. 

I’ll cover the other remote control packages in the next few weeks 

RDC or windows remote desktop connection is part of windows XP , this is great it means it’s FREE.

the only downside is you have to be running Windows Xp on the computer you wish to control, but you can download the client side of it so you can control a Windows XP computer from any computer running

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Windows 95, Windows 98 and 98 Second Edition, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 2000 and of course windows XP 

If you need to download the client software you can get it from here http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=80111f21-d48d-426e-96c2-08aa2bd23a49&DisplayLang=en

Once downloaded install the software onto the pc that you wish to control from. Ok on the computer you wish to control , go to the “ Start Menu “ , select “ Control Panel “

now double click “ System “ and click on the remote tab

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Find the sub heading “ Remote Desktop “ and click on the box “ allow users to connect remotely to his computer “

Now we just need to select the remote users

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As you can see mike already has access, this is because mike is the current user on the pc , to add more users click  Add



Enter the name of the person that you wish to give control access to, please note , any user you add has to already have a user account on this computer . .

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if you need help creating Windows XP accounts please read our Once you've added the users click ok.

Now we just need to configure the client software on the pc you wish to control from From the start menu select All Programs / Accessories / communication / Remote Desktop Connection and you should see the following

( If not just go back to the install client step above )



From here you can just enter the IP address of the computer you configured above and all being well and good you should be asked for a username and password ,

enter the login credentials you applied earlier and now you should be logged on If you need to obtain the IP address of the computer you wish to connect to.

On the computer you wish to connect to go to the Start Menu , Select Run type CMD , click ok you will have a black dos screen now ,

from here type IPCONFIG and you will see the IP address it will be 4 sets of numbers separated by periods

eg 217.37.53.241 , to close the dos screen just type exit and hit return

if you wish to tune the connection setting click on options

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Through the options screen tabs you can now modify the connection settings this is very useful if you have a slow connection at either end and are experiencing a slow remote control.

You can also enter the remote control details of the pc you wish to connect to into the general field and click saveAs ,

this will enable you to save a shortcut , which you just double click on and it will take you straight to the pc ,

rather than going through the main Remote Desktop Connection screen each time you wish to connect.

IMPORTANT If you logon to the remote computer as the user who is already logged in , the screen will just go black for anyone using this computer.

If you login as a new user, ie not the current user, this will log the current user out.

Problems problems problems well not really , just little challenges , if you find that you cannot connect , the connection times out , there are two possible problems ,

1. does either computer , connecting to or from have firewall software installed ? , this may think that you trying to connect to the remote computer is a security threat ,
so you'll need to allow access to the application Remote Desktop Connection or the remote desktop port number which is number 3389

2. hardware firewalls , this can include third party ADSL and Cable routers / modems , most of these come with some kind of built in firewall ,

if the remote and connecting computers are not on the same network is one of them behind a firewall, probably the remote one that you wish to connect to ,

if so you'll need to setup a rule for any computer coming onto the router using port no 3389 is directed to the IP address of the remote computer. I'd suggest that you have a look on the website of your routers manufacturer for this as there are too many devices with firewalls built in for me to go through.

One last thing , think of security , any computer you connect to should have a secure password which consists of at least 7 characters, at least one upper case, one lower case and one numerical, for example something like P4ssword .

If you setup a rule for a router to allow access through remote desktop port number 3389 remember to disable this when done, you can setup your router / modem / firewall to allow remote admin over the internet so it's only a two second job to enable and disable port access and forwarding.

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