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Is Remote Desktop in XP hard to configure?

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 4:36 pm
by Kaos Kid
I find myself having to help out friends and family from time to time, but on some things it is hard to do so over the phone. My brother lives 25 miles away and it is a pain and a drain time-wise and financially to have to jump in the car to go to his home to fix issues with hardware, etc. that he has. I noticed a Remote desktop feature in Windows that allows you to take command of someone's desktop from your own if they send "an invite" but I've never tried to set one up, and I got a headache reading the page on the M$ site since I've never done it before. Is there an easy way to do this without jumping through hoops? Thanks!

Re: Is Remote Desktop in XP hard to configure?

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:14 pm
by vbironchef
Use logmein. It's the way I do it.

Re: Is Remote Desktop in XP hard to configure?

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 5:54 pm
by kenc51
vbironchef wrote:Use logmein. It's the way I do it.
+1

Windows remote desktop is suited for pc's on the same lan. it's not secure enough for over the web.
You also have to setup port forwarding for rdp.

logmein is free and simple to use. another alternative is teamviewer

Re: Is Remote Desktop in XP hard to configure?

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 1:50 am
by Kaos Kid
Is this shareware? When I went to the site it says "Try for Free" but that usually means that after a certain period you have to buy it to keep using it. Thanks for the replies, if it is indeed free then I'll definitely give it a try.

Re: Is Remote Desktop in XP hard to configure?

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 10:22 am
by Major_A
Another alternative is TeamViewer.
http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx

Re: Is Remote Desktop in XP hard to configure?

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 12:37 pm
by Kaos Kid
Cool, I'll check it out. Thanks for the quick help guys!

Re: Is Remote Desktop in XP hard to configure?

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 12:47 pm
by kenc51
Logmein is also free for home use. you get a month or so of the pro version for free then it fallsback to the free version. Pro version supports extra features like file copy, better sound etc. (nothing dropbox or email cant solve)

I used to use logmein over teamviewer as you needed someone on the other end to accept/allow you to remote in each time with teamviewer. logmein just runs all the time. things may have changed as i havent run windows since made the switch to Linux a few years back.

Re: Is Remote Desktop in XP hard to configure?

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:03 am
by Cerf
Teamviewer is perfect. And it can also be run as a service.

Re: Is Remote Desktop in XP hard to configure?

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 7:41 am
by Kaos Kid
So, logmein stays active? What about privacy issues? I assume the program would let my brother know when I am on an active connection to his desktop, how does it do that? Further I assume that he has to have his computer powered up, or can it be set to remotely turn on his computer if it is set properly on his end? Sorry for the questions but I figure it is best to ask as much as I can to know which program to use. Thanks for the replies!

Re: Is Remote Desktop in XP hard to configure?

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 8:14 am
by KnightRid
teamviewer!

You can set it up to run all the time with a set password so you can access it anywhere or you can set it up where you have to open teamviewer to run and it changes the password every time.

Re: Is Remote Desktop in XP hard to configure?

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 12:52 pm
by Kaos Kid
Cool, I think I'll try setting this up between computers in my home network first and when I get the bugs out I'll put it on his. Thanks for the advice guys!

Re: Is Remote Desktop in XP hard to configure?

Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2012 8:30 am
by infoaliasgar
Microsoft in built remote desktop connection tool can be used, provided computers are on same LAN. If computers are on different networks, remote access is possible through internet by using various remote support services such as logmeinrescue, gosupportnow etc.

Re: Is Remote Desktop in XP hard to configure?

Posted: Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:11 pm
by egloeckle
Teamviewer is excellent, we use it at work heavily. The only catch with it is the free version will detect you as being a business if you have more than x devices on a network. Not entirely sure what x is, but that seems to be how they detect home use vs business use which isnt free.